I usually hang up as soon as I say, "not interested." The best salesperson is one who sells to those who have a need rather than pushing an unsolicited sale.
I would say the best sales people only call the targets who, based on their research fit the profile of who they know they can help based on their current happy customers. So when you get “not interested” you know it’s just a knee jerk reaction and you hang in there and challenge their perspective. That is exactly what I did to source a $10M deal with OfferUp during my Google days that changed my career.
That is really messed up to hear about scams. That said, for b2b software companies selling good products that help companies make progress cold calling from a place of service is a must.
