If Cold Calling Doesn’t Work For Sales, Why Should Marketing Do It?

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If you’re one of the many salespeople who still believes in cold-calling, don’t bother reading the rest of this post. It won’t make any sense. If you are a salesperson (or in marketing) and have realized the obvious, that cold-calling is largely a waste of time, then this is for you.

I have worked with a lot of salespeople who fundamentally believe that cold calling doesn’t work. They proactively look for more effective strategies to drum up inquiries in the field.

By the way, here’s a couple of interesting sources for ideas:
Jigsaw Webinars (you may need to sign up for a free account before you can access these)
KLA Group – I have never worked with the KLA Group but she recently ran a webinar on Jigsaw that I thought was excellent. I suspect the recording will be posted soon.
Never Cold Call Again!

What I don’t understand is why these same salespeople, who know cold-calling doesn’t work, will give a list of names to their marketing team to call. Is it because they think marketing is so gifted that they will have success where sales has failed? I doubt it. More likely, it’s because they think marketing doesn’t have anything better to do.


Even if your organization is lucky enough to have a telemarketing team, do you really want them pounding the phones all day in a futile effort to drum up business?

I wouldn’t.

Instead, I would work with the team to make sure that the program for nurturing leads is as solid as it can be. Help them understand how they should be following up with leads that express an interest but aren’t ready to speak to sales. (hint: it involves more than a call to “touch base.”)

Help them understand how they can effectively use email to nurture these leads as well. And, how they can use email as an effective alternative to cold–calling to drum up business in a way that is as comfortable for them as it is for your prospects.

If you are a marketing leader, don’t wait for sales to get the message. Create a program where your telemarketing team uses these strategies and shows sales that it can work. Resist the urge to just “go along to get along” the next time sales passes you a list of names for your team to call. Let them know what the plan is and how they can help you execute by identifying the target accounts for your e-marketing campaigns. Then get to work and make it happen.

All the best!

Melissa