Vol 4, No 8
Week of May 4th, 2008

SoftGram Spotlight:
The Case Against Cold Calling; free SaaS webinar

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In This Issue's Softletter

• Reurn Leaders: Profile of RightWorks
  

• The Windows Positioning Disaster: Recovery Strategies, Part I of III

• Benchmarks: Research and Development, 2007

• Keeping Negotiations Secret, Part II of II

• Backlink Checker Resources

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The Case Against Cold Calling

by Mr. X (Mr. X is a long time cold-calling coach who's departing the business though he still provides cold calling training for "companies who insist on it."

(Excerpted from the January 31st, 2008 edition of Softletter)

Cold calling is both a technique and a skill that's been deployed and taught for several generations. But in my opinion, it's time to put this hoary old chestnut on the brazier and roast it. Cold calling's time is over (and I'm a person who's taught it, used it, and advocated it for over 20 years). Here's why it's time to stop ringing and dinging for dollars:

• The telephone infrastructure is increasingly hostile to cold calling. The "do not call systems" close many after hours opportunities down to increasingly smaller numbers. The requirement that you use caller ID makes it easier for calls to be screened. And while "do not call" is supposedly aimed at consumers, not companies, the line between the two is becoming increasingly blurred in many industries, particularly in the software business, where a startup may be located in someone's basement. Also, the number of landlines is steadily shrinking, and if you want to truly enrage a potential customer, call them on their cell phone and try to pitch them while they're thinking every second of the conversation that you're spending their dime without their permission.
  
  
• Many cold calling techniques teach practitioners to use marginal and dishonest techniques to reach decision makers and influencers. Things like pretending to be a friend of the person you're calling or sending fake E-mails asking for support from a company and using your contact with the company to try to learn about a firm's internal organization. Before the Internet and widespread knowledge of phishing and vishing (voice phishing) people were more tolerant of such shenanigans. But today, any hint of dishonesty or trickery in a phone conversation can literally bring people to a foaming rage (I know; I've experienced it personally).
  
  
• The mathematics are increasingly turning against cold calling. Traditionally, if you made a 100 cold calls you could count on five to ten of them eventually turning into meaningful leads (not sales, leads). Now, you're lucky if two of those calls lead anywhere. You just can't make enough cold calls to justify the time spent on cold calling; in point of fact, my metrics indicate that the more you call, the less money you're going to make over time.
  
  
• Cold calling, particularly in high technology and software, is an immediate reputation killer. Sales personnel at firms I've worked with tell me that some people they've been lucky enough to reach at software firms are often greeted with incredulity that a high tech firm would actually resort to cold calling in age of social networking, forums, communities, E-pubs and many other options.
  

There's been a lot of talk about "iS cold calling 2.0": cold calling 2.0 is a joke. Cold calling is cold calling and it doesn't matter what fancy title you attach to it.

There is one form of telesales that is still somewhat effective, but, in my opinion, it's not cold calling. If you can determine that a company is using a service you offer via an examination of their website and use posted phone numbers to call and offer your product as an alternative, I don't think that's technically cold calling. Of course, you're late to the purchasing party and your chances of persuading the customer to buy your solution are low, but it's your call how you spend your time.