Telemarketers on the ropes

CINCINNATI BUSINESS COURIER ^ | 8/11/2003 | Lance Williams

[xrp]

Popular do-not-call list bringing industry to its knees

Aug. 11 — In the past three months, the hallways at Groesbeck-based Tel-A-Sell Marketing Inc. have become a lot less crowded. CEO Edd O’Connor has been forced to trim his telemarketing staff from 72 to 18.

“I WAS RUNNING a full house earlier this year,” said O’Connor, who also serves as president of the American Teleservices Association’s Great Lakes Chapter, which covers Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan.

One of the big reason for the cuts: the chilling effects of the National Do Not Call Registry and other similar efforts in statehouses across the country.

A month into the sign-ups for the federal Do Not Call list, nearly 30 million phone numbers across the United States have been registered for the list. That number could double by the time the list takes effect on Oct. 1.

The ATA, which is challenging the list in court, said the national list could eventually cause more than 2 million lost telemarketing jobs. The ATA estimated that telemarketers are responsible for $660 billion in sales. The combined effects of do-not-call lists and the movement of jobs overseas have left the industry ailing.

“It’s going to cause significant business problems for this industry,” said O’Connor, who said he expects a pickup in business in early fall. “We’ve got to step back and regroup.”

[BJungNan]

Up to 2,000,000 more Americans could be put out of work.

GOOD!

Next they need to start charging for email. Everyone gets so many for free and then the jerks that are filling my inbox with deceptive titles like "Re: your payment" etc will go out of business next.

If you are one of those scum, $%#@$ %$#. If you are friends with one of those scum, %%$#%$ %$# just the same.

Or maybe all of us - thousands of us - should send you innocent adverstising messages in your FReepmail box, rendering it utterly and completely useless.

[GregoryFul]

The broadcast bands were a 'public' resource, but now dominated by commercial interests, the potential value of the airways has been destroyed - as they are mostly filled with garbage with ever diminishing interludes of 'entertainment'.

The same is happening with the internet. A publicly funded development is being overtaken by commercial interests, and will eventuate in the destruction of the potential value of the system.

It used to be that industry could destroy the air, water, and environment without any concern as to the individuals who had to share these "free" resources to survive.

Government (you know the root of the word - to govern) set up rules to stop the industry's unhealthy exploitation of the "free" resources - so that individuals could continue to use the "free" resources. Government has certainly failed in the airways, the telephone systems, and it look like it is failing in the internet.

The world does not belong to the penis enlargement pill vendors!

[Ramius]

Still waiting for a response heh? : )

hehehe... funny that. :-)

[BJungNan]

Hmmm... this sucks. Now who will I toy with on the phone? Oh well, I guess it's back to picking names from the phone book at random. Damned Feds.

LOL I had a telemarketer that called me on the phone once and I interrupted his pitch to start in with my sales pitch for products I sell (not over the phone). When he finally said he did not want to buy, I asked him if he could hand his headset over to the guy in the next cubicle so I could see if he wanted to buy something.

Oh, instead of just any number, try dialing random 800 numbers - especially at night. You get some real funny people answering company 800 lines ringing into offices after hours.

[uglybiker]

If they can't make phone calls, let em go door to door.

Ooh! If that happens, that "bucket o' cat piss over the front door" gag is gonna come in real handy!

(Remind me to leave a BIG bowl of water out for the cat.)

[Cronos]

The problem with the DNC list is that the federal government has taken the responsibility for posting all of our "No Trespassing" signs for us.

True, the telemarketing cos should have done this by themselves long ago. As posted earlier -- if they trimmed down the list of phone numbers to those who would be really interested in what they're calling up to sell, they'd have better sales and a better percentage of hits.

[Cronos]

Annoying sure. But you want telemarketers out of business? This is so un-American and sooner or later someone might come after your job.

Oh, and those neighbourhood dope dealers and mafia hitmen are real annoying too, but putting them out of business is soo un-(lib) American. I guess we should ask for the laws against them to be repealed.

[Cronos]

I think that 2 million number is grossly inflated -- that's like nearly 1% of our population are telemarketers!!

[uglybiker]

But, if a company can't call to ask for someone's business, the company cannot make as many sales, and not just the telemarketers but the other employees (clerks, accountants, etc.) might as well kiss their jobs "goodbye".

