Ah, the long running debate that splits the opinions of the Sales world. Mostly because people are vying for position or want to be  seen to take a stance. My belief is that cold calling will never die. It is by far one of the best ways to introduce yourself to another business person. My two caveats are:

1. Business To Business. Cold Calling people at home is pre-historic.
2. With business to business you must be able to demonstrate value.

There is much debate around social media, google search and networking being the death of cold calling. I don’t believe so. I believe these are fantastic ways of getting leads through the door but they do not in themselves provide the ‘magic bullet’ that means you can  sit back and wait for the phone to ring.

Invest in these prospecting methods. Learn about them and use them to the max, but don’t stop all the things that have proved successful for you in the past. Like cold calling or as I like to call it:

A call from one business person to another to see if there are areas of mutual benefit.

A fantastic web 2.0 or internet marketing company is www.hubspot.com and they recently blogged about the demise of cold calling. Its a great article and I have a few additions to add to it:

Check out Marks 3 tips on the video and the text on the blog article.

My thoughts are:

One of the common misconceptions about an inbound calling culture is that people who enquire about you from your web site (or other prospecting mechanism) will be sat by the phone waiting for you to call them. Come on – this rarely happens. The majority of the time someone has 12 browser windows open and has enquired from at least 6 companies. It’s easy for them to do as most sites have an easy to fill out web form (you do don’t you?).

When you call it may not be enough for you to state your name and assume they know who you are. Be attentive and listen out for their voice and any signs of hesitation. Be specific on a time and method of enquiry.

Give a visual reminder i.e as hubspot could do – “We are he company  with the bright orange web site and the (Your Description Here) logo ( I happen to love their animated logo!) You don’t see many of them around” In hubspots case many of their enquirers do know them well because they are fantastic at what they do and I have followed them for some time. If you do not have that following then never assume because it has come in as a lead that they will even know who you are by the time you call. Unless you can call them while they are still on the web page!

Never the discount the ability to pick up the phone and make a professional introduction to someone to see if you can help them.

Long live Professional Cold Calling!