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Show By Jack Wallis JrfT 1 Ever get a telephone prize? How muny prizes or deals too good to turn down have you won over the telephone lately? We have lost track, but it is Incoming easy to recognize the sales pitch. The latest long distance phone call pitch was the one where the company got our telephone number mixed up with one in California and printed up 100 letter openers with our number on them. "We just want to get our cost out of the letter openers. Won't you please take them off our hands? We are terribly sorry the mix-up ever happened." The first time they called we were puzzled and thought maybe they could have mixed our phone number with another similar one. But the the next day we got the identical sales pitch, another telephone mixup. Then there is the one about "how our business has been so good we want to share our profits with you and send you a prize. Take down this number in case the prize is lost in the mail so it can be traced. And by the way we will need a small order of pens to go along with the prize." Another is, "You have been such a good customer we want to reward you for your business with a valuable gift," when in reality you have never done business with the company. "And, oh yes, can we send you some of our rock bottom priced pric-ed pens." Another telephone sales gimmick goes something like, "A school district double ordered on their paper tablets, pencils and paper clips. We are unloading them at below cost." Still another is, "Our computer repeated an order to a client and now we have all these pencils on hand at a below cost price." Still others try to send you 12 gross of pencils, 25 pounds of rubber bands and 12 cases of Xerox toner, enough to last you ten years at the present consumption. We wonder how many businesses fall for the high pressure telephone sales techniques. We are the first to admit that the lady on the other end has a really pleasing voice and can keep a conversation conversa-tion going no matter how you try to cut her off. And the fast talking male voice will not take no for an answer. "No one in their right mind would turn down a trip to Las Vegas, would they?" Well, I guess we have been a pretty tough egg to crack. We have turned down trips to Hawaii, Las Vegas and to Florida. We have turned down prizes including in-cluding microwave ovens, tape recorders, radios, coffee percolators and clocks because we do not need any more ball point pens, rubber bands, scotch tape or paper clips. Then there is the first name "bosom pal" come-on. This caller will usually ask the receptionist who is in charge of purchasing or who is the owner and ask for his first name, then ask to speak to this person. Then they greet you like they have known you all your life asking about how you have been doing, about your golf game and the weather and then work into their sales pitch of a wonderful deal. In every sentence they repeat your name, even though sometimes they call you by some other name than your own. We usually let them go on and on until they finally realize they have fouled up and then they quickly click off. The best way we have found to get rid of long distance salespersons is to tell them that we have heard this sales pitch and we are not interested. Usually they will hang right up. But the real problem with these long distance telephone sales calls is you can't be sure until you let them get their foot in the phone whether or not they are phony and then it is hard to get them to hang up without being downright rude. And usually these annoying calls come just when you are expecting an important impor-tant long distance call. What we would like to see on our phones next is a device that would transfer all solicitor calls to a computer that would determine whether or not we needed any of the items being sold and then spill out. the reasons for not placing an order that instant. What a relief this would be. A computer is about the only device we can think that could outlast some of the salespersons we have encountered. There is yet another way to handle this situation, just hang up the phone. Why is it so hard to just drop the receiver back on the hook? Maybe we are just naturally inquisitive and like to hear our name used by a stranger. And last of all it is hard to throw the fairy-tale belief that maybe we can get something for nothing. |