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Comment by voidmain | Hacker News Reader

Telemarketing is wrong. You are working to destroy the value of one of the most marvelous accomplishments of the human race.

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Looked good enough for the people running this site (this is YC W17).

100% of bad things look good enough for some people at some point, otherwise they wouldn’t be done. That doesn’t make them any good.

https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-w17-launch-credy-upcall-and-...

Telemarketing isn't inherently wrong, IMO, even though it's often poorly-executed and painfully annoying. In some cases, it's a better way of doing client outreach than email.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt but I can't think of a scenario where a cold call is preferable to an email, or no contact at all. Can you give an example?

I can't, but that's largely because of what I attribute cold calls to: long wait times, poor connection quality, and a person on the other end who really doesn't know what they're doing or talking about; that's why I brought up poor execution.

If I left a service because of reason X and got a cold call a reasonable amount of time later where the caller could explain why they did X and that Y replaces X, and could clearly and concisely address my concerns, then I'd be much less averse to the idea of cold calls.

When was the last time you were glad to receive a cold call?

I'm not saying there is no imaginable ethical sales activity that involves a telephone in some way.

But despite do not call lists etc, I can no longer answer my cell phone when I don't recognize the number, because of all the unwanted commercial calls, scams, surveys, etc. Many are falsifying their caller ID data because they know that everyone would block them if they could.

This product really really looks like it will be used to make that situation worse. "90% MORE LIKELY TO CONVERT A LEAD if you reach out minimum six times". Blech.

Somewhere, people are failing to communicate about something important because these people are pissing in the well.

> * "90% MORE LIKELY TO CONVERT A LEAD if you reach out minimum six times". Blech.*

Wow, I can't believe that's actually on there.

Why? I’ve heard for email, it’s eight.

Because it's a scummy fucking thing to come out and say - "we'll call people half a dozen times until they cave and buy whatever garbage you're offloading."

Yes it is inherently wrong, you are wasting my time every single attempt.

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