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This pitch worked much better in the 80s and 90s when A) most investors had a broker not just for advice, but because there was no easy way to trade individual

This pitch worked much better in the 80s and 90s when A) most investors had a broker not just for advice, but because there was no easy way to trade individually or get live stock quotes until the internet was widespread and matured B) telephone sales in general were more common then and less likely to be a scam (Stratton Oakmont and other boiler rooms played a large role in shifting public opinion on this) C) The most desirable prospects (High Net Worth Individuals) were accustomed to dealing with legitimate brokers over the phone and being solicited by brokers from other legitimate firms in such a way D) The markets were raging in such a way that everyone had FOMO and was dying to hear of a hot new tip Almost nobody legitimate in the financial advising world acquires customers via cold call pitching anymore. Cold calling is still part of the toolkit for other sales niches (eg, tech sales) but it's a tough road with a low success rate.

pixl97 2y ago
>telephone sales in general were more common then and less likely to be a scam Caller had to pay long distance costs at the time and really until you got in the later 90s early 2000's did you start seeing unlimited long distance everywhere. Getting cold calls from random people way back then was super rate because it was expensive.
- Tectosage 2y ago
  This is a great point. "More common" wasn't the best choice of words because it implies a higher frequency, which was not the case. "More acceptable/accepted/normalized" would have been better phrasing.
  - cqqxo4zV46cp 2y ago
    I mean, if you want to be pedantic about it, I suppose it depends on whether or not “telephone sales” implies something actually being sold.
- gary_0 2y ago
  "Extremely cheap global telecommunications accessible to everyone" came with a lot of drawbacks we didn't consider at the time they started to become viable. Although all the spam in our inboxes should have been a clue.
  - 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
    Not exactly an advantage to pay a fee to a middleman. It's more like frictionless communication should be the default, and we had a period where friction accidentally acted as signal
    - Avicebron 2y ago
      I mean if the signal isn't replaced by anything, then the onus is put on to the person receiving the call. If years ago, there was a barrier for an army of phone scammers from across the world throwing everything they can think of at an old person with borderline dementia, and suddenly that went away..I don't know how you can really justify the "frictionless communication" outside of a couple of options. A) "Well it's their fault, they should be on their guard all the time everyone is always trying to scam and manipulate you" -- (idk about you but this seems pretty grim and inhumane) B) "well it's a net benefit for ~someone~ so we should all be happy about it, and refer to A)"
    - vkou 2y ago
      You don't actually want frictionless communication. Frictionless communication will drown you in a mountain of spam. A 'Frictionless' ability to transmit puts all the friction, pain, and negative externalities onto the recipient.
    - qq66 2y ago
      I want frictionless communication with the people I've already communicated with, but very high friction communication with people I've never talked to before. I'd love a way to charge $10 to get into my inbox. If it ends up being a long lost friend or whatever, I'll Venmo them back the $10.
      - 2y ago
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
JackFr 2y ago
Up until the early 90's if you wanted a stock price intraday, you had to call your broker. Your alternative was waiting until the morning and getting previous close from NYT or WSJ.
- Bluestein 2y ago
  Totally.- PS. Brings back memories. Won an US, national high school "paper trading" contest back in the day. Out of 14000 participants. Was quite proud ...
  - Scoundreller 2y ago
    Trick to winning is to make a couple of insane bets that end up panning out, yeah?
    - Bluestein 2y ago
      Can't speak to that, but I remember spending hours and hours and hours pouring over stock listings after hours.- I distinctly remember we used a newspaper that I think is still around called IBD "Investors Business Daily", and they had this system that worked really well ("C-A-N-S-L-I-M").- And I remember pouring over thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of possibilities each day, and basically doing fundamental and technical analysis. I would filter out the candidates with broad technical analysis and then review the fundamentals of each, looking up each company on huge binders - yes, paper - from a subscription service the school had that had all financial and other info for all listed companies.- And it worked out. At some point, I caught a few big ones that just went ballistic. And it worked out great. One of the things it did is it taught me the value of effort. And I distinctly remember another thing, too. I distinctly remember being called by the organization to let me know I was winning, having won, all but certainly.- And the day after that, right before the closing of the ranking, running out of trades - because one had a limited amount of trades to perform during the competition. So I could not close a position I had, which had earned me a lot, so I wound up at a loss after having won, which, and I shall never forget this, ended up with my teacher basically saying, "I have seen how much effort you put into this, so I will give you -my account- to handle, so you can continue trading, so you will always remember that hard work and effort pays off in the end".- In the end I did loose my ranking and with too little time could not catch up, even with the second account.- So, I lost, but - in a way - I won, because I "won" that lesson ... And gush bump it, it's a lesson I've never forgotten.- So thank you, Mr. Brown.-
e_i_pi_2 2y ago
Also worth noting companies like Cutco use a similar script and a cold-calling approach, it doesn't work nearly as well as it used to though because most people don't answer numbers they don't know, so they train people to leave a message and say that a close friend (the reference) told you to call them
mwexler 2y ago
Remember, this was not too far removed from the era of https://youtu.be/2MXqb1a3Apg?si=J7Q_9hBYin2KWKwN https://youtu.be/2MXqb1a3Apg?si=J7Q_9hBYin2KWKwN In our world of limited source credibility and disdain for expertise, this video and the script do seem like throwbacks to another time.

pixl97 2y ago

>telephone sales in general were more common then and less likely to be a scam Caller had to pay long distance costs at the time and really until you got in the later 90s early 2000's did you start seeing unlimited long distance everywhere. Getting cold calls from random people way back then was super rate because it was expensive.

