"I asked him if he ever got discouraged. He didn't lie. He said 'Yes.' But he ploughed on, through his eight-hour shift, working on the basis that about three calls out of every hundred would end in a completed survey.
"It is likely that Derek, or one of his thousands of colleagues, has called you recently. Most of us find these calls rather tiresome. Ways to get rid of such callers have become the stuff of dinner party conversations.
"Should you just hang up? Or ask them to wait a minute and leave them on hold till they hang up? Or say something clever such as 'sorry, I'm busy at the moment but leave me your home number and I'll call you there at an inconvenient time.' After watching Derek and hundreds of others at work, I can assure you that the best thing to do is to politely and clearly say "I'm not interested thanks" and hang up immediately. It gets them out of your hair and allows them to move on."
