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How to get your way on the phone

Using "rejection psychology" to your advantage

Believe it or not, telemarketers are trained to "enjoy" the experience of being rejected by you. They are playing a numbers game. Here’s why: They know that on average, one out of 25 people will say "yes" to their offer. As a result, they actually count the "No" responses, with the understanding that for every 24 rejections they will get at least one sale.

However, this constant rejection by hundreds of people a day takes its toll. This is why most telemarketers only work four to six hour shifts. The strain of constant rejection is both emotionally and physically exhausting. As a result, when you actually seem glad to hear from them, they are inclined to spend more time with you, even if all you are doing is talking about the weather and gathering the information you need to sue their employers.

Kill them with kindness

We advise never being hostile to a telemarketer —they are trained to deal with hostility, but none of them know how to deal with cheerfulness and enthusiasm.

Telemarketers are trained to "take control" of the sales call. When they call you, they have only one intent: to make a sale. Your objective is to get enough information to use the law against them. This means that you have to turn the tables and take control of the conversation. The best way to take control is by being cheerful and asking frequent questions in a non-threatening manner.

On page 4 we showed you the information you need to gather in order to sue successfully. In telemarketing terms, this is called "qualifying the prospect." And the best way to control the call is to interrupt their script by using your script. Read on…

Putting the "Yes/No/Maybe" sales principle to work for you

Most telephone sales people are trained using a sales technique called "Yes/No/Maybe." The objective of "Yes/No/Maybe" is to get you to say "yes" or "no" as fast as possible. Once you say "Maybe" and start asking unusual questions you slow the marketer down.

Almost 99% of the time, the person calling you will be reading a script. The script is used because years of market research show that salespeople who read a script over the phone and stick to it with minimal deviation tend to make more money.

Phone scripts are especially designed to prevent you from asking questions that put you in the costly "maybe" category. All they want from you is a sale.

But what you want is the information required to optimize your chances of winning a lawsuit or getting an out-of-court settlement. Your job is to "reel them in."

Yes, it takes hard work and time, but remember, the cruelest thing that you can do to telemarketers is to keep them on the phone without buying anything. Every minute you spend, every question you ask, is costing them money. The kindest thing you can do is hang up the phone.

Some consumer advocates have claimed that if everyone in America kept a telemarketer on the phone for just one minute, instead of hanging up, the industry would be bankrupted in a matter of months.

After you have qualified a target company as an eligible lawbreaker (they are not a survey firm or a tax-deductible non-profit), you need to send them the following letter. This letter is especially designed to make the strongest possible legal case.

Send this letter five working days from the time of first contact.

Now you simply wait for the company to violate the law.

You sent your letter and now you wait. Enjoy the increased silence of your phone in the meantime. Inevitably, one of the companies will break the law in one of five ways:

1) They call you again in the next 12 months.

2) They neglect to put you on the "Do Not Call List"

3) They are not maintaining a "Do Not Call List."

4) They do not have a written "Do Not Call" policy.

5) They were unable to provide a copy of the "Do Not Call" policy on demand.

Once any of the above are violated, you are poised to exercise the full rights of the law. We call this the "F.I.S.T." legal strategy. "FIST" stands for "File, Inform, Settle, or Trial."

 

Filed Under
Communications: Landline -

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Cell phone

If I am called 20 times by a company that does not even allow me the option of refusing their service, while I'm on the national do not call list. I have every right to get pissed off and want to sue them. The fact of the matter is there are not enough people informed enough to know how to deal with many of these.
find cell number

Thanks for the tip but I did

Thanks for the tip but I did not want to go the calling card route. As I stated in my original post, I am happy with my current long distance provider. What annoys me is Cox's bait and switch tactic. The bundles I did not want clearly stated that they included long distance. The one I did want made no mention of long distance. However Cox would not sell me a bundle without long distance. My current long distance service, without being a calling card, is so reasonable that I'm still better off with it than I would be with any Cox bundle. Frankly, Lingerie Wholesale I take with a grain of salt any promise/promotion that a large communications company offers.

Also a telemarketer...

I worked as a telemarketer, similar to "Sarah". I've done political ads, insurance of all kinds, consolidation loans, home appliances, warranty extensions, whatever you can think of, we probably sold it at some time. The fact of the matter is Sarah's intentions are noble, but what she's saying is somewhat inaccurate. Sarah may be able to word herself well and capable of thinking on her feet, most that do well in telemarketing are; but that's not the norm. MOST telemarketing firms have huge turnover rates and hire on a seasonal basis. In the company I worked for it was so they don't have to give benefits; they try to bump anyone who isn't selling well before they have to give benefits - it took 9 months to get anything beyond minimum wage and commission. Most telemarketers are NOT the most seasoned and definitely not the sharpest out there. Most DO read from a script, almost blindly, and don't have the first clue about what they are selling. In fact, they might not even have TIME to learn about it, most big firms rotate their selling programs within a few weeks. Catching someone on a "Maybe" works for most who are just reading the script.

