In his post “Cold Calling: Pain or Raw Business S&M?” Tony Johnston states “it is best that organizations first resolve the question of whether or not cold calling is right for them and who should do it.” 

In my humble opinion, very few B2B organization can afford not to include cold calling as part of their on going effort to engage with potential buyers.  While it may not be the end all and be all, it has been continuously shown that cold calling, based on pre-qualified leads or sources is a cost and time effective way to engage with potential buyer to qualify them as potential prospects.

The last part goes some ways to answering the question as to who should do it, and “doing it” can be divided in to two areas, first the strategy and plan behind the campaign that includes cold calling among other activities.  Second the actual execution of the call.  The former is best achieved through a cooperative effort between sales, marketing, product and other groups.  The latter, is probably best left to sales.  With in the sales group you could choose to have people solely dedicated to setting appointments for their outside sales counterparts.  You can have one person carry the entire sale from cold call, social media interaction, other prospecting activities, through to close, be they inside or outside sales reps.

There is a lot more involved in successfully prospecting but when it comes to the question posed by Johnston, and all the related issues he raises in his post, I believe it comes down to Yes, cold calling is always part of a new business generation plan; Sales should be the ones doing it regardless of whether marketing designed or assisted in designing the program. 

What do you think?

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto