Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Are Cold Call Lists Better Than Warm Ones?

I know many people who have turned to the world of online dating after failed attempts at meeting someone through more traditional methods.  They have all been pleasantly surprised by the results.  They had figured meeting someone online was more of a shot in the dark then going to bars or events where they knew single people frequented.  Yet online they can target exactly who they want to be set up with - and set up a profile so only people that match their ideal description will come up in their search.  Plus, for the most part, they know these individuals are serious about meeting someone.  Even though they originally thought that going to "singles night" at the local bar would be filled with people actively looking for their soul mate, they found it was less effective then proactively searching for someone through a dating site.  The same can be said about the results that you get from calling into what you feel is a "warm" list of leads vs. being proactive about prospecting into a targeted database of contacts.

When starting a new project, one of the first items often discussed is the list of prospects that our BDRs will be calling through.  Many times a client will say "we have a great list of marketing leads (i.e. - from a tradeshow/webinar/seminar) that our sales reps haven't had a chance to call through".   Often times we will start calling through this "warm" list only to discover that it is riddled with outdated leads, job seekers, consultants, and "Mickey Mouse" at 555-5555.  While there are undoubtedly qualified and interested prospects in these lists, it often doesn't yield the high lead rate that a client expects. 

Now this isn't to say that these marketing leads don't have a definite value!  There are absolutely qualified opportunities to be found on these lists - it just takes a little more digging.  I make the suggestion to my clients that we help them to prioritize and clean up their marketing lists before we hand them over to a BDR to begin calling.

When measuring the lead rate between a warm list of marketing campaign follow-ups vs. the lead rate of cold calling into a targeted list of profile accounts, the lead rate off the cold call list is usually higher.  We are setting ourselves up for success when we cold call through a targeted list of prospects because we already know that these accounts meet our client's ideal customer profile.  I will often times ask my clients to provide me with their top 100 "dream accounts" that they would love to get in front of.  My BDRs prospect into these accounts and uncover qualified opportunities that our clients are far more excited about then the 2 person consulting company that we might have found on the "warm" list.