The majority of sales organizations today continue to mandate 
cold calling by their salespeople.  They do this despite the fact 
that cold calling has the lowest return of all prospecting 
methods.  Managers like to require cold calling because it is 
done at the salesperson's time and expense, not the company's. 
They believe that the ability to scrape up some business here and 
there, on the salesperson's time, is enough to justify the 
ongoing activity of cold calling.

What they fail to realize, however, is the dangerous hidden cost 
of cold calling.

I'm talking about the effect that cold calling has on 
salespeople.  In my experiences in working with hundreds of 
companies, doing sales training, sales planning, and coaching 
individual salespeople, I've learned a few basic truths that are 
valid one hundred percent of the time.  First of all, companies 
that require cold calling have the highest turnover of all sales 
organizations, upwards of seventy-five percent.  Such high 
turnover is disastrous to a company's long-term profitability. 
Companies that run a solid marketing program and provide 
qualified leads to their sales forces have virtually no turnover.  

In the world of salespeople, the number one reason why 
salespeople quit their jobs is the requirement to cold call. 
And, as you can guess, the number one reason why top producers 
choose to stay with their employers long-term is because those 
employers are providing qualified leads and therefore there is no 
need at all, let alone any requirement, to cold call.

I personally quit jobs because of the requirement to cold call. 
On the contrary, I stayed at one particular position for quite a 
long time and was very prosperous there because my manager was 
actually against cold calling and worked hard to make sure we 
always had a decent supply of incoming leads.  Not surprisingly, 
we were the most rapidly expanding branch in the country during 
my tenure there.

Sales organizations that wish to attract and keep the desirable, 
most professional top producers out there need to start with the 
basics and implement a solid marketing plan that will generate a 
consistent supply of leads for the sales force.  Anything else 
will lead to a lack of talent and high turnover on the sales 
staff.  A requirement to cold call repels great talent and 
attracts inexperienced salespeople who won't bring in the big 
numbers every manager desires.  A good marketing system, and the 
consistent stream of leads it generates, attracts and keeps top 
sales talent. 

Frank Rumbauskas is the author of Cold Calling Is A Waste Of 
Time: Sales Success In The Information Age. He is the founder 
of FJR Advisors, LLC, which publishes training materials that 
educate salespeople on how to generate business without cold 
calling. For more information, please visit 
http://www.nevercoldcall.com