Cold Calling

Looking at the commonly agreed shortcoming of cold calling - rude people, random calling, interruption - they're process and execution oriented. In other words, they're complaints against poor form and technique. When I say form and technique in this case, I don't mean having a poor script and being well rehearsed in objection handling - I mean not doing their homework and acting too much the stereotypical salesperson.

Being interrupted is fine, if the interruption is something we value. And if the company contacting us profiled their market and target accounts, the odds of calling us because we're the person they need to contact are great.

I'm not a big proponent of cold calling, I prefer calls in follow-up to direct mail campaigns...which could be argued as merely semantics.

I've created and led many lead generation campaigns targeting executives in F1000 and public sector organizations. There are limited means to reach such people directly. What I've found is cold calling is pretty effective.

When you profile the purchase cycle and people involved; determine their biases, interests, concerns, challenges and opportunities; position your offer in business terms, addressing a recognized opportunity or challenge; and use your first contact as an introduction and offer to discuss the opportunity to work together in a meaningful way...cold calling works.

If you call people randomly, attempt to sell your product or service on the call, tell the person on the phone all about your features and functionality, ignore their business concerns, and press them to take an action outside of the purchase cycle...cold calling fails miserably and merely becomes an interruption not worthy of our time. The equivalent of email SPAM.

Although I'm not fully prepared to explain it, I've also found cold calling senior executives at larger companies results in greater response than calling large-company mid-level managers or small business executive teams.

In the public sector, I've found most anyone can be cold called - large and small organizations alike, including elected officials - IF AND WHEN you do your homework, position yourself as a peer, and call about something the receiving party really cares about....that's the rub.

Cold calling is a hot button topic of sales and marketing. My sincere opinion is it's poorly used and abused. I see it as a legitimate tactic that should be used when it makes sense...nothing more or less. Like all marketing tactics, it has a place and fits in some situations better than others. When it doesn't fit, it should be used.