Firing Up Your Cold Calls

Ask someone in your office to give a speech to colleagues, and he might get the jitters. But dare him to pick up the phone and pitch a business deal to a total stranger, and he’ll probably go into hiding. Nothing triggers deep-seated fears of rejection quite like the dreaded cold call.

In recent years, cold-calling — whether by phone, e-mail, or in-person visits — has fallen out of fashion, eclipsed by the popularity of networking. But limiting your business contacts to friends and friends of friends means that the best people and opportunities might be inaccessible to you (especially if your friends’ friends aren’t very connected). "If I’m getting ready to hire a sales rep and they tell me, "I go to all the networking functions," I run from that person like the plague," says Paula Tompkins, CEO of ChannelNet, a 130-person online marketing company in Mill Valley, Calif. "They’re going to spend all their time at parties and events — and come back with nothing."

By Paul Kaihla

Full Story: http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,1128163,00.html