cold-call, v.
[f. cold a. (see sense 7 f) + call v.]
a. intr. To sell goods or services by making unsolicited calls on prospective customers, either by telephone or in person. b. trans. To make an unsolicited approach to (a prospective customer) with the intention of persuading him to buy goods or services. Hence cold call n., an unsolicited approach by a salesman to a prospective customer; also (with hyphen) attrib.; cold calling vbl. n., (the practice of) selling by this method. Cf. cold selling s.v. cold a. 19.
| 1972 Times 30 Sept. 20/4 She and Ken used to set off for the City, ‘cold calling’ on travel agencies..that might have jobbing work. 1978 N.Y. Times 30 Mar. b20/8 (Advt.), Bonified appointments with customers who are waiting for you. No cold calling. 1980 Economist 26 July 89/3 Clipboard and cold-call approach selling..are caused by methods of recruitment, where an undue emphasis on high and quick rewards can encourage high-pressure selling. 1984 Times 19 Jan. 13/6 Professor Gower's most controversial proposal is to extend to the unit trusts the facility to ‘cold call’, effectively the door-to-door selling now done by life insurance companies. He would like to ban cold calling altogether, but, he said, the two forms of investment are now inextricably mixed. 1985 Daily Tel. 20 July 15/3 Investment businesses should be entitled to ‘cold-call’ anyone. 1986 Economist 1 Feb. 80/3 They will ‘cold-call’ former staff of companies they are investigating. 1986 Observer 23 Mar. 32/1 Cold calling shareholders during take-over battles is expected to receive a cold shoulder from the Securities and Investments Board. 1986 Marketing 11 Sept. 20/3 On the first cold call I ever made I started saying what I had been trained to say when to my astonishment the person I had rung said ‘yes’. |