Tectosage 2y ago
This is a great point. "More common" wasn't the best choice of words because it implies a higher frequency, which was not the case. "More acceptable/accepted/normalized" would have been better phrasing.
- cqqxo4zV46cp 2y ago
  I mean, if you want to be pedantic about it, I suppose it depends on whether or not “telephone sales” implies something actually being sold.
gary_0 2y ago
"Extremely cheap global telecommunications accessible to everyone" came with a lot of drawbacks we didn't consider at the time they started to become viable. Although all the spam in our inboxes should have been a clue.
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
  Not exactly an advantage to pay a fee to a middleman. It's more like frictionless communication should be the default, and we had a period where friction accidentally acted as signal
  - Avicebron 2y ago
    I mean if the signal isn't replaced by anything, then the onus is put on to the person receiving the call. If years ago, there was a barrier for an army of phone scammers from across the world throwing everything they can think of at an old person with borderline dementia, and suddenly that went away..I don't know how you can really justify the "frictionless communication" outside of a couple of options. A) "Well it's their fault, they should be on their guard all the time everyone is always trying to scam and manipulate you" -- (idk about you but this seems pretty grim and inhumane) B) "well it's a net benefit for ~someone~ so we should all be happy about it, and refer to A)"
  - vkou 2y ago
    You don't actually want frictionless communication. Frictionless communication will drown you in a mountain of spam. A 'Frictionless' ability to transmit puts all the friction, pain, and negative externalities onto the recipient.
  - qq66 2y ago
    I want frictionless communication with the people I've already communicated with, but very high friction communication with people I've never talked to before. I'd love a way to charge $10 to get into my inbox. If it ends up being a long lost friend or whatever, I'll Venmo them back the $10.
    - 2y ago
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

JackFr 2y ago

Up until the early 90's if you wanted a stock price intraday, you had to call your broker. Your alternative was waiting until the morning and getting previous close from NYT or WSJ.

Bluestein 2y ago
Totally.- PS. Brings back memories. Won an US, national high school "paper trading" contest back in the day. Out of 14000 participants. Was quite proud ...
- Scoundreller 2y ago
  Trick to winning is to make a couple of insane bets that end up panning out, yeah?
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    Can't speak to that, but I remember spending hours and hours and hours pouring over stock listings after hours.- I distinctly remember we used a newspaper that I think is still around called IBD "Investors Business Daily", and they had this system that worked really well ("C-A-N-S-L-I-M").- And I remember pouring over thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of possibilities each day, and basically doing fundamental and technical analysis. I would filter out the candidates with broad technical analysis and then review the fundamentals of each, looking up each company on huge binders - yes, paper - from a subscription service the school had that had all financial and other info for all listed companies.- And it worked out. At some point, I caught a few big ones that just went ballistic. And it worked out great. One of the things it did is it taught me the value of effort. And I distinctly remember another thing, too. I distinctly remember being called by the organization to let me know I was winning, having won, all but certainly.- And the day after that, right before the closing of the ranking, running out of trades - because one had a limited amount of trades to perform during the competition. So I could not close a position I had, which had earned me a lot, so I wound up at a loss after having won, which, and I shall never forget this, ended up with my teacher basically saying, "I have seen how much effort you put into this, so I will give you -my account- to handle, so you can continue trading, so you will always remember that hard work and effort pays off in the end".- In the end I did loose my ranking and with too little time could not catch up, even with the second account.- So, I lost, but - in a way - I won, because I "won" that lesson ... And gush bump it, it's a lesson I've never forgotten.- So thank you, Mr. Brown.-

e_i_pi_2 2y ago

Also worth noting companies like Cutco use a similar script and a cold-calling approach, it doesn't work nearly as well as it used to though because most people don't answer numbers they don't know, so they train people to leave a message and say that a close friend (the reference) told you to call them

mwexler 2y ago

Remember, this was not too far removed from the era of https://youtu.be/2MXqb1a3Apg?si=J7Q_9hBYin2KWKwN https://youtu.be/2MXqb1a3Apg?si=J7Q_9hBYin2KWKwN In our world of limited source credibility and disdain for expertise, this video and the script do seem like throwbacks to another time.