eNOISE

Once upon a time I came across an article regarding the importance of context in sales scenarios, and positioning of salespeople as Trusted Advisors and its impact on the outcomes.  Context in the sense of Seller vs. Trusted Advisor is a huge point to make on its own, but I was thinking about how this notion applies to the work that I do day-in and day-out for clients as a B2B Marketing Services Bureau.  And there’s an interesting connection between context and the identification of business drivers and their relationship to more qualified opportunities (or what are perceived as “more qualified” opportunities).

Here’s a quick excerpt from the article I read: (If you’re interested, the rest of the article is here.

In a study conducted by the Washington Post, Joshua Bell, “one of the finest violinists alive” walked into a subway station dressed in jeans and a baseball cap—during rush hour—and played his $3.5 million Stradivarius violin for 43 minutes. The vast majority on the platform that day didn’t notice and he collected approximately $32 for his efforts. Just days before, tickets to one of his performances in Boston went for $100 per seat. Of the 1,097 people who passed him, only a few paid him any attention.

Why? According to the Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post feature, Context: Their perception was not of a concert violinist, but of a street musician.

If people do not stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the best music ever written, is it possible that overworked executives could hear the best product sales presentation and not care?

Similarly is it possible that our clients and their salespeople could be receiving outstanding sales opportunities and also not care?

In sales situations, as well in leads themselves, context is critical.  A fair portion of how lead generators, cold callers, appointment setters, or (dare I say it) telemarketers, are perceived and/or judged - on an individual or organizational level, relies on how clients’ salespeople perceive the leads, action them, and close business as a result.   How they receive and perceive leads is directly related to how they choose to work the leads, and ultimately how much return clients get out of their investment.

I speak to clients and prospects all the time, preaching the importance of 360-degree visibility, transparency, and buy-in from sales.  If they’re not in it as collaborators, co-conspirators, or at least willing participants - everyone loses.

But what does this have to do with context?

Context can change interpretation. Context can change meaning.  Most importantly for the lead generator, context can change outcomes.

In the terms of a lead, the context surrounding the flagged opportunity can influence the perception of the lead quality, the recipient’s level of engagement, and strategies for pursuit.

For example, a given lead may very well be for a rock-solid date and time to speak with a self-identified decision maker, with a budget of X, interested in obtaining Y-number of servers/switches/ads/licenses/widgets… but as rock-solid and/or qualified as it may be, without context it’s easy for that scenario to lose appeal, or to appear “less qualified” than it could.

Consider;

• Why are they interested?  Why us/you?
• Why do they feel they need it?  What problem does it solve?  What pain does it remove?  What value does it bring?  (Did an old one catch fire? Are there performance issues that they’re hoping to address?)
• How did they come to the decision that they needed it? (Is your contact the one who discovered the need and/or is feeling the pain/need?  Or is it other end-users (other departments, users of a particular, etc) that are feeling the pain, and your contact needs to make them happy?)
• Why do they need it now (or 6 months from now, or 12 months from now)?  (If it’s soon, why? What’s causing the urgency?  Is it spend the budget before it disappears, or is there pressure internally to get it done?  Or is the product/solution or problem/pain that critical that they need it ASAP?  If it’s a lead that’s in the future, why then?  Why is the project/purchase deferred?  Are they waiting to do it when budget’s available?  Are there other projects ahead of this one on the list of priorities? What are those other projects? Are they waiting for management approval to get it done?)

This type of contextual information can offer a lot of insight into what the business drivers in a scenario might be, and can offer the person on the receiving end more options in how they follow-up.  It can even lead to more opportunity to add-on services and/or other product depending on the scenario.

I’ve seen my fair share of “leads” where it amounts to not much more than information from a business card.  In other cases there are leads where’s it’s a simple “Mr. X is interested in purchasing # widgets in <timeframe> because <benefit/driver>.  Please follow-up with Mr. X on <Date/Time> at <Contact Details>. ”  … and while that scenario is more attractive than the “here’s a name, go get ‘em” option, it still leaves me wanting more.

While direct, and to-the-point… and seemingly self-explanatory… Where’s the situational info?  Where’s the context?  Where are the juicy nuggets that help me to better understand the sales scenario I’ve been presented with?

As a lead generator, context is key.  Context can change interpretation. Context can change meaning.

Context can change outcomes.

Food for thought.

Epic Fail

And so, the Mutual Consolidated Savings Saga continues.