However, "Sarah" does have a good point that taking their time doesn't really matter much, and doing so sure won't benefit YOU as the target buyer, since you are trying to get them to stop wasting your time. Often times you don't even have to write a letter. If you ask a grunt phone worker to add you to their Do Not Call list, you have a 50/50 chance that they'll hit the "cycle through system" key (and you'll get another call, probably in the same week if not hour) or they'll actually hit the "Remove from list" button.

What DOES work, is to let them read from their script, then kindly ask to talk to a supervisor. Maybe even "trick" them into it by saying you "might be interested, but I need to talk to a supervisor first". You might have to wait for a while, supervisors might be confirming sales (required in some companies and for certain programs); but the wait is worth it. First, as always, kindly ask who you are talking to. Get their first and last name, ask them to spell it if necessary. You don't even have to write it down (doing so helps, if you want to follow up later); this is to get their attention, to get them to sit up straight and listen to you. When you have their name, they know you mean business. Usually I ask for a direct-phone number - that is to say, a number I can call to talk to THEIR boss; then I tell them to add me to ALL of their Do Not Call Lists (companies many times keep one per program and do NOT keep a master list and will call you again for something else a week later). So far, that has worked EVERY time for me. I guess the rest of the steps about sending a letter and whatnot still applies, but I haven't had to go that far.

Above all else check and see what call-blocking features your phone company offers; see if they can block anonymous calls and if you can manually enter in numbers into a call screening list. Sometimes just doing that is enough to seriously limit the flood of telemarketers.

As far as Sarah's comments about telemarketing "being the only job" etc.: I dunno - I can't imagine a town where there's nothing but one giant telemarketing sweatshop surrounded by houses and apartments, I don't buy it. You CHOOSE to do the job. Sure, you're probably good at it; but from a former telemarketer to a current telemarketer who has moved on, you shouldn't get married to the idea of staying at the job. They don't appreciate you as much as you appreciate them; and there's far, far better out there for you if you are any good at sales. Not to be a jerk, but I can't stand getting sales calls, especially with so many scam artists out there. When I get home, that is MY time for me and my family. I don't care that this is how people make their bread and butter, this country is founded on Lockean ideas, and in taking my time a telemarketer is taking away part of my life; something that is unethical and unacceptable. Forceful selling of all kinds, including door-to-door and telemarketing, should be prohibited. Until then, I guess we'll have to do what we have to do, to keep our time OURS.

This is not simply about

This is not simply about telemarketers, its about companies refusing to allow people to enjoy what's rightfully theirs. If I am called 20 times by a company that does not even allow me the option of refusing their service, while I'm on the national do not call list. I have every right to get pissed off and want to sue them. The fact of the matter is there are not enough people informed enough to know how to deal with many of these, and there is, in noway, enough force available to control every telemarketing firm. So quite often you guys do break the law, and many of you- not all- don't give a crap how annoying it can be. I don't have a problem with someone offering me a service for the first time, but calling about auto insurance 50 times, is just annoying and people need to deal with people who violate everyone's very own basic rights.

reply

This concept seems to be based on part of a company called Context Connect. They provide a contextual name to get connected to individual's mobile phone number without the phone number being revealed.

prevent you from asking

prevent you from asking questions that put you in the costly "maybe" category. All they want from you is a sale.

find cell number

I am a telemarketer. I

I am a telemarketer. I would like to tell you that most of this article is false. We telemarketers actually don't mind long conversations with our customers. In fact, its what makes us get the most "sales". I do think its wrong for people to flat out try to take thousands of jobs away from people and communities just because they are annoyed. I get annoyed everyday from hearing about how awful telemarketers are and how everyone wants to sue them. Everyone that works with me needs their jobs to support their families. There are no other jobs available. Also, if you really want to sue a telemarketing place, the instructions given in this article will get you laughed at. That is not how you go about doing something like this. If you are intent upon suing any telemarketer, then call a lawyer and ask them. We are under strict rules and regulations, therefore it is hard for anyone to sue us...we do follow rules. Also, I've worked at many telemarketing places and mostly we do not follow an exact script. So anyone reading this person's article, but forewarned...he/she has NO IDEA what they are talking about. Thank you.

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