Unsurprisingly, 91 percent of UK consumers say that they have been annoyed by cold sales techniques.

Cold sales calls were found to be the worst offenders at 74 per cent and PPI calls being close behind at 71 per cent. Other forms of cold communications were found to be marketing text messages, irrelevant online ads and unsolicited mail.

Despite the majority of consumers being annoyed, it also seems that both consumers and businesses are more open to sales than predicted, with success of conversion more likely if they are presented with a personalised offer.

In the survey carried out by IntaPeople IT Recruitment, over a quarter of respondents said they would not rule out buying a product or service that is presented to them ‘cold’, whether it is personalised or not, with nearly a third saying they would be more likely to buy if the pitch was personalised to them.

Gareth Davis, Principle Data Management Consultant at IntaPeople Recruitment, said: “It’s no surprise that so many people are annoyed by cold sales tactics, but businesses should take note of the growing importance of personalisation when it comes to actually making those sales.

“With businesses beginning to discover the value locked away in their data, along with the emergence of Big Data, we have seen the demand for data professionals rise significantly.”