I received a call mid-meeting this afternoon on my cell phone, that had me revisit my less than pleasant initial experience with this questionable organization that supposedly strives to help customers save time and money through their debt reduction products and services.

While I know very little about their service offering and what they actually do for their customers – I have very little desire to find out. I may have a bit more respect for their organization if they conducted themselves in a manner deserving of respect in how they go about attracting and obtaining new business.

Much like my first exchange with Mutual Consolidated Savings, today the same (or an eerily similar) automated message was broadcast to me, claiming to be from the “cardholder services department” with the insinuation of representing my financial institution of choice.  The message presented me the opportunity to lower my interest rates if I were gullible interested enough to push the #1 on my Blackberry’s keypad – the whole while, the message never indicated which company it was that was calling, or that would ultimately speak to me upon pressing the magic button.

As a bit of seemingly divine intervention, when I pressed the ‘1′ my call was subsequently dropped (I assume a misfire between the call center taking calls and the system (or other firm) responsible for the automated broadcast).

While I was spared another opportunity to have another one of my phone numbers placed in the MCS DNC registry, the call reminded me of my previous ordeal, the status of my inquiry with the Better Business Bureau, and eventually led me to further research.

Here’s an excerpt of the response I received to my earlier complaint.

To Whom It May Concern:

Our response to this case is clear and final. The client, Scott Thornton, certainly has the full attention of our corporation. MCS has heard and understands the concerns related in this case.

Mr. Thornton’s phone number has been added to our internal Do Not Call list.

MCS has and will continue to be at the forefront of DNC compliance, and will continue in this compliance with all due diligence. This corporation has also taken further steps to increase the ease and ability by which any consumer can be added to our own internal DNC list. You may find this ability as www.mcsdnc.com.

We follow all National, State, Regional and Local laws regarding these Do Not Lists. Furthermore, it is our enforced corporate policy to “scrub” these lists against both our own, and our subcontractor’s lists, once weekly, although we are required to perform this action only every 30 days. We have and will continue to adhere to this policy in the future without exceptions.

MCS will continue to hold our current associates to nothing but the highest if standards of compliance with both new and existing policies.

[...]

Very Truly Yours
Penny L Fishbec
Administration
Mutual Consolidated Savings

While I don’t disagree with their assessment over being over-compliant on the DNC regulations (over-compliant may be an overstatement, as it was my feeling that they were flagrantly offering the DNC list as a means of avoiding speculation), I don’t quite have the warm and fuzzy feeling I was hoping to receive regarding not announcing the name of the caller’s organization.   In my initial filing, I had suggested it may be in violation of CRTC regulations in Canada.

On the subject of unsolicited telephone calls the CRTC states that:

among other things, the Telemarketing rules require all telemarketers to identify who they are and, upon request, provide customers with a fax or telephone number where they can speak to someone about the telemarketing call.”

They also stipulate that for solicitations driven by automated messaging systems or call announcing mechanisms, lovingly referred to as Automatic Dialing-Announcing Devices (ADADs);

A telemarketer shall not initiate, and a client of a telemarketer shall make all reasonable efforts to ensure that the telemarketer does not initiate, a telemarketing telecommunication via an ADAD unless express consent has been provided by the consumer to receive a telemarketing telecommunication via an ADAD from that telemarketer or the client of that telemarketer.  For greater certainty [...] this prohibition includes telemarketing telecommunications via an ADAD [...] for the purpose of requesting a consumer to hold until a telemarketer is available.

Additionally,

such telecommunications shall begin with a clear message identifying the person on whose behalf the telecommunication is made. This identification message shall include a mailing address and a local or toll-free telecommunications number at which a representative of the originator of the message can be reached. In the event that the actual message relayed exceeds sixty (60) seconds, the identification message shall be repeated at the end of the telecommunication;

And so, on my limited understanding of legalese, it appears there may be a violation of Canadian telecommunication legislation. To offer a benefit of a doubt, this may have been an oversight, considering that MCS is headquartered out of Tacoma, Washington. After all, they may have simply been unaware of the legislation and standards of business conduct that their Canadian prospective audience might expect.

For curiosity’s sake, let’s compare to the standards set forth by the FCC.

