Phone solicitors

One of the downsides of being a marketer at a smaller company is people calling trying to scam money out of you. Since we are one of the few departments in a company with truly discretionary budgets and a fear that we will miss a winning opportunity, they prey upon us. And just in case you are think it, you can’t invoke “no call listing” with b2b solicitations, it only includes consumers.

Typical is Hanson Publications who call to “renew” our listing in their directory (usually “national 800 number directory”). Seems we always have had an existing listing to update, even though I have been saying no to these people for over seven years. Nowadays I cut to the chase and tell them that we don’t pay for directory listings. Sometimes they call saying they are sending me a copy of the latest directory, which implies that I’ll being paying for it. The FTC advises that anything sent without your approval can be considered a gift, since you didn’t ask for it.

Where I am going with this is last week I got a new one. Someone offering a free website based on our already free directory listing. Quickly I remembered that my father said he had a similar call. In his case the free website was then charged to his phone bill as a monthly hosting service. The woman on the phone was quite insistant and told me that I would be notified twice before I was billed. Finally I prevailed by restating several times that I would rather make my decision now. Thanks Dad!