I have been cold call prospected at least 3 times this week. Yes, I still answer my phone. Yes, I was born in the 1900s with all the other Luddites.
And although it is currently not the 1900s, one persistent belief is still alive and kicking in sales. The innocuous act of filling out an online lead magnet for some information by email has many hidden meanings.
One of those hidden meanings to many business people is that providing one’s email address to a business is immediately equated to becoming a hot lead for their product or service.
Fearing that my interest in their offering may suddenly go cold in 20 minutes, my phone rings and I answer it. The call begins, most recently, with me trying to comprehend who the caller is and what they are offering.
The telephone prospector, often using a far eastern dialect (or AI) speaks as if we are in the latter part of an ongoing sales conversation. They seem to believe that I already understand who they are and which company they are representing, because they rattle it off as if it’s a household name with instant recognition. I am now of course confused at best.
For me, their business is not a household name. I don’t even remotely understand the caller’s name, if they even mentioned it. Their voice speeds up as the call goes further, perhaps trying to get in as many words as possible before I hang up?
30 long seconds into the call, I am absorbing less and less about what they are selling or offering. They have spoken something like 150 plus words so far, most of which I can’t understand or relate to. My brain has closed off 90 percent of my listening at this point.
Then it is time in their script to pitch the appointment with rhetoric promising the saving of time or the saving of money, which of course everyone will agree about. When this approach doesn’t work, they try the alternate choice close on the appointment date and time. At least 3 or 4 times.
By this time in their process, I no longer understand what they are selling, AND I no longer care. All I want to do is to get off the phone.
I finally get a moment where I can interject something like, “I don’t have time for this and don’t need an appointment”.
My effort to be polite is of course ignored by the caller, who continues to repeatedly push for the appointment, while also claiming their intent to be brief.
I say no thank you, I don’t want an appointment because I have no idea what they’re even selling.
They finally say something least leaning towards goodbye, but then they have to profusely thank me for taking the time to listen to them and answer all of their shallow questions while they try one more time to set an appointment!
All I can think of at this point is WHY WHY WHY do they keep talking? Everyone advises hanging up on them, sometimes preceded by an expletive, but with my brain offline, that’s easier said than done.
It’s 2025, aren’t they tired of all this talking yet? I sure am.
Author
Good question: why, why, why.
Was the caller told to keep going, keep talking?
Does the caller believe that’s how you make a sale, set an appointment?
Is the caller desperate?
Does the caller have poor sales training?
Is the caller incompetent?
Does the company not monitor its cold calling force?
Why, why, why would a company – a calling service, a marketing strategist, a sales manager – allow this kind of abuse?
Those are my questions.
Puts me in mind of the call‑centre scene in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, where Evelyn Greenslade (played by Judi Dench), finds herself confused and bemused by a scripted sales pitch from an agent in an Indian call centre.
Not an issue any more, simply click on your own saved AI chat function. It will keep talking at them until they hang up.
And, there’s a setting to block the sound so you don’t have to listen, unless you want to hear them trying to talk over your preset script.
It’s a glorious feeling.