In the last 3 weeks I’ve seen 3 types of ‘cold-call’ style marketing techniques in action, all over the top.

The first is one referred to recently whilst selling my car – text messages out of the blue offering to take the car off my hands for a bargain price. You’ve probably seen the TV adverts – the ‘we-really-really-want-to-buy-any-kind of-car’ type adverts, that make it seem just too easy. You simply take a few seconds to tap in the car details, and voila they provide you with a price and can arrange just like that.

It just doesn’t sit right though, playing on people’s ignorance and frustration, for when you’re trying to sell something as big as a car you do get fed up of all the hassle and false interest, and the whole idea of an easy selling-process seems ideal. But there is a price – you will pay dramatically below what you’d receive if you sold yourself, even simply putting on eBay in an auction. They cleverly market that it’s probably a better value than what you would get if you traded your car in at a dealer for a new one, but that’s the point – it’s more or less at that trade value which is a less more than the ‘retail’ value from being sold direct to someone.

Personally I think there’s a niche there for a ‘car broker’ – someone who genuinally offers to help sell a car on yoru behalf, like what an estate agent is for houses.

Secondly, and related to this, is when a friend had someone hit their car which triggered their car insurance paying out. Suddenly there was interest from the ‘where there’s a blame there’s a claim’ type companies looking at compensations. This incident must have triggered something on the great insurance-database in virtual work somewhere that all these claim companies have access to and suddenly ping information out on.

Thirdly, a local business relocated to new premises and they were inundated with utility-saving companies contacting them for better deals on their new utility accounts. And not just a few, 10s and 10s and 10s of these. Again, the great utility-database somewhere must have noted this change of address which was picked up by these types of companies or individuals hungry for a quick sale. These new business starts and relocation lists are actually easily available from offerings such as Thomson Local as part of their advertising packages, offering an opportunity to contact companies at such critical decision-points. Nice idea from their perspective, but an annoyance from a consumer’s perspective.