Who Buys from Recorded Telephone Sales Pitches

Since we now tell annoying telemarketers to remove us from their call lists, they don't call as often. They have devised a new way to penetrate our household with recorded solicitations. You can still get yourself removed from the list by requesting it.

But you have to listen to their entire message before you are offered the option of being removed from the list to receive future solicitation calls. A friend who listened to one of these messages from start to finish told me that you have such option at the end of the recorded message. I don't know if it is true, because I always disconnect these calls within five seconds of saying hello. I wonder how long it took for sleazy marketing mavens to come up with the recorded sales pitch? Previously you could yell your demand to be taking off their list and smash a cymbal in to their eardrum before slamming the phone on them. It is not quite the same when you are telling a recording where to stuff it. However, sometimes I do scream at automated voice prompts when I call up businesses.

For example, "Please state why you are calling in one sentence." I wonder if businesses record that part of the call? I hope not. The list I would like to have is the one containing the names of the consumers who first listen to these canned speeches and then buy something. On numerous levels this would be a great list to own for intelligence purposes.

Would you want one of these persons to watch your kids--or even your pets? Would you hire one of these persons for a high-level job? Would you feel comfortable if you knew your doctor was someone who would buy something from a recorded sales pitch? Obviously I default to classifying anyone who would fall for these tawdry tactics to be foolish. But what frightens me most may prompt a pause-and-think moment. Why would such sales tactics continue to be used if nobody was buying into it? You would think that if everyone got annoyed and hung up the phone on these jokers that soon enough they would just stop doing it. Companies would not continue to waste money doing something that doesn't work. Since good customer service from a company with no competition is a waste of time, big companies today don't bother with it.

So, it is more than likely that someone you know and, perhaps, even depend upon, can be sold something in this manner. And that is a damn scary thought isn't it? I am willing to grant leeway to victims of the old-telephone-soliciting ways when it was one person, albeit an oily salesperson, talking to another person. Maybe the buyer was lonely. Perhaps the solicitor was charming or had the mannerisms of a sex-line operator. Maybe the buyer was lonely and elderly or horny and gullible.

Such a buyer could have been drunk or stoned out of their skull and just got taken for a ride. But what excuses can be offered for people who buy stuff from a recorded, telephone sales pitch? Even if they had a remote interest in the product or service for sale, why would they buy from a recorded message, or return a phone call to a company after listening to a canned presentation? Saying these people are stupid is mean. But presuming they are intelligent may not be too wise either.

Maybe I need to listen to a couple of these recorded sales pitches all the way through before summarily passing judgment. The ones I receive tell me that l won something, but I still need to put up money to obtain what I won. They also tell me that I am saving money by buying something I have no used for; something I didn't care about before they called.

Maybe something else is in this mix that folks who cursorily disconnect or curse while hanging up are missing out on? Are these the same people who also respond to emails indicating that they won something and all they need to do is "click here and provide your full name, bank account number, social security number, address, and phone number to collect"? I don't know exactly what I would do if I had that list of people who buy stuff that way. But I would not mind having it anyway. How about you? .

By: James Rothaar