Cold Call Canvassing - Why?

If you interrupted a private conversation between two people, would you expect a negative response from these people?

If you burst into a business meeting to have a discussion with one of the participants, would you expect a negative response from the meeting members?

Most reasonable people would answer "Yes" - and rightly so.

Why then, do some organisations feel that they have the right to have cold call canvassers ring people all day every day, interrupting their workflow in an attempt to obtain their business?

Two days ago I was involved in a very important meeting held at my house, where we were working on a product of ours that we are in the middle of developing and in a six and a half hour period no fewer than 24 calls came through from cold call canvassers trying to sell us products and services that we had no interest in whatsoever.

At first we laughed at the regularity of the calls, but by the end of the day we were most annoyed with their consistency, as these calls continually disrupted the whole "flow" of our work and thought processes.

Fortunately, here in Australia, the Government has set up a Do Not Call Register, where you can opt out of receiving these types of calls.

Needless to say, my number is now listed with the Do Not Call Register so hopefully, future meetings will "flow" with much less disruption.

This incident made me think of Seth Godin's book Permission Marketing, where the goal should be for marketers to structure their "pitch" in a way that consumers want to hear it.

How are you promoting your products and services to clients and potential clients?

Are they annoyed to hear from you, or are they waiting to hear from you?