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Comment by rsweeney21 | Hacker News Reader

There are hundreds of companies, many of them quite large, that do this. ZoomInfo, DiscoverOrg, Hoovers, Data.com, Clearbit, UpLead, etc.

Like it or not, sending unsolicited email is how millions of sales professionals make a living. Before email it was unsolicited mail, voice mail, or phone calls. Outbound sales is an essential part of the world we live in.

Honestly, I'm surprised that this is news to you.

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He didn’t say it was new to him, he said it was scummy, and he’s right. Spam is a scourge, whether it is in the form of email, phone calls, or people knocking on my door. “Outbound sales” steals people’s time, attention, disk space, and electricity. It may be an unavoidable (certainly not “essential”) part of our world, but the people who do it are making our world worse.

If you call the local bike shop amd try to sell rocket engines,then yes,it is useless. However,there are plenty of good business matching to be done that way. Not all are bad.

Sorry, they are. They are all bad. The bike shop many not be in the market for rocket engines, but they do use wrenches, and pencils, and valve covers. Imagine their phone rings every five minutes, throughout the work day, with people trying to sell these useful things to the bike shop. It's not any better just because the things are useful. If it's me, I'm not going to buy from a cold caller, ever. I already have suppliers. If I need a new supplier, I'm going to find one. You are making the world worse.

I assume that your business doesn't advertise, yes? Since advertising is a scourge that steals time and attention.

When I look for the new supplier for my bike shop, if word of mouth doesn't yield one, I'll probably be guided by some form of advertising. Do you really not understand the difference between making information available to interested customers by advertising, and calling people up, annoying 1000 people to get that one sale? Advertising can be a scourge, but it depends on how you do it. There is no way to spam that is not a scourge.

You’ve never reached out to a targeted, relevant industry contact in pursuit of a potentially mutually-beneficial endeavor? If so, have those individuals always anticipated your communication in advance?

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