Cold calls
Cold calling is a marketing term for telephoning someone you don’t know, and who does not know you, for the purpose of making a sales pitch of some type. I hate receiving cold calls, and I assume most other people dislike them as much as I do. Thus the legislative push and popularity of “do not call” lists.
I have my doubts about the usefulness of cold calling in political campaigns, other than as a device for giving a campaign volunteer something to do that at least has the appearance of being useful. Talking to your family, friends, and co-workers . . . that is, people who know you . . . is much more effective, although also much more risky. The possibility of having your head bit off is easier to face with a total stranger.
Beware Campaign Call Tracking Statistics gives an interesting look into the reality of cold calling for Obama, and how the Obama campaign has implemented web technology to organize the effort. It looks neat.
The author states:
“Of the 20 calls I made for the Obama campaign, 12 reached voice mail and 4 were wrong numbers, so I only actually spoke with 4 people. Of these, 2 hung up on me, 1 said they were unlikely to vote for either Obama or Clinton, and 1 said they were undecided. So, only 5% of my calls had any chance of making a positive impact for Obama. I did call in the middle of the day when many people were at work. It is likely that callers do reach more people in the evening and on weekends (even though many people called will still screen calls with caller ID if they are home), but that doesn’t really affect my argument here.”
My suggestion would be the 60% of calls that reach voice mail should be counted as successful connections. A short and sweet personal message left on voice mail would count as another positive impression. The message could be this:
“Hi, this is Tom. I’m volunteering for the Obama campaign because he is the best candidate to lead our country in a good direction. Please consider voting for him this Tuesday. Thanks for your time.”
The message will be delivered, which is the main point of the effort.
Thanks for referring to my blog post. I think the reason campaigns tell their volunteers not to leave a message is that they put the number back in the queue and hope that another volunteer will eventually speak to the voter live. I guess they feel a live call is ultimately more pursuasive than a message. Also, they want to know how people plan to vote in different counties and whether they need a ride to the polls.
Comment by rberlind — March 2, 2008 @ 3:46 pm
And thanks for putting a bookmark to my blog on yours. I’ve paid back the favor.
-Roger
Comment by rberlind — March 2, 2008 @ 3:55 pm
Roger wrote “I think the reason campaigns tell their volunteers not to leave a message is that they put the number back in the queue and hope that another volunteer will eventually speak to the voter live.”
This is a rational position for the Obama campaign to take, but probably not reasonable. The assumption is that volunteer callers reach voice mail because people aren’t home, and if you keep calling back you’ll talk to them eventually. In my experience, many people use caller ID and voice mail to screen their calls. If they do not recognize your caller ID, you go to voice mail. Period. So, try as often as you like and you will never talk to a live person.
However, people do usually listen to their voice mail messages, so leaving a REALLY short message will be heard, and probably not resented too much.
That’s what I’d do, but I’m not running for President.
Comment by tomwfox — March 3, 2008 @ 1:07 pm
We think these calls as well as robo calls are a waste of time and money and are turning voters off from politics and voting, as I testified last week at the US Senate in a hearing on robo calls.
http://rules.senate.gov/hearings/2008/022708hrg.htm
There is no evidence that these calls work. The technology is cool, consultants make money, and nothing really works.
Shaun Dakin
CEO
Stop Political Calls
http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org/index.php
Comment by shimane — March 3, 2008 @ 2:31 pm