According to the FCC;

• The rules regarding automatically dialed and prerecorded calls apply whether or not you have registered your home phone number(s) on the national Do-Not-Call list.
• Calls using artificial or prerecorded voice messages - including those that do not use autodialers - may not be made to home phone numbers except for:
  - emergency calls needed to ensure the consumer’s health and safety;
  - calls for which you have given prior express consent;
  - non-commercial calls
  - calls that don’t include or introduce any unsolicited advertisements or constitute telephone solicitations
• All artificial or prerecorded calls must state, at the beginning, the identity of the business, individual, or other entity that is responsible for initiating the call.
• Except for emergency calls made with the prior express consent of the person being called, autodialers and any artificial or prerecorded voice messages may not be used to contact numbers assigned to any other service for which the person being called would be charged for the call.

By the FCC’s standards, today’s call was an Epic Fail on a couple counts.  Again, there’s no identification of the business responsible for initiating the call… and the call was even delivered to a service for which I’m charged for the call, charged by the minute, as well as for long distance charges.

It baffles my mind.

In last week’s episode, This Place is Death, while Ben and Jack toiled away to get the Oceanic Six together and off to the lovely Eloise Hawking for some much needed inspiration, our time-challenged group on the island found themselves skittering across space-time at an alarming pace, with increasingly painful side-effects as things progressed.

Poor Charlotte, Juliet, Miles and even Sawyer… hemorrhaging more and more with each blistering flash and jump through time.

Once at the Orchid station (or rather, the mysterious well, as Charlotte directed), Locke had his grand master plan to fix things:  to somehow make his way off the island, bring the Oceanic Six and co. back, and get his lonely band of misfits un-unstuck in time… somehow.

As Locke prepared to lower himself down the well to nowhere, Juliet states rather simply;

“If whatever you’re trying to do works… thank you.”

She has no idea what Locke is about to do, or how exactly he’s planning to get it done.  But, here she is going through excruciating head trauma, nosebleeds, and I’m sure all-around weirdness on an increasingly regular basis… all she’s concerned about is a solution to the problem.

While I’m sure there’s all sorts of legal faux-pas’s around inflicting head trauma, nosebleeds and time/space displacement upon our unsuspecting prospects… in the sales context, when prospecting we should be doing everything in our power to help them to understand the depth of their problems, implications, and with a little effort build that same level of anticipation for the proposed solution - the solution you’re equipped to provide.  The solution that solves their problem like none other.

In fostering this anticipation, you build a connection with customers that reaches an almost emotional level that can truly set yourself apart from your competitors.

Not unlike the must-see movie trailers, the rich aroma wafting at you as you set foot in the coffee shop, or that incessant speculation you’re going through between episodes of Lost… anticipation pulls you towards the irresistible end-result.

What can you do with your current customers and prospects to make yourself and your solution irresistible?  What tactics might we employ to move prospects from concerned…to hemorrahaging?

Last week in Sales and Marketing Lessons from LOST – the beginning, I tried to set the stage for a series of sales and marketing tips drawn from themes ideas and concepts in the television series Lost. For me it’s really about bringing together things that are of great interest to me personally, and using that as my muse.

While this week’s episode “This Place is Death” brought me a few wonderful nuggets to work with, I feel compelled to elaborate on what I touched on last week.

Draw Them In

My last post touched briefly on Lost’s incredible ability to hook and draw in new viewers.  When we apply the concept to business, we’re all striving for the same things in a great deal of our prospecting effort.  We too aim to draw them in through some initial form of contact either via our websites, blogs, mailers, billboards events, cold calls, etc.
Across the board, regardless of our ultimate big hairy goal for each of these methods, part of that approach is hoping to hook the audience – either as a means to an end, or as the end itself.

Capture | Captivate | Compel | Cultivate

In the context of business by phone - and specifically B2B prospecting -  a prospector’s opening statement provides the framework in which a cold call grabs your prospect’s attention, and sets the stage for a business conversation.

Within few precious seconds prospects will determine whether or not they’re willing to spend any time at all listening or acknowledging you. Without a strong opening statement, that conversation doesn’t happen. Or what’s worse in many scenarios, the conversation does happen, but since you haven’t truly captured their attention, you’re speaking with a prospect who’s half-participating, half-focused on what they were in the middle of doing when you called… in these scenarios you’re drawing dead anyway, but wasting more of your precious time the process.

If the goal is to go into a meaningful, authentic business conversation, your opening statement needs to more than simply grant you permission to talk. You need to do everything possible to ensure you have an interested and enthusiastic participant in the conversation.

