Wanna lose business? Outsource Sales

Since the start of the new millenium, US companies have accelerated the pace by which they've outsourced customer support, tech help and AP departments, to the exasperation of nearly everyone here who has dealt with these remote and virtual call centers. Adding insult to injury, the latest corporate brainstorm appears to be offshore sales solicitations. I won't name the companies but I've received several such calls this new year, and all with the same result. I'm not buying and I'm not even listening!

With the economy reeling, I can appreciate just about anything a company deems necessary to remain viable and profitable but sales in such a competitive environment requires experienced, competent sales persons who possess requisite communications skills. Cold calling for new business requires at least a rudimentary background about a company, its products and the market sector. To my amazement, I'm now fielding sales calls from novices in foreign call centers, using substandard VOIP communications, for products or services which don't apply, make no sense, are of no added value and won't increase sales or productivity. Above all else, these "sales persons" are incapable of putting together a coherent sentence.

If I can't understand you, why would I give you my business? And if a company thinks so little of my business potential, that it would hand off the possibility of gaining my business to someone who knows nothing about it, doesn't ask the right questions, and can't give understandable answers, isn't the company wasting its time and money?

Certainly, the answer is yes, which is why only a few seconds are needed to promptly hang up on these callers and the companies who outsourced their most important asset.