,Today, I was at an auto repair shop for an oil change when the owner got a cold call from a marketing agency.
The pitch was an AI phone system that would answer calls, book appointments, give summaries, and show everything on a dashboard.
The owner sounded interested. He booked a meeting for tomorrow at 1:30 PM.
Call ends.
He laughs and says, “I’m not joining that meeting.”
That caught me off guard, because I recently started an SEO agency, so I was paying close attention to how both sides handled it.
I asked him, “Then what kind of cold call would you actually value?”
He said he gets calls every day. If a supplier called offering tires, parts, paint, or something he directly needs, he’d listen. But promises of “more customers” meant nothing to him because he’s already fully booked with customers waiting.
It made me think:
Are many agencies pitching solutions to businesses that don’t have the problem they think they have?
Or are owners rejecting things they don’t fully understand?
Would like views from business owners, salespeople, marketers, or anyone who cold calls.