[GordonS]

Maybe this is a US thing. Here in the UK, cold calling is illegal (for consumers at least, not 100% sure about businesses), and for a good reason - it's extremely irritating! Anyone cold calling me would go straight on my shit-list.

[FHMS]

I totally agree - we all know of the extremely irritating cold calls. However, in my own experience, if you research the person you are calling well, and follow a few rules of thumb (be genuine, aim for learning) the feedback from people is surprisingly positive! (I'd say maybe 1 out of 10 is a slightly irritated response)

Here (in Germany) it's legal to call businesses.

And also: It doesn't have to be calls - it could also be email or linkedin - and yes! also here it works if genuine.

[GordonS]

Personally, I don't care how well you've researched me before calling me; if I want a solution, I will go looking for it, and cold callers get short shrift.

[mygo]

K, cool nbd.. we'll just move on and call the next person on the list

[killerpopiller]

in Germany it is permitted to cold call B2B (§ 7 (2) Nr.2 UWG) but not cold-email (§ 7 (3) UWG).

[rorygibson]

Cold calling is not illegal in the UK, for either consumer or B2B. There are, however, restrictions. Here's a good summary.

http://www.inbrief.co.uk/consumer-law/cold-calling-and-the-l...

And here are the actual rules:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-pecr/electroni...

More abstractly;

I'd be interested to know whether any of the respondents in this thread hold, or have held, genuine management responsibility in a reasonably sized company.

Sales tactics like cold calling work because in business, companies look for advantage or efficiency, and it's entirely reasonable that another company might sell you something that helps; many people are willing to listen to the occasional pitch if it has a chance of making their job easier.