Voice Mail Message from a Scum Scam Artist

in Call Recordings, Voice Mail

As if using the phone in sales and prospecting wasn’t challenging enough on its own, we also have to deal with working in an environment where there are scumbag scam artists duping unsuspecting targets. The legitimate office supply dealers and document imaging companies that sell toner know what I mean, since that is a classic scam, which makes their calls even more difficult.

You may have received a version of the call I’m sharing today. As you’ll hear, it’s a guy calling with some type of credit card/debt reduction offer. It was provided to us by Steven Bryant who said,

“Art, Here’s a pretty good voice mail message I thought you might enjoy…Problem is…I never spoke to this guy and his scumbag company ever before. When you call they of course try to sell you, but if you ask ANY questions, they promptly hang up.”

Take a listen

Anything positive we can learn from this? From a sales perspective, he sounds very natural, perhaps even intentionally inserting a few “umms” to sound conversational. (I suggest using no “umms” but his add to the effect here.) The value statement is actually pretty compelling. Then he said, “This is the last courtesy call I will be making…” which is a stronger-than-I-recommend version of what I call the “Last Resort” technique, letting them know that you won’t be calling anymore.

But again, there was no previous conversation, and I’m assuming the company is not legit since, as Steven said, they hang up upon questioning.

What are your thoughts/experiences with this type of company? Anyone ever actually worked at a place like that and can share some inside info?

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Tom Billable March 4, 2010 at 10:18 am

Yes, that’s a great company. What was the name of it again? That’s also a great rate. LOL

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CarolBlaha March 4, 2010 at 12:13 pm

I’ve received several calls from this company– or another like it. They say they can see from my account I am only making minimum monthly payments. Truth is– I pay all my credit cards off entirely every statement. I have no outstanding debt. So I never obviously never spoke to them (or I would have told them that) and they obviously aren’t looking at my account.

Their service may or may not be a scam– I think instead they are just rolling a dice. They’ll get someone with cc debt who is just making minimum payments. And no one should do a business who starts their relationship with a lie.

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Alicia Dale March 4, 2010 at 3:58 pm

Slimy.

I wrote about this topic in my blog: http://fcmsales.blogspot.com/2009/09/dont-lie.html.

I was disturbed to see a comment that just assumed all salespeople are like this. You’re right Art. It makes it harder for the rest of us.

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Cynthia March 4, 2010 at 5:19 pm

Like it or not, that tactic works – otherwise they wouldn’t continue to do it. When it comes to that, it IS a “NUMBERS GAME.” I worked at a company years ago that did that same sort of thing (making people believe that they had already spoken with or done business with them). Usually the product or service they sell is an outright scam, borderline questionable, or of poor quality. I left after one day.

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Agatha March 5, 2010 at 10:30 pm

Is this guy wrong for lying? Absolutely, and yes, the fake final courtesy call is awful. However, in my business (where we rely on debt leads purchased from various vendors) I have called upon some leads that were purchased from lead companies that were not doing their due diligence and selling leads that didnt come from a reliable source.I did end up calling a few folks that had no idea what I was offering. After apologizing and upon inquiring, I learned that I was given leads that were supposedly from folks looking for debt help but in actually came from a job search board! Our company (a very reputable national law firm) promptly fired the lead supply company, but it did cost us in terms of marketing dollars and time. I do believe that the growth of lead companies and the proliferation of horrible debt reduction companies that are the purchasers are also to blame. They truly have made my job more difficult.

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