A little politeness goes a long way.

We are executing a couple of campaigns at the moment in the BPO / outsourcing space. Make no mistake - tough campaigns which are made all the tougher by the BAD lead generation guys out there who are really blasting this market.

You know the type of thing.... (and this is not meant in any way as a xenophobic comment)... people with poor language skills who are not from the country that they are calling into... mostly using IP phones which don't give consistent call quality.

The result is that when we call that same prospect - who has been called 10 times already that day with a similar pitch, we get short shrift.

So, how do you get around it?

Make yourself the most polite, most pleasant, least pushy, most charming version of yourself you can - and press on. On the campaigns we're delivering we are about 80% as effective in these sectors as we are normally, which is a pity but not a disaster.

The phone is a very powerful tool. Great communicators can build relationships over the phone that are very strong. Unfortunately not everyone is aware of this - and it gets misused.