Is Cold Calling Dead In Recruitment? Or Is It Coming Back?
When I started as a recruiter I asked “how do you win new clients?” and I was told cold calling is the only way. I listened and did exactly that and yes I had success. But when I really took a step back the process went like this…
- I cold called… I didn’t get through but was given an email of the point of contact (decision maker).
- I sent an email
- I got a new client
So I thought “wow this really works”. However what I saw was that all the email address were either HR managers, HR business partners, recruitment managers or HR directors. So I thought to myself, why don’t I just email them and not cold call and believe it or not it worked! It was more efficient and I didn’t have to waste my time (and go through the heart break and rejection) cold calling.
I built a bullet proof process around just that, email marketing for recruitment. It is so powerful that I can switch it on and get clients like a light switch.
So is cold calling dead?
If you watch the video above you will see that from my data 98.52% of cold calls go no where, meaning you do not actually speak to a decision maker who engages with you. Most of the time you will just hear rejection after rejection. So if you make 100 calls you will get one person coming back to you saying “yes please help us” or at a minimum have somebody say “send me your fees and information and I will come back to you”.
This is the highest it has ever been in recruitment and today is the least effective time to be cold calling in recruitment.
However, if you follow the trend that means there are less people cold calling and some clients you will only be able to win their business by cold calling (a very small number).
Cold calling vs cold emailing
Before you put away your phone forever, I want you to remember this. Cold calling has something that is ever more in demand. A personalised feel to it. Sure anybody can send out 1000 cold emails and win some clients but it will never beat the idea that you called only that client in the world because you really wanted to work with them. Don’t get me wrong, cold emailing is better but don’t disregard cold calling when you really want to work with a particular client. I always cold call the top 100 in my sector throughout the year as I genuinely want to work with them.
