[celticninja]

The kids and football thing is about building a rapport so the next time that you call they remember you, or will at least take your call. This is important when for example someone may not be buying right now. If they say we will be looking in 6 months time and you only call back in 6 months time they will be unlikely to remember you. If you call them every month by the time the 6 month marl comes around you are speaking to them regularly and may pick up some other business in the intervening period.

[kelukelugames]

I love college sports and I always tried to talk to my interviewers about their schools' teams. I distinctly remember two women interviewers from Oregon, a football powerhouse, who did not appreciate the conversation. Now I just talk about restaurants. Everyone likes food.

[caseysoftware]

I'm not formally in sales but I do the same thing. There's nothing like "Oh, I was there a couple years ago and found this great little burger place near..." or "I've always heard they have the best X there. Where do you recommend?"

[pavlov]

a football powerhouse

That could explain why the women were tired of the topic.

[jonesb6]

Are women not supposed to like football? I actually went to the University of Oregon and found women both attending the U of O and those who lived in greater Oregon to be more passionate about the game then many of my male friends/colleagues/classmates.

It's a risk whenever you try to connect with someone over what you think might be a shared passion. Sports can be risky because not everyone like sports, but if you guess correctly and can form a deeper relationship then any other topic.

Trying football with people from Oregon is absolutely a reasonable decision.

[kzhahou]

It's not surprising that your males friends weren't into it, if I correctly assume that they are in tech.

But obviously the overwhelming majority of football fans are guys.

[enobrev]

I don't think it's overwhelmingly obvious.

  "The data show that 70% of working men and 59% of working women are sports fans" [1]

  "74.6 percent of all male respondents consider themselves football fans as well as 51.5 percent of all female respondents."[2]

  "...according to data from The ESPN Sports Poll and the U.S. Census, with league officials saying 44 percent of all football fans are now women."[3]

1: http://www.gallup.com/poll/183689/industry-grows-percentage-...

2: http://www.statista.com/statistics/208431/football-fans-by-g...

3: http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-commentary/article/7536295/nfl...

[philsnow]

> two women interviewers from Oregon, a football powerhouse

It's unclear to me from the context whether they are just from some town in the state of Oregon, or that they were alumna of the University of Oregon.

The gender ratio among college sports fans is a _lot_ closer to 50/50 than it is for pro sports fans.

If somebody assumed because I grew up in California that I'm a fan of the Bears, I would also not be particularly amused.

[kelukelugames]

Is it because we suck? Cal grad here. :P

They were both Oregon alums. :)

[GFK_of_xmaspast]

Why is that obvious.