The Cold Calling Poll

Errr.....yep!

Got the Friday "Can't be Bothered" attitude myself - feel like a kid bunking off school

That's definitely what ours was - the shifts were arranged to fit in with the college/sixth form hours. Up at the front was a girl in her early twenties squeezed into a horrible polyester suit occasionally screeching "COME ON YOU LOT, LET'S GET SOME ****ING LEADS!" which was guaranteed to make whoever we were talking to hang up on us.

Outstanding! I can even visualise it Its when they have a bell to ring or someother daft device whenever they make a sale, and you hear it in the background!

The one we used had clapping and cheering, which was bizzarre, especially when some people where in the middle of a pitch to a potential client

Very rarely will I entertain a cold caller.

The worst thing is they dont listen to you when you do give them a chance. They think they know what you need, that would imply they know their business better than you. That's really annoying so when they start on that, they get a pasting from me and I dont even have to ask them not to call me again - they cant get off the phone quick enough!

I do not talk to any cold callers, though I am always polite when I say 'no thank you' - the caller has a lousy job to try to do!

I have my home number registered with the Telephone Preference Service, so it is illegal for cold callers to ring my number - though they still do. I have reported one recent persistent cold caller to the TPS. They called again even after I had told them I was reporting their illegal calls!

Unfortunately the vast majority of cold-callers are poorly prepared and their focus is very untargeted. They often sound useless as well. However, some cold-calling undoubtedly does work, so long as the caller has a product or service that is of value and is actually targeting somebody who may be in a position to have an interest in or be able to buy the product or service.

Also, if the caller has some common sense, isn't pushy and is polite and knowledgeable then I would always listen to seee if what he/she has is of any interest.

I think cold-calling can be a "numbers-game" though since undoubtedly some people would not listen for a moment. The advent of the automated calls is ridiculous as well - surely 99% of people hang up immediately. Why on earth would you want to pick up the phoen to an automated message!

These are a personal pet hate, especially ones with an American accent. Nothing against American accents, but it just shows how untargetted they are, when aimed at a UK audience.

Do sympathize with cold callers, and politely say no when they phone my office number, but have little patience if the caller can barley speak my language or its an excited automated voice telling me not to hang up...

Myself, I wouldn't really like to be called at home but I do think it works, it's not out dated at all, if you have the insight to listen to what someone has to say, you may end up better off for it.
Okay so 9 times out of 10 it's total nonsense but when we did cold calling, we were hugely underpricing our websites, we build custom CMS sites, (content managed sites for you non-internet folk) which means the client can just change their site at will.
Cold calling didn't work well then, alot of people could have made such a huge saving too, like fools paying

Can work but very outdated method.why spend time trying to reach everyone when you can specifically target who you really want to?

I have various views on the this, I think it can work but also can become a right pain, If I sign upto something online at work within 1 hour I have a phone call from that company. I am sure they would guess I am at work?

If I don