Like a Deer in the Headlights

got a telephone call from Google this morning

[pshea]

Pretty much first thing Monday morning, the phone rings and a woman offers me her name and identifies herself as being from Google. I hope she didn't hear me gulp my coffee and I'm glad she couldn't see my face! She asked a couple of questions about the capability of my company to manufacture this and that and I answered her as calmly as I could in spite of my heart beating out of my chest. I was trying to pay attention while I raced through the inventory of seo techniques that I do and don't do. Waiting for the hammer, is Google now calling webmasters to advise them they are about to be dropped?

After answering a few questions, I ask her, "You are from Google?" Yes, she says Google Answers, we've been contracted by a client to do research on this part of their project. The information you give me will be included in our report back to the client. <Whew!> This is just some poor $12 and hour freelance researcher. I thank her, sit down, finish my coffee and ponder the strange trip I just took in my head. It was a Monday morning head-whacking.

[SuzyUK]

This really is a funny thread...

I have an ex-directory(unpublished) number..moved house 7 years ago and it took a while to get the number "out of the phone book". During the interim I was receiving 2-3 calls per evening...

politely I told them to take me off their phone lists :)

being new to this I continued to be polite however one night I lost it completely..and told the person on the other end of the phone to take me off his list now! (or words to that effect)

his reply: "I don't like your attitude Mrs Whoever"

I said "that's OK you don't have to you're the one trying to sell me something" and I promptly hung up!

Funnily enough I've not had any sales calls at all for about 4 years...so maybe he got so annoyed with me he deleted my number

Do I care? ;)

Suzy

[tmott]

Everyone here who is a "business owner" can probably relate to the following telemarketing call like I receive all the time.

"Hey is Tim there . . . (acting like he knows me).

"This is Tim . . . (suspecting a telemarketer)"

"Tim, this is Dave and I'm not calling to sell you anything. I don't know if you have noticed the situation in Peru these days, but Lima Bean futures are really hot . . "

"I'm not interested <click>"

As hard as we all work for our money, what makes these folks think that we are going to just hand over money to someone we don't even know? Maybe they haven't heard the definition of an entrepreneur - its a guy who owes a million dollars at the bank and has fifteen dollars in his pocket.

[Jane_Doe]

Odd as it may seem, some people do hand over their money to people they don't even know. A stockbroker told me he found one of his largest clients just by cold calling over the telephone.

When I get a call and an unfamiliar voice asks if I'm at home, while mispronouncing my name, I say "It depends. Is this a sales call?" There's always a long pause after that while they think of how to reply.

[WebManager]

I either reply

1. "I might be interested" then lie the phone down, very, very quietly on the desk and go off to do a few other jobs around the office.

or 2. Keep asking "Could I have your home phone number please" when I get finally get the repsonse"why?"

"So that I can ring you in the middle of the night and ask you lots of questions"

Cruel heh!

[chinook]

A very good stopper is that I have a brother-in-law in that business (usually furnace cleaning). No I don't have a brother-in-law in that business but it makes them pause or say sorry to bother you.