>

Definitely understand where you’re coming from.
It is “interruptive” and “annoying”.
But I have seen, firsthand, the impact my company has on our clients.
After onboarding certain clients, we directly enabled them to scale up their businesses. Creating new jobs in our city.
When COVID-19 happened and cybersecurity attacks went up two and a half times the usual rate, we kept 100% of our  clients’ businesses secured. This saves jobs.
Of the 20k dials I made. I spoke to 2k actual people. I always took “No” for an answer and moved on.
If you were one of the people that ended up on my list, I wasted, at most, a few minutes of your whole year.
But I don’t believe it’s fair to say there is no “net-positive” on society.
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Scams and fraud should be banned, and in many cases are, but telemarketing is obviously effective. If it wasn't, it wouldn't be done. Keep in mind that a lot of legitimate telemarketing is done through leads, meaning someone indicates that they're interested in the product or service before even being called. >


telemarketing is obviously effective. If it wasn't, it wouldn't be done.

But who is it effective on? The tactics involved in phone sales are often manipulative and predatory, even if the business is a legitimate one. How many telemarketing customers could more accurately be described as victims - senile or otherwise impaired individuals who are easily confused and might not understand what exactly it is they're signing up for or how much it's going to cost them? It's certainly not all people who order things being sold to them over the phone, but I guarantee it's not an insignificant number. >

The same could be said of any advertising. >

I'm not convinced. A prerecorded message on a screen or printed on a billboard isn't the same as a live operator; people respond to them differently. While there might still be small populations that are particularly vulnerable to other forms of advertising, a telemarketer who can adjust their tactics in real time is far more likely to work on people who aren't as "far gone." >

Telemarketers don't adjust their tactics: they read off scripts intended, like ads, to maximize their chances of making a sale. >

Some of those scripts are flowcharts and their response will vary based on what the prospective customer is saying. But regardless people still respond differently to live human voices than they do to recorded messages. >

I make cold calls, B2B.
Last year in 2022 I made ~20,000+ phone calls.
Out of that, I set up ~200+ meetings.
(About 1 in 100 we’d get somewhere)
From there I had 14 contracts signed.
Average contract-size was $7-8k/month.
We added ~$90k in MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
Each contract is typically a 3-year contract.
So we brought in $3M+ in revenue.
Nobody has to like telemarketing. (I don’t)
But it does work.
With my salary ($85k/year + commissions) the company essentially paid me $4 for every phone-call I made. ($326/day for 80 phone “dials” = $4 a ring 📞)
With the revenue we signed: $90k/recurring monthly, or $1M annually ($3M+ when you factor in our 3-year contract terms),
The company made $150+/revenue everytime I picked up a phone. (Regardless of whether or not anyone answered that particular call!)
I hope this was informative for you.
Unfortunately for you, telemarketing isn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future IMO. The cost/reward ratio says to keep doing it.
AMA as I’d love to answer any further questions! >

As impressive as this is, and clearly it’s ROI positive for you and your employer, this is not a net positive to society. You made 20,000 calls last year and only 200 lead to meetings. 
This means you wasted the time of 19,800 people. Likely busy people working at their jobs. I may have been one of those people. I run a small business and get multiple calls every single day. Our business phone number routes to my personal phone so I don’t need an extra phone. The calls from telemarketers are interruptive and annoying and cost me time. 
You are wasting the time and annoying 19,800 people each year. I understand why you and your employer do this. But it’s not a good thing for society as a whole and the world would be much better off if the practice was banned.