‘Cold call with me’: The new TikTok trend built on phone call awkwardness

Sales reps, business owners and recruiters are documenting their cold calls online and cashing in on the viral content. 

Cold calling has existed as long as the telephone: It’s a sales technique where a representative for a company calls an individual unsolicited to attempt to hook them with their sales pitch in the first 30 seconds or less. Some say cold calling is dead in 2026, as people pick up the phone less and less due to the increase in spam and AI bots on the other end of the line.