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Type and tele-fundraising

T-Guy

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Hey guys, I couldn't figure out where to post this so my apologies if this is the wrong one. I have a couple of questions for the different types about telemarketing/tele-fundraising.

How do you deal with tele-fundraisers and what does it take you to make a donation?

Help is much appreciated and thanks in advance.
 
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Cimarron

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If I'm not busy, if I have plenty of time to spare, and if I'm actually curious about their product, I'll let them explain it in more depth. Maybe I'll ask questions. But if they try to latch on or make a decision for me, I'll try to make it clear to them that I have not made a decision yet. "Making it clear" usually means repeating it several times, just in case they're barely paying attention, which is believable for telemarketers because they say the same thing all day...they probably start speaking almost on autopilot.

About charitable calls (tele-fundraising), if I have plenty of time and money, I'll probably make a donation. I like to help people out, when it's reasonable.
 
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kelric

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How do you deal with tele-fundraisers and what does it take you to make a donation?

I'm going to sound like a huge jerk, but here you go. As soon as I figure out who it is, I say (interrupting when necessary, which it usually is) "No thank you, please do not call me again" and hang up. There is nothing a telemarketer can do that will get me to make a donation - I won't even listen to the sales pitch.

Not that I'm unwilling help out or contribute to causes I believe in, but calling me over the phone to ask for money is a rock-solid, guaranteed way to get me to say no and ignore you in the future. This applies both for charitable causes and salesmen - even if you're selling something I might be interested in, if you call me unsolicited I won't even consider buying it. I find telemarketing rude, intrusive, and invasive in general.

But I'm curious... why do you ask? It almost sounds like you're trying to develop telemarketing strategies... if so :steam:. If not, I apologize, but I *really* dislike telemarketing :D.
 

01011010

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I do not answer my phone, even when loved ones call. If I absentmindedly walk into a similar type of situation while out and about, I do not engage. Just move forward without any word.
 

Tallulah

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I'm going to sound like a huge jerk, but here you go. As soon as I figure out who it is, I say (interrupting when necessary, which it usually is) "No thank you, please do not call me again" and hang up. There is nothing a telemarketer can do that will get me to make a donation - I won't even listen to the sales pitch.

Not that I'm unwilling help out or contribute to causes I believe in, but calling me over the phone to ask for money is a rock-solid, guaranteed way to get me to say no and ignore you in the future. This applies both for charitable causes and salesmen - even if you're selling something I might be interested in, if you call me unsolicited I won't even consider buying it. I find telemarketing rude, intrusive, and an invasive in general.

But I'm curious... why do you ask? It almost sounds like you're trying to develop telemarketing strategies... if so :steam:. If not, I apologize, but I *really* dislike telemarketing :D.

Yup, same here. There is absolutely nothing anyone can say or do over the phone to get me to buy what they're selling. I detest telemarketing. I equally despise when I have to call customer service for a product I own, and they end the call by trying to sell me another service. Bank of America is terrible about that.
 

kelric

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I equally despise when I have to call customer service for a product I own, and they end the call by trying to sell me another service.

Oh, yuck. That's even worse... I detest that. The phone company is horrible about that sort of thing too.
 

miss fortune

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I don't ever pick up my phone unless I know the number that's calling- and I don't even necissarily pick it up then!

If they really want me they'll leave a message, or send me a text! :)

(in other words, I deal with tele-fundraisers the same way that I do with strangers or tele-marketers- by ignoring them)
 

Anja

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I always stop them in mid-introductory sentence.

I will either say, "I only donate locally." if they are soliciting or if they are selling, I say, "I am not interested." If they continue, I'll repeat that again once. Then I hang up.

But since I put my number on the "don't call" list I haven't had a problem.

Practice what you will say ahead of time and soon it becomes second nature if you have a problem with feeling like you are being rude to refuse to listen.

Having worked briefly as a telemarketer, I keep my voice tone neutral and nonabusive. Cuz nobody who's out there trying to put bread on the table needs to listen to crap from people all day long. They are not the problem.
 

Tallulah

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The most offensive thing is when you say you're not interested and they continue going down the script, ala:

"I understand, ma'am, but our product is the only one that..."

"I'm sorry, I'm not interested."

"I understand, ma'am, but did you know that if you don't subscribe to x service, you are 1 million percent more likely to be raped and eaten by bears?"

"I'm not interested. No matter what you say, I will not be buying..."

"I completely understand, ma'am, but..."

"NO. You do not understand. I am trying not to be rude to you, but you are practically begging me to at this point. I have told you I am not interested, and I am hanging up now."

"Thank you, ma'am, have a nice day."

