We all have them. Those calls from companies who want to talk to you about the accident you never had. The PPI deal you don’t have. They are daily, and annoying. As are the phone calls and door knocking that our industry inflicts on home owners on a regular basis. It’s nearly 2016, and this practice still isn’t banned. So if it’s not banned now, is there really any likelihood that cold calling will ever be banned?
Always annoying
I can’t remember anyone ever telling me that they bought something after they were cold-called by a company. Many people however have told me, and continue to tell me, how irritating cold-calling, both on the phone and at the door is. It’s a trend that has not changed.
Yet these sorts of sales tactics continue, despite the overwhelming hatred from the general population against this form of selling. Rules have become tighter over the years, with fines being handed down to companies for their abuse of telesales tactics. Despite this, the practice continues, much to the annoyance of everyone who picks up the phone to hear the beginning of that waste of time.
Wrong tactic, wrong decade
I am a firm believer that if someone wants to buy something, they will get off their backsides and go and buy it themselves. Why would a phone call or a knock at the door suddenly make that person want to buy windows and doors?
We have the internet now. It’s the primary tool that people use when searching for any sort of purchase. These days, a knock at the door from an arrogant tele-canvasser is likely to be met with either a slammed door in the face or a sharp verbal retort.
But it’s not the fault of the canvasser, they’re just trying to earn a living. No, it’s the fault of the companies using these methods, putting those people in the firing line and using a very outdated way of generating leads that should have been binned at the turn of the new millennium.
Does it still work? I guess that the remaining companies that still use cold-calling as a tactic will maintain that it works and it generates leads. I would counter that by questioning the quality of those leads, the number of cancelled contracts originally signed to get rid of the sales person, leads that then cancelled before the sales person arrived.
Personally, if you have to rely on nagging people on the phone or at the door to sell your product, it shows you have very little to sell on based on quality and service. It’s a weak way to sell, and a method that often targets the vulnerable and over-trusting. All day long I will tell you that the best way to sell windows and doors, indeed most products, is quality, value and service.
Will cold calling ever be banned? No. Not any time soon. Yes the rules are getting stricter, but they’re nowhere near strong enough. Unfortunately.
I’d have to disagree slightly with you on this one. Door canvassing for instance can be done in a very professional way. Low key, with sensible canvassers, in a controlled geography with no attempt to ‘sell’ on the door. I believe some old traditional ways of generating sales opportunities are still a useful part of an overall mix. As with everything – it’s not what you do, it’s the way you do it.
I actually agree with Russell. It can still work if done with some sensitivity and intelligence. Not so much telephone cold calling because that really is annoying to the consumer, although on a B2B basis I still think it has its place (I once spent a million pounds with a company who introduced themselves to me via a cold call). If annoying had to be banned most of the advert breaks on commercial TV and radio would be very quiet. Annoying does work in the right place. Good marketing should be about opening a dialogue with prospects and cold calling… Read more »