Simply Smith

How many times have you answered the telephone merely to discover that the caller is from a company trying to sell you double-glazing, computer software or something else that you previously had no idea you wanted?

I don't really want these people ringing me, even though the only thing it's costing me is my time, and if you say no and it's not taken as an answer you can simply replace the receiver. I can understand folk becoming irritated by what they could justifiably consider an intrusion into their family time and private life.

This selling strategy is known as cold calling: when you have had no previous contact with the company trying to sell to you, and, as I've intimated, it's quite easy to overcome.

But, look out. There's a new strategy just round the corner - warm selling. It's still done by telephone, only this time it will be from a company with whom you might have dealings in the past.

According to research for every one 'cold call' made last year, there are now seven made. Companies are increasingly targeting people in their own homes.

It has been estimated that even if only one per cent of these calls is successful the firms making them see the operation as worthwhile and economically viable.

So, please don't feel sorry for the poor soul repeating the same message to three hundred people a day. He or she is being paid well to sit in an office somewhere in Edinburgh or Leeds and simply exercise his or her powers of persuasion at the expense of your time and patience.

However, be on the alert for the 'warm calls'. these are infinitely more sinister.

The firms calling are using their knowledge of you and your personal situation to sell you something that you probably would have not considered essential.

As with all of this type of intrusion, again, the answer is in your own hands - literally. If you can't get rid of them by simply saying no, very gently (because you don't want to feel stressed about it), and preferably when your warm caller is in mid-sentence, replace the receiver.

I've no objections to anyone earning a living, it's difficult enough these days.

But, with the best will in the world I cannot help feeling that the longer this type of selling continues the greater will become people's resistance.

In the end, like much else of what happens these days, the overused strategy of 'cold' or even 'warm' calling will lead to legislation, thus adding another layer of complication to an already over-complicated existence.

So, on behalf of those who use the telephone simply for personal communications, I say to telephone sales-persons:

"I personally, wish to choose the purposes for which I use my telephone, not you. If you insist on intruding into my private space, you risk alienating forever the very people whose trust you wish to gain.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.