Bizpro Ltd – Virtual Assistants

Marketing Calls

Harassing business owners…or, knowing when to stop with the marketing calls!

 

Yes, this post has been inspired my one of my own experiences. Over the last few months I have been extremely busy putting together the finishing touches for the franchise package, and this has involved contact with several other suppliers to enable me to accurately cost the model. Out of the many businesses I’ve spoken to, one in particular is standing out like a sore thumb, and for all the wrong reasons… 

 

I contacted this company, (who shall remain nameless), to inquire about data lists. I didn’t call them, I completed their online form to find out prices. Unfortunately there was no other option on their site but to complete your information. I don’t normally have any objection to this, and I’m happy to speak to anybody, but with this firm I received a call the very next day and almost every other day since. Some days they have even left messages for me three times in one day!Not to mention the countless emails I have received. Oh, and in case you are wondering, I did tick the ‘No’ box regarding marketing.

 

I have spoken to them and explained I am no longer interested, I have emailed and told them I am no longer interested. Sadly, I’ve now had to bar their email address and their number, as this continual harassment is driving me crazy!

 

So, as a business, where do we draw the line? The example above is an extreme case, I’ve never experienced it before, and hope not to experience it again, (and yes, I will be emailing the director to point him in the direction of this blog!).

 

As a general rule, we start to recognise brands / names after the third time of hearing / seeing them, but to really alight our subconscious and make us memorable, it’s seven times. So, the question is, when is too much? At what point do we stop the contact?

At what point does ‘No’ definitely mean ‘No’? Certainly every business wants to keep their name in front of prospective clients, especially those that have contacted them; the warm leads.

 

I guess we’re lucky at Bizpro; most of our business comes from networking, where we meet the clients face to face, so we’ve little need of constantly contacting prospects by telephone. That said, we do have a system for canvassing local businesses, and it does include some calling, however if a business is really not interested in us we won’t continue to canvass them, we don’t believe in wasting our time and theirs.

 

To our way of thinking, if someone changes their minds and then wants our services, they will already know where we are.

 

The most ironic thing about the firm that’s been bombarding me, is that out of all the businesses I researched for data, I quite liked their offering, and may have chosen them. As it stands now, I have had such a bad impression of their business I would rather pay more elsewhere than use them…