Cold calling is alive and well.
I'm often alone in the Acorn office in the evenings, and I get some great solicitations.
Probably the most ridiculous and totally ineffective (you'd think, anyway) call I've answered is a recording that starts the conversation not with "hello" or any other pleasant greeting but rather with: "Don't be alarmed!"
They've called twice this summer. The first time, I was alarmed, so I hung up. The second time I wasn't so much alarmed as startled and entertained, but I hung up anyway. I'm hoping they'll call again. I've decided I want to know what they're selling.
But it's not just the initial phone aspects of the cold calls that are funny.
A dude got through to me last night with a grandiose pitch about IT services, and I asked him to send me an email so I could consider. I'm curious about the ways web development shops
present themselves to potential customers, so I was sincere in my desire for him to send me an email explaining what he does.
And I'm he sent one. Not because I'm going to hire his firm. I'm pretty sure I can keep all my outsourcing
in the family. But, rather, because of this line:
I promise our strategic alliance will merge into a bolder primacy for your business.
Wow. Not a list of the technical things the firm does well. Not a link to their dev portfolio. No comments about speed or competitive prices. Just a proclamation of the end result: bolder primacy.
Here's a link to their site if anyone's curious. Note, however, that I just tried clicking it, and, if my computer and internet connection are any indication, it's broken.
