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Cold Calling

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June 24, 2010, 20:15
Kalleh
Cold Calling
My daughter and her friend had a big argument about the term cold calling. Frankly I think my daughter is wrong, but she says it only refers to telemarketing, but her friend said it also means walking into businesses and "cold selling" products. They looked it up on good old Wikipedia, and my daughter said it supported her view, and of course her friend thought the opposite:
quote:
Cold calling is the process of approaching prospective customers or clients, typically via telephone, who were not expecting such an interaction.
"Typically" seems to be the operative word.

What do you think?
June 25, 2010, 01:41
arnie
Yes, "typically" is the operative word. Although it happens frequently using the medium of the phone, cold calling sometimes refers to personal visits, not prearranged, as well.

I suppose it could be argued that all advertising, including the Internet's ubiquitous spam, is a form of cold calling.


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
June 25, 2010, 04:36
zmježd
The OED2's entry on the verb cold-call:
quote:
a. intr. To sell goods or services by making unsolicited calls on prospective customers, either by telephone or in person. b. trans. To make an unsolicited approach to (a prospective customer) with the intention of persuading him to buy goods or services. Hence cold call n., an unsolicited approach by a salesman to a prospective customer; also (with hyphen) attrib.; cold calling vbl. n., (the practice of) selling by this method.



—Ceci n'est pas un seing.
June 25, 2010, 20:17
Kalleh
Oh, dear. It looks like my daughter lost this argument. It was funny because they had the boxing gloves out over this one.
June 25, 2010, 20:31
Geoff
Now you've changed from cold called to cold cocked!


It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
June 26, 2010, 09:51
wordmatic
I hope she takes the news well! I've been cold called on the phone, in the office, via email, and even while walking along Daytona Beach! Yes, there were timeshare sales people all over the beach, disturbing our peace and quiet and the lovely breeze one January. Cold calls are like gnats: there are too many of them and they make you all hot and itchy!

Wordmatic