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Are you an entrepreneur? Have you built a business? When things are done to extreme sure.. the slimy salesman or the spammy robo-calls are a nuisance. Take a l

Are you an entrepreneur? Have you built a business? When things are done to extreme sure.. the slimy salesman or the spammy robo-calls are a nuisance. Take a list of the world's 400 billionaires and ask them who has NOT Cold-Called? My guess is its less than 10. Or to put it another may, most successful people Cold-called, their "heros" or experts in their field or successful people in town etc. So I disagree the way you put cold-calling. If you want to start a business, I strongly suggest you to change you attitude towards Sales. Unfortunately, Engineers have this unjustified hate towards Sales, not every sales pitch or call is unethical or pushy.

hobofan 9y ago
Given that 20% of the people on the billionaires list were already on there by inhereting the money, I'd be willing to take that bet.
Nullabillity 9y ago
Yes, all cold calling is horrible and unethical. Whether or not it works is besides the point.
- goatherders 9y ago
  Horrible and unethical? Goodness.
- gnicholas 9y ago
  This is an interesting perspective. I agree that some types of cold-calling are terrible, like if you sell credit cards and just randomly call anyone who might want a credit card. This is untargeted, and if everyone who sold general-purpose goods did it, we'd all be inundated. In the B2B context, things seem a little different, especially for startups who have products that are not known. If you work in a particular field and someone calls you to tell you about their new product that is relevant to your company and your specific role, that seems much less terrible than the untargeted calling described above. And in some cases, you may actually be glad that you were called. I don't think it's fair to say that "all cold calling is horrible and unethical", since it can be done in very targeted ways. And small startups in particular (who are here on HN) often try to cold-call in as targeted a way as possible—because when you're spending CEO time on the phone, you're very sensitive to wasting anyone's time. At the end of the day, it comes down to balancing the benefits to people who are glad you called and the detriment to people whose time you wasted. If you're not targeted, you're likely a net negative to society. If you're very targeted (as many small startups are), there's a much greater chance you're a net positive.
- amorphid 9y ago
  I like getting contacted about things that don't stink. Some things don't sell themselves.
WingH 9y ago
You can be an entrepreneur and still hate receiving cold calls. Just like you can be a dentist and hate getting tooth fillings. Or you can be a surgeon, and hate having surgery.

hobofan 9y ago

Given that 20% of the people on the billionaires list were already on there by inhereting the money, I'd be willing to take that bet.

Nullabillity 9y ago

Yes, all cold calling is horrible and unethical. Whether or not it works is besides the point.

goatherders 9y ago
Horrible and unethical? Goodness.
gnicholas 9y ago
This is an interesting perspective. I agree that some types of cold-calling are terrible, like if you sell credit cards and just randomly call anyone who might want a credit card. This is untargeted, and if everyone who sold general-purpose goods did it, we'd all be inundated. In the B2B context, things seem a little different, especially for startups who have products that are not known. If you work in a particular field and someone calls you to tell you about their new product that is relevant to your company and your specific role, that seems much less terrible than the untargeted calling described above. And in some cases, you may actually be glad that you were called. I don't think it's fair to say that "all cold calling is horrible and unethical", since it can be done in very targeted ways. And small startups in particular (who are here on HN) often try to cold-call in as targeted a way as possible—because when you're spending CEO time on the phone, you're very sensitive to wasting anyone's time. At the end of the day, it comes down to balancing the benefits to people who are glad you called and the detriment to people whose time you wasted. If you're not targeted, you're likely a net negative to society. If you're very targeted (as many small startups are), there's a much greater chance you're a net positive.
amorphid 9y ago
I like getting contacted about things that don't stink. Some things don't sell themselves.

WingH 9y ago

You can be an entrepreneur and still hate receiving cold calls. Just like you can be a dentist and hate getting tooth fillings. Or you can be a surgeon, and hate having surgery.