And if I have a business that is conducted primarily over the phone, the last thing I want is some stranger clogging up my phone line and preventing me from conducting my business. The time I'm spending telling a telemarketer not to contact me again might be the exact time a customer/client is trying to call me and give me business. That is cutting into my time and my productivity which cuts into my paycheck.

[garandgal]

garandgal says, "HEEEEEEEEEEELP MR GOVERNMENT, PUHLEASE rescue me from the salespeople, PUHLEASE! I am too lazy and incompetent to deal with it myself, I need the government to intervene."

Ah, carrying over your talent for bullying from your job into your private life, I see. Lazy and incompetent have never been used to describe me. "Saleperson", however, does describe me...more accurately, "sales manager".

Telemarketers are not salespeople. They are more akin to stalkers.

[Cronos]

Telemarketers are not salespeople. They are more akin to stalkers.
good point

[nravoter]

Annoying sure. But you want telemarketers out of business? This is so un-American and sooner or later someone might come after your job.

Nobody's going to come after my job--I make sure I don't annoy people; I'm an Amway salesman.

Just kidding.

I'm sure you have more than one phone or a cell phone. If not, do you not worry about getting those emergency calls when you are online and the line is busy?

One of the reasons I got cable internet (actually, speed is the number one reason).

I can appreciate your take on this issue, but I have to disagree--I think the un-American aspect of this whole thing is the telemarketers finding new ways around technology to repeatedly annoy people who have told them just as repeatedly "Leave me alone!".

I know everybody needs to make a living, but nobody has a right to make a living by forcing themselves on people who obviously don't want to deal with them. Government getting involved in this is no more "big government" or intrusive than the cops chasing off a group of delinquents who I've told repeatedly to stop having loud gatherings on my lawn.

[varon]

For one thing, they have a habit of calling when I am on the toilet, then switching to another number by the time I get to the phone. They should be outlawed.

So, you need the federal government to assure you of uninterrupted toilet time?

[myrabach]

I find my email spam to be 100's of degrees worse than those telemarketing calls. At least I can screen the calls!

[myrabach]

I actually worked for a telemarketing company part time for a few years to supplement my income. I was not direct sales but rather a "call back" person. The company that I worked for made just tons of money! The hired help was rather poorly paid, I might add.

What really amazed me was the number of people who actually purchased over the phone! The numbers are astounding. But here's the rub.... no one I've ever talked to admits to having purchased over the phone!

This was a very lucrative business for whatever reason... and that's why you got the calls... because PEOPLE BOUGHT STUFF!

[Tired of Taxes]

if they trimmed down the list of phone numbers to those who would be really interested in what they're calling up to sell, they'd have better sales and a better percentage of hits.

That's what most companies do. But, with the DNC list, now those companies don't have the opportunity to hear from the potential customer himself that he's not interested.

[Tired of Taxes]

that's why you got the calls... because PEOPLE BOUGHT STUFF!

Exactly. People are buying via telephone, and that's why a company would even bother with telemarketing. The business where I used to work distributed catalogs and mailed other promotional materials, but those of us in the sales dept. hustling to make the sale (by phone, because that's how you reach people all over the country) were the lifeblood of the company.

I wonder how the company will be doing now. Probably will have to lay off alot of people and lose money this year. Its sales relied heavily on telephone sales because talking to people is how you bring in business, and the telephone is the only way to reach them all.

[Tired of Taxes]

And if I have a business that is conducted primarily over the phone, the last thing I want is some stranger clogging up my phone line and preventing me from conducting my business.

The way I read the article, it seemed that business-to-business won't be affected. In fact, I think one person was quoted as saying that telemarketers will be moving toward B2B calling.

[steve-b]

Do you want the drug dealers on your block? It's good for the economy, after all...
Judging from xrp's posts, they already are.

LOL! The perils of "brown acid"....

[steve-b]

I actually worked for a telemarketing company part time for a few years to supplement my income. I was not direct sales but rather a "call back" person.

If you were making followup calls to people who had voluntarily initiated contact with the business in order to conduct the transaction the customer asked about, then I have no quarrel with you. This is a perfectly legitimate job -- and, as I said in an earlier message, the telepests could move into it, make themselves useful, and reduce wait times on legitimate business phone calls.