Many B2B marketers are tempted to adopt cold calling and while we generally encourage our B2B marketing clients to take a different path, there are circumstances where cold calling is a legitimate and effective way to generate awareness, leads and revenue. Here are some of the plusses and minuses.
Pros of Cold Calling:
- If you don’t have enough inbound sales leads, cold calling may be one of your only options. Even if you don’t like to cold call, there is one thing that is even worse: not having any business.
- You learn a lot about your marketplace. Cold calling forces you to be on top of your game and helps you to become more proficient in thing like: identifying your best target prospects, getting through to these people, leading with the most important benefit, overcoming objections, and converting interest to engagement.
- It feels great when you stop. Once you have gone through the pain and difficulty of cold calling, all other forms of marketing engagement feel much better. For example, when we teach companies how to use pull marketing programs to generate interest and then convert this awareness into qualified leads, sales people are always much happier – not to mention much more effective.
Cons of Cold Calling:
- Almost nobody likes it. The caller and the person called can usually agree that it’s not fun to make or receive unsolicited phone calls.
- Prospects are good at avoiding unsolicited phone calls. Many people don’t publish their direct phone numbers and don’t answer calls from numbers they don’t recognize. And good luck getting past the receptionist or administrative assistant. Thus, your best prospects are doing everything they can avoid you.
- Cold calling usually doesn’t work well. A solid push or pull marketing program that generates sufficient quantities of inbound inquiries is almost always more cost-effective (and pleasant) than generating interest through outbound calling.
If you are now relying on cold calling, it’s probably not a good idea for you to stop cold turkey. However, you can probably supplement or replace it with professional pull marketing and social media techniques. You can learn more about this at the Fusion Marketing Partners website.
