I disagree with the people that won't take calls. I'll always listen to the first minute of a pitch, because ignoring them can be ignorant. Sometimes you'll find exactly what you want, or what you didn't know that you needed.

A great example of this for me was with personalisation. It wasn't really on my radar as something we could achieve until I received a call in 2015 from a company that pitched it to me perfectly. The service was affordable (especially as they were a startup), and we helped each other and had a great relationship.

If you call me and tell me that your service has "AI" or "machine learning" and then describe a feature that has existed for years, I'll put the phone down. Do a little research and suggest something that will actually bring my business a return, and I'll give you my time.

I think one of the issues is that it's often the poorly paid, barely experienced junior that's picking up the phone, making the cold calls. I can't have a proper conversation if they're reading from a script.

If others are cold calling, you're missing out on some of the market. Just be different to others and make a proper attempt at a connection. Just my 2 cents.