Cold Calling - RIP?

Saturday, April 4 2009

Here is an article on cold calling I entered on a forum today.

I have over 25 years experience in software sales, and over those years I have found cold calling to be the most successful outbound strategy to deliver consistent results, but you do need to know what you’re doing.

For those who don’t have the time, the relevant skills or experience, or who simply don’t enjoy cold calling, there are plenty of telemarketing companies out there who are keen to do the job for you and don’t cost the earth.

But you just can’t rely on any one strategy. A combination of approaches working together as part of a well oiled machine is the best way forward. Some products are ideally suited to inbound marketing, others are not. Almost all products will benefit from both inbound and outbound strategies.

I am just about to launch a new CRM application and will again be focussing on cold calling to help generate results. This will be used in conjunction with mailshots, e-shots, forums such as this one, SEO, referral marketing, social networking, networking events along with others.

No two companies are the same so it’s important that you constantly develop, test, measure and prove the strategies that work for you. Any successful company or individual will have their own continually tested and proven lead generation strategy, which in many cases will be product driven.

So having a system that can do all this for you can work wonders. An example of one such system can be found here.