The purpose of cold calling is to generate or warm up interest in a product or service for sale. The salesperson hopes, usually vainly, that the un-announced visit will result in a sale or the opportunity for a future presentation.
The act of selling is a challenge, but cold calling makes it a double challenge. The sellers first must persuade the startled prospect to listen for a few minutes at least. Later they dare to hope that their eloquence will result in an order. Since that is not likely, they ask for an appointment for a second visit at a time convenient for the prospect.
Some people do not want to approach anyone for direct selling, and they head for another profession. They leave the field to others who enjoy the risk or the uncertainty of trying to persuade a skeptical listener.
Cold calling becomes triple challenging if the seller with a newly learned language makes a sales presentation to a native speaker of that language. In the early 1990s after a few years of intensive study of Spanish I made two trips to Mexico City. On the first trip in order to practice cold calling in Spanish I offered to represent a Texas manufacturer of business forms at no cost to him.
On the second trip, for a modest fee, I called on architects to promote decorative, ornamental and architectural aluminum castings. I gained no orders but did gain experience visiting Mexican business offices using both Spanish and English, as the prospective customers often preferred to reply in fluent English. I don’t like to admit it, but they probably decided on English after hearing my opening Spanish.
Sept. 10-11 (2)
