A surprisingly effective way to get rid of annoying cold callers fast – What I learned from my mother-in-law last Friday ??

We are all Buyers aren’t we?

We have all been at the recieving end of a bad cold call haven’t we?

Do you know the feeling being overwhelmed by the waterfall of words from an annoying, self obsessed and unauthentic sales person? 

He assumes to know all about your situation, your business and personal issues and wants; and by the way, you have never met before, never had a conversation, never bought anything from him or the company he represents, and suddenly he pops up out of the blue sky calling you – of all people in the world…

You resist, but still he insists and persists relentlessly: calling back, filling your voicemail, you inbox, your social media feeds with irrelevant and annoying content of no value to you.

You think: “Oh no, not again – don’t waste my time, I have plenty to do, and have no need for you and what your company wants to sell me, I might have called you…, but now – never!”

You say things like: 

“Now listen, I have NO need for this at all” (even you might, but don’t know that yet), or politely you answer “I have no time for this right now, call me back later”, when being asked if this is a good time to talk. 

Now, this was the 11th cold call today, before noon, and you just react fiercely by hanging up without even letting the seller finish his pitch.

I think we all know the feeling when we hear the “scripted inauthentic voice” that this is just another intrusive call, from another external call center, representing another amazing company, just wanting to sell another product or service you don’t need at all. 

As always, you end up being distracted, lost your focus and have less time to do your stuff, having a feeling of frustration and anger inside.

The outcome for the seller: he earned another detractor. 

You asking yourself why they keep on doing this knowing the impact this have on you and the bad story you then tell your family, friends and colleagues; or the war story you share with friends on how you have fun playing around wasting their time as payback – The solution and value for you: to have some fun when you are distracted anyway.
Been there?

Done that?

Me?

Yes, indeed!

What I learned from my mother-in-law last Friday

What I share with you now is a real world story.

Last Friday over dinner my mother-in-law shared with us, that she had now found an effective way to get rid of bad cold call sellers for good. 

By the way, I should tell you that she is only 75 years old; is she clever?, is she still going strong? And does she hate these calls? You bet!

Having caught the attention of my wife, our three kids, my mother (83 years old), and my own professional curiosity, she told us about her new strategy: 

“Anders, when a “talking brochure” calls me, he tells me his name and the company he is calling from, and he then immediately comtinues telling me about his amazing offer, and that I simply can not live without, he says; or he calls from “Microsoft” with an Indian accent to tell me I have a virus, and he wants to help me remove it before it erases all my family pictures and data I have on my hard disk – And you all know I don’t even have a computer!” (this got all of us around the table laughing – haven’t we all had those calls?)

So what is her new strategy then?

She told us: “Well, when I take these calls and get I the feeling I’m going to be sold, and the seller do not show the slightest interest in me…, I can spot this within the first 5-10 seconds; then I just shut him up in the middle of his sales pitch and say: “Hey, hey, hey, young man, hold your horses! Can I ask you a question? And then I pause, and let there be silence for a couple of seconds, until I hear eager young man responding: “Yes offcourse!”

And I then ask him: “Is this about SEX!?

Then comes the swift answer from the bright young man: “No, no, no, not at all, mam!!”

Then I pause for a second and say: 

“Well, then I’m not interested!” 

“And then I hang up”, she said, smiling all over her face.

I then asked her: “What do you do with the great sales people cold calling you?”

“I’ll tell you next Friday, Anders”, she said with a foxy grin looking me straight into my eyes.

I guess by now you can imagine the all the good laughs and fun we had in my family last Friday.

3 Key learnings for me:

1. Handling a bad cold call can be great fun.

2. Never, never, ever underestimate your mother-in-law.

3. This strategy also works for me, and I’m not even 75 years old.

Buyers of the world: Have good fun and a lot of laughs with both the good and bad sellers of the world.

I will come back with an update when I’ve heard the story on how my mother-in-law deals with sales champions calling her.

Cheers!

Anders Christian :-)