I think that maybe you (and most other people) don't know what "cold calls" are. You seem to think that only obnoxious telemarketers using computer-automated dialing systems are making "cold calls".
The term "cold calls" refers to any attempt by a salesperson to sell/offer products/services to someone with whom he/she does not already have an established business relationship.
So, using you as an example, suppose I have a roofing company. I want to offer my product/service to all potential customers. I see from your address that you own a home. I call you: "Hello, Discostu, my name is Tired of Taxes, and our company is offering a great deal on a new roof. How old is your roof, by the way...?" That's a "cold call". (You: "I rent an apartment." End of call).
Also, let's clear up these terms you're using: "telemarketing" vs. "telesales". See
http://www.asatelemarketing.co.uk/faqs.htm#2. -snip-
"Telesales is the use of the telephone for selling and promoting products or services to a business or consumer base.
The modern use of the word "Telemarketing" refers to anything related with the use of the telephone, including Telesales."
-snip-
So, "telesales" is really the part of "telemarketing" that everyone hates because, of course, one of the methods of "telesales" is "cold calling".
If someone isn't making "cold calls" at all, then he isn't really doing telesales. He's just "taking orders over the phone." Yes, some companies will give "order-takers" the title "sales representative", but they're really not salespeople at all. They're just customer service representatives following up for the customers who contact them FIRST.
Why couldn't my former employer survive without cold calling? Well, the company would've survived, but there would've been far less employees on its payroll. Like it or not, cold calling has always brought in more business, adding to a company's existing clientele. BTW, the company for which I worked had a great deal. We also mailed catalogs and brochures, but the telephone is the most effective way to reach the national market. That's just the age in which we're living.
Now, back to the new National Do Not Call Registry: The Registry is supposed to penalize companies for making unsolicited calls. So, that first call, offering their goods to you, is now outlawed if your name is on that list. Even small businesses not using automated dialing systems and calling from a small list will need to comply. The only organizations that are exempt are political, charitable, and survey-takers (the very ones from whom I personally receive the MOST calls).
Good, you say. But, the fact is that cold calling does bring in more business. So, sales will drop, and businesses may fail.
Now, maybe you can find a site for me that defines those "cold calls" or "telemarketing" as "theft of telephone service." If you're right on that point, I'll acknowledge it. At this point, I do not see how it could possibly be considered "theft of telephone service," which I have always understood to mean "remote access fraud" or some other similar crime that steals your phone number.
I know exactly what cold calls are, they're a method of using MY telephone service that I pay for to advertise products against MY wishes. They steal my service and trespass on my property.
No no see if you call me and give that spiel my answer is "why would anybody buy a product from a company too damn cheap lazy and stupid to look at the address along with the name a phone number and realize that any address that ends in a number is a freaking apartment; to compound that stupidity you've made this same damn call every wednesday of this year and gotten no response, at what point will you figure out that I'm not interested. This display of serial stupidity and gross incompitence on your part has convinced me that you probably run the worst roofing company in Tucson and if I ever find one of your obviously incompitent employees on my roof I'm going to charge them with vandalism because I'm sure whatever they're doing up there is doing more harm than good."
Ooh you grab your "definition" from England, yeah their version of English is so identical to ours. I prefer to look at the law which specifically exempts any form of telesales that aren't cold calls.
That's idiotic there's plenty of way to do telesales that aren't just order taking. Again I refer you to the Craftmatic bed, the prospective customer requests contact THEN they get a phone call describing the product and preping for the brochure. Telesales without cold calls, and NOT order taking. The harder you try to wiggle this the more blatantly you have to lie.
And again the problem isn't with cold calling across the board, it's with companies that won't stop bugging you. Companies that call you every damn wednesday with the same stupid call, companies that hangup on you when you try to get on their no call list, companies that won't take no for an answer. Cold call all you want but do it with a modicum of politeness, if you get no response from somebody for a month figure out that they're either dead or not interested, if a person requests to be on your do not call list don't give them a run around and make it take forever just put them on the GD list.
LIES AGAIN. The list doesn't outlaw the first call. It just means you can't call people that don't want you to. The current projections don't even put half the country on the list, you stil get to cold call half the country. You're desperate need to lie about what the list does shows you know you're wrong. STOP THE LIES.
The LAW says it's theft of service. Got a problem with that? Take it up with SCOTUS.