Is Cold Calling Dead?

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  1

  freebeer

  10/09/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is Cold Calling Dead?

  Of course I'm going to argue with you! It's Web 2.0, baby! Cloud Computing is going to have your customers self-identify and (figuratively) rain themselves all over your order book! Get with the program!
  
  (It's Friday... I'm allowed a little tongue-in-cheek, aren't I?)
  

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  2

  growthservices

  10/10/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is Cold Calling Dead?

  Great post, and I completely agree! Cold calling (which I will define as calling prospects you don't know to determine if they have a need for your services/products) will always be an integral part of lead generation. Sales/Web 2.0 technologies have certainly changed the amount of information that we can find about a prospect or that they can learn about us, and that has changed the buying cycle for buyers and placed more emphasis on "pull" marketing versus "push" marketing for sellers.
  
  However, at the end of the day, people buy from people and that buying cycle gets started with a conversation....and conversations are still being started by a seller picking up the phone to talk with a potential buyer.
  
  Another point I want to make is that the decision to incorporate cold calling into your lead generation strategy is also dependent on your target market. My firm provides outbound lead generation and appointment setting services for B2B organizations, including GE Healthcare, who sells to hospitals and other healthcare providers. What I have found is that hospital leaders are focused on dealing with the major priorities of the day, including providing quality care to their patients, and aren't out surfing the web for solutions to their problems. We have been extremely successful generating leads for GE - over 1000 C-level appointments scheduled in 2008 and 2009 with over $60 million in revenue that can be directly attributed to opportunities we identified....and yes, we did it all by cold calling.
  
  Tonya Signa
  President, Signature Marketing Services
  

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  3

  jakedempsey

  10/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is Cold Calling Dead?

  Cold calling is out, the new thing is to sit and wait for the phone to ring... No really, I have actually had people argue this point with me. Their angle is, that if you are marketing correctly through print and via the web, that the right people will find you... It must come from the 1990's startup mentality, where people would create a company and people would flock to it both to buy and to invest... Wow, just wow.
  
  I guess you could try not cold calling, but not in my organization.

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  4

  fmoreno.m2000

  10/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is Cold Calling Dead?

  Geoffrey,
  Before the phone was invented and popularized, Were there call calling? I think yes: salesmen knocking on doors selling encyclopedias or Bibles.
  Do you think "cold calling" was born with the industrial revolution? In ancient times staff was sold in village markets, and people knew each other.
  What do you think?

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  5

  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  10/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is Cold Calling Dead?

  Re Note 4:
  Selling is a basic human behavior. However, sales techniques evolve over time, fueled by changes in technology. See:
  
  http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=5818
  
  

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  josiane@...

  10/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is Cold Calling Dead?

  Hi Geoffrey-
  
  Thanks for taking on such a heated topic and certainly one I write about in my new book, Smart Selling on the Phone and Online (which you should have a copy of), here is a blog post I wrote on it also: http://www.tele-smart.com/blog/cold-calling-dead-or-alive/
  
  Josiane Feigon

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  7

  rdmarcelis

  10/15/09 | Report as spam

  RDM

  Absolutely Not. I acquired $1 Billion investment portfolio by cold calling.
  

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  10/15/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is Cold Calling Dead?

  Re Note 7:
  Hey, you don't think I'm going to let you get away without giving details. Cmon now! Please tell us how and what you did.

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  9

  rdmarcelis

  10/16/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is Cold Calling Dead?

  Hi Geoffrey,
  
  The time period was from 1980-1993 when interest rates on Jumbo CD?s, Commercial Paper, CMO? and MBS were extremely attractive both for high-net worth
  Individuals and Corporate clients. I can recall interest rates at one point in time reaching 20% on jumbo CD?s. My portfolio consisted of $1 million to $100 million Corporate, Public agencies and private investment clients. During those years I was employed in the S&L and FSI.
  
  My working hours started at 5: am (west coast) till 8:00pm working all time zones 5 days a week, both in the US and internationally cold calling corporations, public agencies, pension funds, etc, etc.; offering attractive yields, obviously I always asked for referrals. I was extremely motivated and money driven, due to the fact incentives and lucrative bonuses were in place to compensate officers.
  
  I had obtained all the most current directories of various corporations, Public and State agencies and associations, etc.
  I knew who to contact within the organization, and who were the decision makers.
  Regarding the BNET article ?The Ultimate Cold Calling Tool? the only objection that personally experienced was ?Send me some Information?... What information would you like me to send? Obviously a financial statement of our financial institution,FEDEX the same day and followed up the next day by a call to the prospective client, who was impressed by the quick response, and in nine out of ten times became my client. In addition all my clients received a Christmas card each year, and from time to time just a personal call to see how they were doing personally.
  
  Without going into more detail, that?s how I did it. Geoffrey
  

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  10/16/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is Cold Calling Dead?

  Re Note 9:
  That 's a very interesting case study... and congratulations on executing such a strong plan so quickly and well. I observe that it helps to have an attractive product but, then, you weren't the only person offering that product, so it was you go-get-em behavior -- which very much included cold-calling -- that built your success. Thanks for sharing.
  G.

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  rdmarcelis

  10/16/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is Cold Calling Dead?

  Re Note 10:
  Let me say that you're correct I wasn't the only person offering these product, but out of 600 employees in our firm only three of us had portfolios in excess of $1 Billion. It was as you say GO-GET-EM BEHAVIOR (DIALING FOR DOLLARS) highly motivated dedicated individuals. Not everyone took advantage of the opportunity, or had the enthusiam, although the incentives where available to all of us.
  Thank you for your kind words.
  
  rm

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  12

  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  10/16/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is Cold Calling Dead?

  Everybody:
  Read Notes 9 and 11 carefully. They contain incredible roll modeling for a successful career in sales.

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  13

  JHoep

  10/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is Cold Calling Dead?

  I have to say I disagree with your thesis based on how you define cold calling. Is not what you describe as marketing techniques in fact "warm calling"? At least that is how I always heard it referred to, especially in the cases where the call recipient has heard of you, your firm, or attended something you may have been presenting previously.
  Cold calling on the other hand seems to be much more of - here's a list of names, call them and tell them about yourself...
  
  Jason

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  rdmarcelis

  10/31/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is Cold Calling Dead?

  Jason, what is your success story? My prospective clients on the East coast never heard of our firm, including int'l clients.
  I used many lists with names and told them about my self and the firm. I repeated my success by becoming a member of the million roundtable representing a insurance company , which at the time I had never heard of. I applied the same techniques as I had previously used in banking. I've heard of warming-up to a cold call, but unable to find as you describe a marketing technique called "warm callling"