Capture:

• How do we create enough interest so that they will willingly and eagerly participate in discussion?
• You must answer the burning question, “What’s in it for me?” for the listener, or they will immediately begin the getting-rid-of-you process.
• In SPIN Selling, one of the keys to an effective opening statement is providing a “Buyer-centered purpose for the call”.  This means more than just a pretty value proposition about reducing costs, boosting performance or increasing somethingility.  This “buyer-centered purpose” needs to be more intimate.  This needs to be something that relates specifically to this person at this company at this time.  Do your homework, and tell them what’s really in it for THEM.

Captivate:

• When you’re in discussion, how do you keep them “on the hook”? How do you prevent prospects from deflating or getting fatigued as you continue?
• Even if your opening captures their attention and bring them into the conversation, if the context of your discussion doesn’t meet the expectations, you’ll lose them.
• Intrigue is key. In the sales profession, we inherently need to know everything about our product or solution, but your prospect only needs to know what they need to know. Unless you know exactly what they need to know, less is more…
• Breed curiosity with concise value propositions and benefit statements that beg questions from your prospect. Questions they ask will help you to identify what’s troubling them, or where their interests lie.
• Leave them wanting more.

Compel:

• Compel them to take action. What action? Depends on what you’re after. Are you driving for an appointment, demo, attending a webinar, etc.?
• What about Plan B? Despite your best intentions, you can expect some less positive outcomes. How do you make the less positive outcome more positive? Identify an intermediate action or next step or two you may fall back on. In doing so you can maintain momentum, and reduce any evaporation that happens after your first conversation.

Cultivate

• Where do we go from here? Once we’ve experienced success on our first touch, how do we maintain it across the life of the sales cycle and beyond? Are we captivating and compelling at each stage of the game?
• What else can we do to water this so it continues to grow?
• For prospects that evaporate, what tactics do you have lined up to go back and revisit and revive?

Know your audience;  a relatively simple concept.

I just received an email on my BlackBerry from the BlackBerry Owners Lounge about an interesting promotion presenting an opportunity to win “exciting trips and amazing prizes”, thematically modeled around a Bond-esque mission, requiring ready and willing recruits like myself to participate.  While the initial touch did its job handsomely in drawing my attention - and better yet my curiosity - there are a few critical gaps in BlackBerry’s follow-up processes that render the entire approach as wholly inconvenient to participate via BlackBerry handheld device.

Here’s an excerpt from the personalized email;

Time’s running out to win exciting trips and amazing prizes

Agent Thornton,

Time’s running out to enter the BlackBerry(R) Global Training Lounge Sweepstakes. Register today and upon receiving Secret Agent Status you’ll get an entry for the Grand Prize, a trip around the world compliments of the BlackBerry Lounge, Orbitz and Marriott.

As a Secret Agent, you’ll visit a new destination every weekday, and with each destination will come a new mission. Each week there will be a vacation getaway to be won. You will also have the chance to win great daily prizes including BlackBerry applications, BlackBerry(R) Authentic Accessories and other exciting travel prizes.

Hurry, your mission awaits.

For more information, feel free to visit www.WinWithBlackberry.com.

I’ll be the first to admit I actually like being referred to as Agent Thornton.  So much so, that I may request a reprint of all business cards, phone and utility bills, and maybe even my marriage liscence if I can somehow sneakily pull that one off.   But in all seriousess, opening the promo introduction “in character” instantly leaked thoughts of traveling the planet and saving the world from mass destruction subtly into my imagination.  Conceptually,  this appeared to be a very “cool” promotion, and brought a lot of personality and fun to the oft-stodgy “enterprise-centric” BlackBerry image.

In following the link, I’m taken to a registration page.  I’m already a tad irritated, as populating postal codes and addresses intermixed with text just isn’t the most entertaining use of the BlackBerry keyboard… but so far, the promotion seems worthwhile.  As I go through the form, it dawns on me that all the fields in the conversion form are all stock, tombstone information that I’m sure is already on file with BlackBerry for my current Owner’s Lounge account.

By the time I catch on, I’ve already spent the time to populate the fields, so let’s put that minor irritation behind us and  click submit… which takes me right back to the same registration page, not producing any confirmation of entry, etc.

And so, I go through the form once more, ever careful to every detail so not to “break it” again.  This time, I noticed at the very bottom of the form (clearly not visible at first glance when you land on the page via BlackBerry) there’s an option to log into my BlackBerry Owner’s Lounge account to speed up the enrollment process.  ..

Frustrated.

<rant>

Is it that much of a stretch of the imagination that a BlackBerry Owner’s Lounge subscriber might receive their promotional news on their BlackBerry itself?

