Making cold calls? People would rather give up sex 打行銷電話？人們寧可放棄性愛

 ◎管淑平
The prospect of making cold calls for a week as a salesperson is more unappealing than giving up sex for a month, a survey showed.
以銷售人員的身分打行銷電話一週，這樣的情況比起放棄性愛一個月還令人不 快，本週的一份調查顯示。
Only getting a root canal was deemed worse than making sales calls to strangers, said the survey of 1,226 respondents about public attitudes in the United States towards salespeople.
只 有接受根管治療被認定為比打銷售電話給陌生人還糟糕，這份詢問1226人以了解美國民眾對銷售人員看法的調查說。
From five options presented, one-third of the people said a root canal was worst, followed by cold calls at 23 percent and giving up sex for a month at 18 percent.
在調查提出的5種選項中，3分之1的人說做根管治療感覺最糟糕，其次是打行銷電話，佔23%，放棄性愛1個月的比例是 18%。
Of the other worsts, 15 percent picked being a surprise guest on a reality television show and 13 percent chose speaking in front of an audience.
其他最糟糕的事情中，15%的人選擇當電視實境秀的神秘嘉賓，13%選擇在大眾面前發言。
Asked to choose among types of salespeople, respondents said they trusted those who sell cars the least, followed by financial services salespeople. Retail salespeople were ranked the most trustworthy.
被 要求在各種類型的銷售人員中做出選擇時，受訪者說，他們最不信任賣車的人，其次是金融服務業務員。零售銷售人員則被認為最值得信賴。
Being contacted by door-to-door salespeople ranked as most annoying, while being contacted by e-mail or social media was the least aggravating.
挨 家挨戶拜訪的業務員被評為最令人厭煩，而透過電子郵件或社交媒體接觸，則最不令人討厭。
◎ 新聞辭典：
cold call：名詞，為了開發業務而打給潛在客戶或陌生人的電話。例句：Don’t be too pushy is the rule no.1 for salesperson when making a cold call.（不要太咄咄逼人是業務員打行銷電話時的最高守則。）
unappealing：形容詞，不吸引人的。例句：Your proposal is unappealing.（你的提案並不吸引人。）
aggravating：形容詞，令人煩擾的。例句：Your pushing me all the time is very aggravating.（你老是在逼我很令人討厭。）