[wecando.biz]

Originally Posted by Alvin

Agreed hence why search engine traffic is so successfull.

People know what they want and they come looking for you.

Alvin

This assumes they do know what they want. And how do we often find out about new things? People we know telling us. Which is referral marketing I think.

Anyway Alvin, there are hundreds of SEO threads on these forums and SEO applies to the reactive, but cold calling is proactive. Your points are frequently good, but I am not sure SEO has a valid place in this discussion, despite your excellent weaving skills.

IH

[FrankFCraig]

Hi there,

Depending on your market, cold calling has been effective in the past. In many markets, targetted marketing to small number of potential clients via a link or cross-reference is much more effective. Due to the proliferation of social networks (e.g. Linked-In etc) and IT technology, cold calling has become an inefficient and costly way to get up sales. The good thing for the receiver is - more time to focus on core business or put junk e-mail into spam.

Bye for now

Frank F Craig

Life Sciences Consultancy Limited

"Interim management and business development for Life Sciences firms and their service providers".

[razzamatazz]

oh help, my job entails quite a bit of cold calling to local businesses. i do get some who just arn't bothered to listen, but overall many have been quite receptive. maybe it depends on what your'e trying to sell or promote ( or maybe i just have a fantastic telephone manner that everyone is happy to have me chat to them )
word of mouth and personal recomendations is by far the best means of advertising though ( thats why i want you all to check out our website and join up and tell all your friends of course ......sorry i just can't help myself)

[paperman]

Cold Calling (in my opinion) is approaching someone who you have not done business with before, who potentially uses the service you offer or buys the things you sell - to introduce your company to them.

Do it right and do it enough - its a stone cast certainty that it works.

ERGO ' Call calling will never be dead'

[self-sale]

You need to define cold calling. If you mean purely speculative calls on the off chance that somebody may wish to buy double glazing then yes it is dead, but it has been for a while.

Campaigns now are less speculative and more targeted and tend to be part of an overall campaign.

Is a call from my existing broadband provider to sell me to a voice and data package a cold call?

Social networking isn't replacing anything as such, it is simply a new and innovative way of winning business which should be part of an overall strategy.