Cold calling is not dead.
I remember years back, especially when LinkedIn was becoming a big thing, people saying cold calling was dying. In 2019, I implemented an in-house cold calling team for the company I was working for. It was a real estate investing company and cold calling instantly became our highest ROI marketing strategy. It truly allowed us to scale, and very quickly!
When it comes to cold calling, here is what is important before you even dial:
1. The system you are using. Is it proactive or reactive? The carriers have become very good at detecting us as cold callers and marking us as SPAM. If you are constantly being flagged as spam, it becomes very costly and very ineffective, QUICKLY.
2. The targets you are attacking. In real estate, you can spend countless hours targeting folks who are never going to sell. In recruiting, you can do the same to folks who are never going to use a recruiter or who are not even hiring!
3. Your TEAM. If you are hiring newbies to cold call, it will take at least 3 months for them to find where their head is from their you know what. Then another 3 months to become GOOD. Are you developing your cold calling team? Or just throwing them into the deep end and praying they work out? A vital part of your cold calling operations success lives here. If you do not have the time or resources to dedicate to ensure this is right, then avoid building a cold calling team and just dial yourself. Believe me.
After starting AKA Search Group less than 75 days ago, the same is true in the recruitment and staffing industry. I have the data to back it up and personally called all our prospects myself for the first 45 days to ensure my data providers were on point with feeding out system. Cold calling works for both client and candidate acquisition. It worked in the industry back in 2015, when I first started recruiting. It still does today. Cold calling is not dead. Cold calling is alive and well for those who are willing to put in the work to run a successful cold calling operation.