A slew of states have adopted legislation that lets consumers who don't want to receive telemarketing calls add their names to a "do not call" list that marketing companies are required to honor. Unfortunately, there's no such remedy for IT executives bombarded every week with hundreds of sales calls and e-mails from software, hardware and IT services vendors.

"I've finally forced myself to start being nice to printer toner telemarketers," says Kevin Garrity, a network administrator at Trans-Lite, a lighting manufacturer in Milford, Conn. "For quite a few years I was as rude to them as they were to me. Now I smother them in kindness then hang up. I guess they are regular people who need a job, not the monsters they seem."

However, the call volume is too much for most IT executives to handle. "I stopped answering my phone months ago," says David Young, IT manager at a manufacturer in New England. "For a while I at least tried to call back those who left a professional voice mail, but I just don't have the time to keep up with the call volume."

Joe Moore, director of IT services at the Arizona Office of the Auditor General, agrees. Moore got so many calls that he began having them screened by the Phoenix agency's operator.

"Most sales calls are directed to my voice mail," Moore says. "If there is an item that interests me, I will call the individual back. If it is a cold, unsolicited call for a product I have little interest in, I will ignore it."

Moore says he's learned the hard way that he can't respond to every call. "I used to think that I owed everyone that called me a callback. I've learned that that is very counterproductive," he says.

Desperate times

Most users Network World talked to don't bother to count the number of calls they receive, but they agreed call volumes have gone up in the last couple of years.

The poor economy is a big reason salespeople have become more aggressive. Worldwide spending on IT products and services declined in 2001, according to Gartner. Total hardware spending fell 13.1% to $327.4 billion in 2001, and dropped another 1.3% to $323.3 billion in 2002. Software spending fell 5.7% to $74.2 billion in 2001, then managed to gain 3.6% in 2002 to hit $76.9 billion.

With no relief in sight - analysts predict IT spending will remain flat or fall slightly in 2003 - vendors are scrambling for the sales they need to survive. Many won't make it: Gartner predicts that 50% of IT companies that are well-recognized in their sector or in the general IT industry will merge, change direction or go out of business by the second half of 2004.