"A typical rep using an auto-dialer will probably call 250–300 companies a day. You have to use an auto-dialer to get those kinds of numbers, which I have to presume Groupon uses."

If I'm reading this right, this is saying "if a rep had an auto-dialer they could call 250-300 companies a day. To call 250-300 numbers a day, a rep must have an auto-dialer. Therefore, I presume Groupon uses auto-dialers."

Beg the question much?

I think the charitable interpretation is: Groupon employs over 3000 sales reps; you don't pay 3000+ sales reps to dial manually, you use an autodialer: therefore, each rep is making 250-300 raw calls per day, and 50 or so live contacts.

I think for most purposes though, it's the 50 live contacts that's worth concentrating on, since in my call center monkey experience, typically numbers are re-queued until you hit a live body.

..based on the assumption they have a list of every company in the US to call, it's a bit far fetched to think they will call every company - do you think Bang Bros are going to offer a Groupon voucher? ;)

Maybe Warner Bros will offer 50% for Two and a Half Men..

Another sensationalist headline with no real data to back up a big claim. For all we know, it could very well be true; for all we know, it could be far from the truth. It probably is.

Besides, wouldn't you think they call several companies more than once? We're talking about auto-dialers here...

How come they are calling so many businesses if the press keep on saying businesses are queuing to get listed on Groupon in the first place?

This is based on an incredible set of inane assumptions, with essentially no data to back them up.