Is it a stretch of the mind to think that BlackBerry users may not want to fill out forms requiring all sorts of numbers and letters from their tiny yet familiar keyboard?

Would it make sense to place the “make life easier for you” link atop the page content so BlackBerry users catch it immediately on their tiny screens before filling out all the form details?

Better yet, why not personalized URLs for members, to flag the account as having entered, rather than defaulting to a net-new registration form?

Know your audience.

Am I out to lunch in thinking these promos are geared to drive loyalty from BlackBerry users?   Or could it be that they’re targeting the lowest common denominator of mobile users (no offense intended) to prevent leaking market share with the more flighty demographic?

I wonder…   In any case, if the message was as meant for me as the personalized email made me feel, I’d think there’s room for improvement on a few fronts to optimize the experience for folks accessing these promotions and pages from their handheld devices.

My two cents.

</rant>

Just in case you’ve been living under a rock…

“LOST is an American serial drama television series. It follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island, after a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney, Australia and Los Angeles, United States crashes somewhere in the South Pacific. For its first three seasons each episode typically featured a primary storyline on the island as well as a secondary storyline from a previous point in a character’s life, though the introduction of shifts forward in time and other time-related plot devices changed this formula somewhat in later seasons. The pilot episode was first broadcast on September 22, 2004 and since then four full seasons have aired, with the fifth currently in progress. The show airs on the ABC Network in the United States, as well as on regional networks in many other countries.” (Wikipedia)

For me, LOST is somewhere in the realm between guilty pleasure and outright obsession. When it first aired, I couldn’t be bothered to watch, and even as buzz started to build up and water-cooler-conversation ran rampant, I refused to allow myself to be pulled into the abyss.  At least at first.  When ABC’s Lost was in its infancy, I too had a beautiful newborn baby to tend to… and to clean up after, and to lose sleep to, etc…

Needless to say, I was very selective in my TV choices, and all else that involved “free” time.
But eventually, I had to cave it. It was destined to happen… and I mean that more than just as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the recurring “destiny” theme on the show.

For years, my wife and I had abstained from paying for cable.  Really, the non-cable idea was as much a personal decision as it was a financial one at the time. We didn’t want to have the television as the focal point of the home and at the time were more interested in movies and film as a pastime – rather than throwing on whatever happened to be on to pass the time at a fixed monthly cost with very little perceived value.  (That is of course until a new HDTV finally justified the need “premium content”.  And as an aside, Hockey Night in Canada has never been the same since, and I appreciate every minute of it)

And so, at the time, I was left with a very small number of options… and it was merely a matter of time before I was “stuck” watching an episode of LOST… and found myself drawn in.

And that’s the very point.

As marketers, when we’re reaching out to new prospects, the goal is more than just making contact. We need to draw them in.

We need to grab their attention, keep it, and drive them towards the next step in the funnel, all with the hopes of building and maintaining a fruitful customer relationship.

Capture. Captivate. Compel. Cultivate.

I suppose it’s only natural to have at least some reservation going into a workshop promising a blisteringly clear and highly actionable sales and marketing plan in just three days.

After prepping, I was optimistic about the content, and looking forward to what may come of the experience… but deep down, I’m looking for validation.  Validation of the content and methodologies that I know in my gut are right…

I don’t want to speak too soon, but I may have got more than I bargained for.

Beyond validation; inspiration.

Now we’re getting somewhere!

The second reading block provides us with a wonderful summary of the business case around reinventing the Sales and Marketing philosophies to a funnel-oriented model that better moves prospects through the standard sales cycles (or rather, moving to a customer centric model where we reorganize the sales and marketing cycles to synch with the buying cycles).

The early parts of the book are fairly superficial where we’re being introduced to the characters, relationships and scenarios that ultimately become the whiteboard of ideas.

The second block begins to bring more value as we’re taken through a board meeting where our champion is presenting the all to common challenges (referred to as the “Four Anchors”), exploring their implications, and ultimately what payoffs may be realized by making what are considered “minor changes”.

The aforementioned anchors are:

- Sales and Marketing are on different planets (the all too common disparity)

- Buying process is ignored (as is common with most traditional outbound marketing)

- Indicators tell us nothing (how well metrics line up with business/sales/buyer cycles)

- Tactics are arbitrary (marketing for the sake of marketing?)

The metafore of the “Four Anchors” works very well here, suggesting that while nearly every organization has anchors of sorts - aspects of their operation that is restricting overall growth…and while they’re resticting, they don’t prevent the ship from staying afloat. Which is I’m sure part of the reason so many anchors exist - often perceived as just part of the business, or the way thing are done.

