Is cold calling dead?

Let's hope. For those of us have done it, it take a special "breed" of salesperson who can do it on a consistent, persistent basis.

Now with the concept of inbound marketing, you have a better idea of who is actually interested in your product or services. You don't have to pay an expensive salesperson to run up "dead end streets." Even if you have inexpensive inside salespeople, you can make them more efficient by focusing on leads generated by inbound interest.

Cold calling is not dead, but it is on a heart / lung bypass machine. Let's break this out to focus on B2B. You need to engage a buyer with a message that appeals to them. The buyer must be in some form of need, whether they know it or not. In the world of instant access to information, as Tibor said, they are already checking out your competition. As Loaay said, warming them up may just be the best approach. It is so easy to connect with someone today, and create interest, intrigue, or other form of connection using a variety of touches so that when you do reach your client on the phone, it is not totally cold.

Intellient cold calling is alive and well, and returning $'s on investment.

Cold calling is worth doing when you have something worth saying. For example, think of opportunities to benefit these prospects' businesses like inviting them to speak at an event, give them some publicity opportunities, or even connect them with prospects they can do business with. This approach will build you credit with them and they'll feel they owe you. It will also make the gatekeeper pass you through. If you do this right, the next time you call that prospect, the call won't be cold at all...and that's just my two cents.

If you believe cold calling is dead, you're right! We create situations to valid our beliefs. However, don't kid yourself, your competitors are making cold calls consistently! Yes, they are and they are succeeding. Just like Patrick Donnelly indicated in his blog, the market has changed -- especially with business to consumers. However, B2B cold calls can and do work. Many salespeople suffer from Sales Call Reluctance. Check out this article on Sales Call Reluctance. http://www.exceptionalsales.com/12typescr.html

Connie Kadansky
Exceptional Sales Performance
Helping Salespeople get their "ask" in gear

It amazes me how (because so many people can't make good cold calls, are afraid to make them, have received bad ones, or have a vested interest in alternative solutions,) people claim that cold calling doesn't work. We found over $700 million in new business for just one client last year, of which over $100M closed, making cold calls.

And the best part: So many people have abandoned the technique that it's easier than ever to get through to a decision maker.

I believe there is a difference between cold calling and using teleservices as part of the overall integrated marketing mix. While many still use cold calling (true cold calling to a list of names) the question should not be is it dead, but is it as effective as other marketing tactics.

When used as part of an overall marketing ix, telemarketing can be quite effective and is even better received when the prospect has shown behavior that makes them a qualified candidate. Simply picking up the phone and calling through a list of names in hopes that you can convince them that they have a need and can address that need by buying from you can indeed be done, but is not as effective in isolation.

Secondly, you have to ask is this truly how you want your sales people spending their time? Is it better to have your sales people spending their time closing qualified leads that are delivered to them or to be pounding the phones hoping to make a contact and then trying to convince that contact to stay on the phone long enough (even though the call was uninvited) to hear the value proposition.

Carlos Hidalgo
@cahidalgo

Hi Carlos! You provide a wise and reasoned answer that, unfortunately, will not quell the question. As the Business To Business By Phone® guy, I believe I know why.

Those businesses that do outbound BtoB “cold calling” for a living … and some are very good at it … have institutionalized their processes and approaches. They cannot, and never would, believe that “cold calling is dead.” And I say hooray for them! Their customers include some of the very “new media” companies that publicly cheerlead for inbound marketing instead.

For those businesses that know clicks and Tweets do not equal genuine engagement, the phone remains integral to customer acquisition and retention. That is why no one has thrown away their phone(s.) However, because of buyers’ preferences and behaviors, phone conversations usually occur second or later in the customer acquisition communication sequence. For example, an excellent first-call phone strategy is to invite and encourage a web site visit, trackable of course, followed by a post-visit phone conversation.

The confounding aspect of the recurring “is it dead?” question is the motivation for asking it. Cold-calling’s effectiveness v. other approaches is observable and measurable. So proclaiming the “death” of an ongoing business practice is premature and most likely self-serving.