Flexing the Prospecting Muscle; Is cold calling really dead?

I don’t believe cold calling is dead and although social networking is hot and hardly anyone answers their phones anymore, I am not convinced. Today, I ventured out into the prospecting realm as it’s been awhile since I really worked the phones. I felt out of shape, sluggish, and lacked good articulation. My prospecting muscle had atrophied and I could tell my list of reasons not to prospect were getting longer and longer until I realized it was an excuse to keep me off the phones.

I opened up my tools and started gathering names and calling. I spent about 3 hours just navigating into one company, collecting names and sending email introductions out. A few people answered their phones and gave me 2 minutes on the call to explain what I do and a few others wouldn’t talk but wanted info first. I talked with nice executive assitants who gave me more names and even a brilliant receptionist by the name of Sally who remembered everyone in the company and could update 6-8 names for me in one call.

I got a real work-out today but I feel I’m just getting warmed up. I like this part of selling the most which is why I’ve created a business on this. I just read Bill Caskey’s blog on Occam’s Razor and he suggests cold calling only to referral sources and I tend to believe that is the lazy salesperson route as I like to be authentic and intuitive in my prospecting efforts.

This blog is dedicated to the champions who pound the phones each day creating new sales opportunities. The ones who call up to 30-40 people per day and spread the sales talk. Keep up the good work.