Only Connect

With the Iowa caucuses looming, Presidential hopefuls who have already inundated the e-mail inboxes of voters—the “spray and pray” technique, in P.R. parlance—may want to rethink their strategy. In the home stretch, campaign volunteers might benefit from a refresher course in the lost art of picking up the phone. At 9 A.M. one recent Friday, in a conference room fifteen floors above Third Avenue in midtown, a group of aspiring (apolitical) cold-callers convened. They had each paid $199.99 to attend a Telephone Prospecting Boot Camp led by David Fischer, who owns a Sandler Training sales-instruction franchise.