It’s almost comforting to hear the characters suggesting that these same Four Anchors exist within their competitors and the majority of businesses. That notion adds credibility to the context…but it would be interesting to see some sort of research material backing this assumption to add real-world context. While I can relate to it from my experience, I’m still craving raw data… I guess I may still be struggling to adjust to the “business allegory” style.

While it’s not my usual fare, one very cool part of the narrative style is the inclusion of memos, emails and the PowerPoint slides and whiteboard sketches from the Board meeting in this chapter. I don’t know why the slides really grabbed me, but they certainly did. Again, that might be my wanting for a more business oriented approach in delivering the content… But different strokes for different folks. Content is King, after all.

I love telemarketing.  

I know that might sound ridiculous… but really, in a wierd way, I do love it.  When done right, it truly is apowerful and cost-effective way to engage with prospects and line up the sales process with an individual’s buying cycle.   On the flipside, when not done right, it’s a complete nuisance - the dregs of modern society, giving a bad name to all associated with the sales profession at one fell swoop.  

I love getting calls from telemarketers, hoping that somehow in the off chance there’s a good one that I can actually engage in conversation with (which is insanely rare)… but mostly, it’s out of a selfish need to feel better about my past, present and future practices around “tele-aspecting”.  It’s a real confidence booster when everyone else around you is butchering the practice - though that brings its own challenges in itself (it can be tough at times to some to understand the merit of B2B marketing by phone when their impressions are based on the nasty calls they get at dinner time).  

Lately, I’ve been getting calls from an unidentifed phone number from Dallas, Texas, leaving me messages regarding my “account” and interest rates.  Messages and calls are coming in pre-recorded and broadcast (a huge pet peeve of mine… my thought is, if it’s not worth paying someone to call you to have a chat about, it’s not worth saying/hearing in the first place).  

The misleading message from the unnamed organization suggests:

“There are no problems currently with your account however it is urgent that you contact us concerning your eligibility for lowering your interest rates to as little as 6 point 9 per cent. Your eligibility expires shortly so please consider this your final notice.  Please press 1 now to speak to a live operator and lower your interest rates.”

It’s “urgent that you contact us”?  If there’s no current problem, why so urgent?  Who’s the “us” I am to be urgently contacting?  Who are you?  What is this?  What the?

Pressing 1 to speak to rep (I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess), I feign interest and hear the speil.  A minute into hearing about the service, I still don’t know who they are.  As they get into the “pre-qualification”, I’m asked about what bank work with today, and so I turn it around and ask what bank they work with, their organization, where they are located, etc. to learn that this unnamed company is in fact Mutual Consolidated Savings, aka MCS Programs.

When I ask the poor lad how they got my name, his retort is offering me their do-not-call registration, dodging the question.  I impress upon him how I enjoy getting these calls, and how his service may still be of interest after I resolve a few outstanding questions… and I ask about their privacy officer, their practice of not announcing their organization in non-customer consumer cold calling (which I beleive may in fact be against CRTC/DNC regulations, but haven’t deciphered the legalese enough to know for sure).  

Again, the response to my questions is offering me their DNC list.  So I ask for a supervisor, or someone who might be able to help me.  

“uhhhh…. bye” <click>.  

I laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of it all.  And then went over to the Better Business Bureau to log a complaint against Mutual Consolidated Savings et all.

Apparently I’m not the only one who’s fed up with this nonsense;  

http://www.canada.com/globaltv/calgary/features/consumer_advocate/story.html?id=ccb2c92b-6345-4f94-a6b9-99858b8783e9

http://phonespam.blogspot.com/2007/12/dec-7-recording-of-fraud-from-heather.html

What a joke.  Let’s see if anything comes of the various complaints filed against these guys.  

Does this actually work for anyone?  What possible value can there be in misleading customers to the point of buying, and hoping that they don’t have second thoughts afterwards?  

Is this really the business practices of company that describes themselves saying “each and every client deserves and receives our full attention. It is for this reason we have created an outstanding [lol], efficient [I'll give 'em that, the machine was efficient], and personal [how is message broadcasting personal, exactly?] Customer Service Department that will meet your individual needs, whatever they may be. [what about my individual need for deep, meaningful, professional business conversation related to my personal finances?  How is MCS Programs striving to meet these needs... will they ever?  I somehow don't think I should hold my breath.]