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on buying lists
I dislike cold calling in all its forms, and I know that I am not alone in that feeling. That said I have, over the years, cold called and have had some success, so I know that it does work. If done well.
I have just dissolved my limited company after 23 years. whilst I have had to weed out cold call emails from my mailbox ever since I set it up, for some reason I have been receiving 5-10 emails a day from a variety of suppliers since I started the dissolution process.
It is patently obvious that these are from people who have bought a list and have not sense checked it or done any basic research, they are just firing off emails and hoping. Good luck to them, but I will not buy from anyone who has not done anything to check whether what they are selling is likely to be relevant to me.
An example would be the ones who want to offer me training packages for my employees: I do not have any employees and offer many of these courses myself. Likewise, mentoring. A look at my website would have told them that I do that too. In fact a look at my website now will tell them that the business is no longer trading.
I mentioned that I had had some success at cold calling down the years, and it was because I did a bit of research before making contact. Maybe it wasn’t really cold calling in the strict sense, more warm calling, but the principle was that, when I made contact, I had a bit more chance because I knew something about the potential client.
I have never bought a list of contacts in any of my various roles, employed or self-employed. I don’t trust them, no matter how carefully verified the seller of such a list tells me it is. I could think of better things to spend my money on.
I do have some sympathy with the people making the calls from call centres, after all they are trying to earn a buck and are just doing what they are told to. But would I deal with the company that has engaged the call centre? No. At least not through any such call.
A personal view, and maybe one that you don’t agree with. You can always tell me why.
life log #14
Well, as noted in my Monday Musing this week, I am still here having avoided another swing of the Reaper’s scythe. This one was an even closer call than that of 2012, albeit that I have been fixed without the need for a longer stay in hospital. Eleven years ago I was in for six and a half weeks, this time just under three.
Both illnesses could have been fatal. In the first the diagnosis was made within thirty six hours and I was told that I had about as long again had I not been admitted. This time it took almost a week as the medics tried to work through what was going on and isolate the problem.
One factor was that I had two things wrong, but, after going down hill rapidly on day five, they worked out where the nastier problem was and fixed it. On waking up from the general anaesthetic I was transformed and am now back home with a plethora of pills.
At almost 71 I have had a decent innings and I accept that the end is coming closer, but I do have the spark of life and am honour bound to the Berkshire Belle to let her go first. She is older than I am, but ladies do tend to last longer, so I have to be able to keep going for a good while yet.
Generally I am pretty fit and it seems that it is these sudden, acute, infections that cause me problems rather than chronic ones. I have no idea why I should have had two now when, apparently, the types of infection that I have had, one Staph, the other Strep, are relatively rare. One was unlucky, two is greedy.
But it shows how fragile life can be. You can be a fit and healthy as you like, but accidents happen and you are gone. As a younger man I felt, as most of do when we are young, that I was invincible. I was in my mid-forties by the time that I accepted that death was inevitable and came to terms with dying. I am an atheist and believe that death will be the end, no heaven or hell, no afterlife. I am content with that, as long as the love of my life wanders off first.
Just an afterthought here. Like me the Hastings Hottie was married once before. news has reached us that her first husband died around the time that I, too, almost kicked the bucket the other week. Life can be strange.
on life and death
Sorry that I have not posted for a few weeks, but I have been in hospital. Some eleven years on from one infection trying to finish me off, another made an attempt, and, like the first one, came close to getting me.
This time I am going to take a while to fully recover. The previous one took nearly six months to get over. This one may take a year, but at least I am still here.
I am in not too bad a condition for 70, but this sort of thing just goes to show how thin the line is. A random event within my body nearly brought an end to everything, but it could have been an accident of some sort. No matter how healthy you are, the Grim Reaper can swipe you away at any moment.
Normal service should be resumed from today onwards. I’ll cover this event in a bit more detail in the next Life Log.
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