[enraged_camel]

>>Cold calling is great! Well, because it's never absolutely cold--you do know that the person you're calling is at least a little interested in what you're selling. It's not random.

No, that's not cold-calling. Cold-calling refers to picking up the phone and calling people you have never spoken to before and will most likely not be interested -- at least initially -- in what you are selling. But if it's people you have spoken to briefly at a trade show, then you aren't cold-calling. You're following up.

Note that cold-calling doesn't have to be "random". In fact, calling companies and people randomly almost never works. You need to have a strategy in place and need to have done what's called "prospecting". For instance, if a construction company just became your client, then calling other construction companies and talking about how that company is using your product or service has a much higher chance of getting you at least one in-person meeting.

[Frondo]

To clarify, I agree, if it's not the first they've heard from you, it's not cold calling. I do mean, though, that when you pick up the phone to cold call someone, you aren't calling at random- you're already calling someone who's in the right industry or whatever to have a chance of being interested in your product.