Who gave you my number?

How many times have you asked that over your phone? I am a Vodacom contract subscriber with subs varying between R 250 and R 1000 per month. I’ve been a Vodacom subscriber for 8 years and at this stage there is virtually no chance of me changing cellular networks in the near future.
The reason is simple. About two weeks ago I received a call on my mobile phone. I’m not fond of speaking on the phone at all and it takes special days, or a special mood, to get me to answer numbers I don’t know.
On this “fateful day” I did however. It was from one of SA’s cellular networks. This is a client’s blog, so I’d rather deter from mentioning the network’s name, but let’s just say if they’d ever did a test for me, I’d be inclined to give them a C.
After not listening to the guy’s introductory reading from his script my immediate question was why Company C would be calling me on my Vodacom number. It intrigued me to find out whether Vodacom would have the audacity to “sell” my number to other networks. I didn’t assume they would, but in this day and age, little would surprise me.
He assured me that they didn’t and that my number was in fact randomly generated by their computer system. [That’s nice to know, isn’t it?]
He then proceeded to pitch a contract that would “add value”, “save me money” and “complement my current contracts” to get the most mileage from my cellular experience.
I was confused. I asked him whether his company will be taking over or buying out my contracts with Vodacom. He said no. I would have to take out an additional contract with them which I could then use to make calls at other random hours that would somehow save me money.
Forrest Gump once said: “I’m not a smart man, but I do know what love is.” I felt a bit like Forrest. Not too smart. And not particularly in love with this guy either. I was confused, irritated and probably should’ve done what I usually do which is to summarily end the call without warning. I didn’t.
He went on and on about how his package would suit me and how I would be saving money from making calls outside of my contractual bundle. Eventually when I told him what my contracts were he came to the conclusion that his packages would probably not help me. No freakin’ kidding man!
I’m not a fan of cold calling. Receiving them or making them. I’m sure if you’re reading this, you aren’t either. But still, there are some individuals, companies or corporations out there that despite cursing, threatening and verbally assaulting people over the phone still put the same self practice into their marketing strategies.
Unsolicited e-mails. Cold sales calls with zero strategy behind them. I don’t think trying to persuade someone (random people) to take out a cellular contract on top of having a contract with another service provider is very clever.
Client retention is easier than converting new ones. Marketing 101 that is. Maybe sifting through YOUR current clients, establishing which of them are over spending on their contracts and then calling them with a pitch on how to save money would’ve sufficed.
I guess I’m naïve at thinking their prerogative was to get their clients (or their competitors’ clients) to actually save money.
I guess I should commend them for not trying to get me to win a BMW though…

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