The thing is, you know the aggressive sales pitch must work, or they wouldn't keep doing it. It makes me angry to think that there are plenty of people that get suckered into buying stuff just because someone wore them down.
 

bluebell

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I'm going to sound like a huge jerk, but here you go. As soon as I figure out who it is, I say (interrupting when necessary, which it usually is) "No thank you, please do not call me again" and hang up. There is nothing a telemarketer can do that will get me to make a donation - I won't even listen to the sales pitch.

Not that I'm unwilling help out or contribute to causes I believe in, but calling me over the phone to ask for money is a rock-solid, guaranteed way to get me to say no and ignore you in the future. This applies both for charitable causes and salesmen - even if you're selling something I might be interested in, if you call me unsolicited I won't even consider buying it. I find telemarketing rude, intrusive, and invasive in general.

Yep, exactly. I *hate* being bugged on the phone about donating.

I haven't really had any of these calls for a while since I went on the do not call register (these days, the only telemarketing calls I get are from scammers). I used to terminate the calls as quickly as possible by saying 'I never donate over the phone' but there was the occasional telemarketer who did the OTT guilt trip thing. I just hung up on those ones.

tbh, I've never actually understood why people donate or buy things off telemarketers. It just encourages the telemarketing industry to keep persisting, bleah.
 

bluebell

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The thing is, you know the aggressive sales pitch must work, or they wouldn't keep doing it. It makes me angry to think that there are plenty of people that get suckered into buying stuff just because someone wore them down.

Heh, your opinion is kinder than mine. I get angry that people get suckered in by it and don't just hang up on them.

/heartless
 

BlueScreen

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Yep, I normally have no time for them; even charities. If people are going to give to charity they will, calling people up and laying guilt trips on them as a strategy to make them give is just really poor manners, as well as low. If you are going to pretend to have altruistic ideals, at least hold to them enough to respect people. And fear, guilt and anything else in that part of the spectrum is never a smart marketing strategy, because subconsciously your resources (customers) learn to hate you.
 

millerm277

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I either mess with people (Play with foreign accents, start trying to sell them random objects, pretend to be a "plus-size" modeling agency and ask them to come in because they'll be perfect...etc), or I just hang up.

I'm not giving out money over the phone, and certainly not giving out the credit card information to a random person who calls and claims to be something.
 

Anja

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This is kinda funny, in a sick way. Once I had just gotten word that a friend died and the phone rang and I flooded the telemarketer with tears and words of disbelief. I don't know if they thought I was fooling around or not, but they were so very kind and comforting! Telemarketers are people too. Yup.

Another time some Dude from Australia called me and I told him I was going to listen to his pitch if he'd let me ask him a few questions about Australia. And we had a really good conversation. Silly.
 

Cimarron

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I'm not giving out money over the phone, and certainly not giving out the credit card information to a random person who calls and claims to be something.
I didn't think about scams. Hmm.... Well, I haven't handled many telecharities before. This is something I'll have to remember.
 

ajblaise

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I just don't answer unknown 1-800 numbers. And if one gets through, I just hang up, but I'm planning on doing something like what Seinfeld did in that one episode.
 

Lexicon

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Hey guys, I couldn't figure out where to post this so my apologies if this is the wrong one. I have a couple of questions for the different types about telemarketing/tele-fundraising.

How do you deal with tele-fundraisers and what does it take you to make a donation?

Much help is appreciated and thanks in advance.

I've yet to receive a phone call for any type of donation.
My brother used to try to order pizza off telemarketers when we were kids.


I have, however been on the other end of the tele-fundraising.
Yes. I called people's homes. Prospects, rather.

It was a job within my college $10/hr, flexible hours.. attractive boss (I digress). Called alumni and parent alumni for donations and contact info updates for our school, and various others. Some people were unpleasant, but overall, it wasn't too awkward. I did surprisingly well and brought in a pile of $$$ for various colleges.

There's a specific strategy for getting prospects to donate.
-gaining rapport is a big one
-making several "asks" between updating contact info & building rapport by talking about the school/listening to their experiences, etc.

Based on type alone, I wouldn't know how to get people to donate.. it was mainly intuitive timing and wording on my success with various prospects.


but... hey.. you're one of THEM.. aren't you?!:shock:


HE WANTS OUR MONEY!
GET HIM!
 

bluebell

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A guy I used to work with handed over the phone to his 3 year old whenever a telemarketer rang.
 

Lexicon

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A guy I used to work with handed over the phone to his 3 year old whenever a telemarketer rang.

I've had little kids answer when I made calls.
I'd hear the parent blatantly directing in the background.
We weren't allowed to call the toddler on it, though.
Nor were we allowed to just hang up on them.
I'd just let the kid talk for awhile and keep asking if their mom was there if they hadn't answered the question before.

Made the night more fun.
Or calling people with funny last names. Yes. Like "Butt.":happy0065:

I once called a prospect who lived on Memory Lane.
 
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