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Cold calling used to work pretty well before everyone wised up. No one wants to receive a telephone call in the middle of dinner these days, and thanks to the "Do not call list," that a lot of people signed up for, it has successfully managed to eliminate many an intrusive cold-dinner call indeed.

A lot of people that I have observed lately, do not use their home telephones, or land lines, in the way that they used to be used. Some keep them around for internet or even fax machine access and refuse to answer it, if, and when it rings.

The cellular telephone has taken hold of this new millennium-society and the endeavors of most, if not all telemarketing companies, will not cross that line. I don't know about certain European countries, as they do not pay for cell-phone calls received?

If a telemarketer is lucky enough to catch a senior citizen, a sale or an appointment maybe agreed upon, purely because the elderly person in question feels threatened and/or is nice enough to agree to the aggressive nature of that call. However, a sale may not be achieved, due to the intervention of family members, or simply lack of funds.

The term, aggressive calling or, aggressive salesmanship, is fazing out of the employer hand book. Aggression, in my opinion, should only be applied to nastiness and not to sales. Everyone is are aware of this so called technique nowadays and that is why it is not accepted anymore.

Society has taken a softer and friendlier avenue into the world of cold calling and potential sales. The door to door salesman was replaced by the cold telephone caller, but now the cold callers may as well be calling upon the cold deceased.

Prospecting is a word that hurts my ears. A hundred or so years ago, the thought of "gold in them there hills" sounded quite appealing, but to sit in a lonely cubicle, making telephone call after telephone call, can be very wearing, even on the most agile and most talented prospecting telemarketer.

Taking a look at the job market these days, the word telemarketing seems to have been replaced by the words, "customer service." In fact, telemarketing has been replaced by numerous titles with unusual names, some of which are quite professional in appearance, but very misleading to a job applicant.

Cold calling, telemarketing that is, has evolved with the times. The days of falling into cold sales traps are over. But look out! Did we buy that bed because we thought we wanted it? Did we buy that grill for the patio, because we thought we needed it? Think on society.....................

Th ere is definitely an increase in internet pop up ads and, especially advertisements attached to most web-sites that we visit? Well, there is the softer side of cold calling right there! It is a gentler approach, but it is the warm up to a sale and next, we will be calling those companies, or responding to something in a circular or even something that we saw or signed up for at the local mall.

Better still, we may look up something on the internet and the next minute, we are filling out some harmless information, as we thought, then the telephone rings! This is where the customer service person, or who ever they are, will answer their telephone.

Like everything else in today's world, the predators are getting smarter, we are wising up, but then they get smarter again. If there is something to be sold, they will find a way to sell it, no matter what!

Right now, we maybe logging onto what we consider to be an innocent internet site. We may see something of interest and respond to it. By doing this, we are creating a relationship with a stranger, that may at one time have been a cold calling telemarketer. This is where it stands right now, how far will go and where will it lead us?

Learn more about this author, Jon Coe.
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