Do you get tired of telemarketers?  I do.  And, I’m on the Do Not Call list, but I still get calls from charities, my bank (or telemarketers trying to sell me some bank service), and so forth.

I had to laugh when I read the blog post on Active Rain written by Jane Peters.  Jane talks about her experience with a caller from Active Rain.  The caller made the mistake of opening the conversation with “Hello, this is Stacy Smith, how are you?”

I don’t know about you, but whenever someone I don’t know says “how are you”, it is always a telemarketer.  I think in this case, Stacy probably felt like she knew Jane from her ActiveRain participation.  You’ll have to read the post to figure out what happened in that situation.

The reason I found the post funny, and an excellent reminder, was a recent experience I had on the telephone.

Another sure way to tell if a telemarketer is calling:  if it takes several seconds for someone to come on the line.  You know how that goes.  The computer dials the number and if someone answers, the call is transferred to a telemarketer.

That’s true, right?  Well, not always.  I have a client in an area where the telephone company moves a bit slowly.  The other day, I hung up on him twice before I realized what I was doing and called him back.  Luckily, it was someone I knew well and we had a good laugh over it.

If it had been a prospect?  Well, it wouldn’t have been a prospect after that!

So, OK, I need to rethink.  Maybe I’ll wait a few more seconds the next time there’s a delay on my phone.  And, maybe I won’t hang up when someone introduces themselves and asks how I’m doing.

As Jane said, it might be a pleasant surprise.