[lhemekim]

Is cold calling dead? In today's sales world what is the best way to reach prospective clients. Is it OK to walk in unannounced?

[RubyPitbull]

What services are you selling?

These websites may help

Cold Calls, Direct Sales Article - Inc. Article

7 tips for turning cold calls into hot leads

Making a Sales Cold Call

Sales Training: Success Formula for Making Cold Calls

Tips for Successful Cold Calling | Sales > Selling Techniques from AllBusiness.com

[Fr_Chuck]

Many business to business sales is still cold calling.

Yellow pages,
Aflac ( spelling?) the insurance with the duck
Other business health and accident insurance

Newspaper advertising

And the commercial chemical field.


So I would say in the world of sales to business, most sales are done by cold calling.

[Logan82]

It all depends upon what your product is! Of course there are other things like target sector, good script...
It's very hard to comment on how your product/service will respond to it, without having any idea about your products.

So to simply answer your question -
No, Cold calling is not dead &
I personally don't think walking in unannounced is the best of ideas... Sorry :(

P.S. - to add on to what Fr_Chuck said
There are a lotta businesses using this technique. I personally call on behalf of so many of them (I've called for insurance companies like Aflac as well). It works wonders.

[Synnen]

I am the receptionist at a small commercial cleaning business. I also answer all of the phone calls and direct them.

Salespeople are sent straight into voicemail.

The best way to reach a lot of the people here is via email. Also... don't be TOO persistent. We expect some cold calling, but the salespeople that unfailingly call 3 times a week at different times of the day are going to get the cold shoulder... we don't have TIME to listen to a spiel!

Leave a voicemail, send an email, and then follow up ONCE. If we can currently use your product, we WILL call you back. If we can't, you'll just be wasting your time and getting ignored.

Honestly, the best way to make new contacts is to NETWORK! Check with your current clients to see if they know anyone you can help with a good deal, or offer a deal to your current clients to refer people to you! We get the vast majority of OUR sales by networking.

[Fr_Chuck]

I will disagree with synnen on this one, while you may do that, but the right person learns how to get past the front desk person using many tricks. Done it for years, I have gotten past security gates at evey major business in Atlanta when I was doing cold calling back them, including government offices.

But I also set national sales records in every industry I have been in.
Even the one time the transit authority figured it out and threw me out, I ended up getting their account because I did what it took to get into the people who buy. We always do it in person, and on the ones hard to get into, if the account is big enough, we do them early before normal starting hours, or after hours, or at luch when the girl upfront is often not at her desk.

[Logan82]

I will disagree with synnen on this one, while you may do that, but the right person learns how to get past the front desk person using many tricks. Done it for years, I have gotten past security gates at evey major business in Atlanta when I was doing cold calling back them, including government offices.

But I also set national sales records in every industry I have been in.
Even the one time the transit authority figured it out and threw me out, I ended up getting thier account because I did what it took to get into the people who buy. We always do it in person, and on the ones hard to get into, if the account is big enough, we do them early before normal starting hours, or after hours, or at luch when the girl upfront is often not at her desk.

You got that right! Synnen I'm sorry, but I would have to disagree with you as well. With the right kind of tools(skills), the sales person can get past the anybody.

Again, this is how you might be dealing with telemarketers. But the ratio of coming across such respetionists is very less. I'm currently calling businesses as well & in a day speak to at least 100-150 receptionist. The response has been good. Very few people see through us when we call them & when they do, we use different technique when we call back & it works!

[Synnen]

Perhaps it is because our company is so small (10 people in the office, 150 in the field) that it works. I'm given a list of expected calls, and those are the calls that get through. Everyone else is diverted to email.

Everyone here carries a cell phone, and anyone who has people they want to get through automatically (kids, spouses, etc) is given the cell phone number. Anyone else is given the main number... and then they have to get through me.

I agree that if you are a really good salesperson, you can get past anyone... but if you're a really good receptionist, NO ONE gets past you, either.

I'd also like to point out that the bigger the company, the easier it is to get past the first level of defense (the receptionist). A good salesperson can--of course! The better you are at selling yourself to someone else, the better you are at selling a product!

I guess I was just trying to reinforce that whether a cold call is appropriate is determined by your product and your audience. I probably sidetracked myself a bit trying to make that point, though

[Stringer]

Although I love to cold call, I have to agree with Synnen in that we have had great success in networking.

I have my salespeople join as many local organizations as they possibly can, they do good for their community and meet influential people. If the person they meet is not the decision maker then they can provide an avenue to decision makers.

I started my business 15 years ago, we sell a service, we are not a large company ($6m per year, growing at 12 to 15 % annually.) I had some experience in my field, but no direct leads when we started. I cold called and we landed our first large account in three weeks. We continued to cold call however the great service we provided was appreciated by our client. Two things happened; I was given referral leads by our client, and some of the people who moved on to other companies called me to provide service to their new companies. If you want referrals you have to provide great service and do what you say you will.