Your points are good, and I will definitely take a look at your blog.

I agree that the customer network is your strongest opportunity; however you have to have customers to use this process. As you see in my first paragraph of the networking piece I mention this need.

Without a network of customers of opportunity the cold call is essential. I know many see it as a dead art, but it is a reformed art. I guyarantee that any rep at a start up, trying to evangelize a new service or concept, that sends information or samples to 50 people a day will close sales. That is, if they follow a process that affords them the ability to actually learn about their prospects as we will discuss in the next training post.

The more established rep, selling to higher level executives, would be better suited using their developed network to accomplish their goals. Frankly, there is no one way to do this, and I would never condemn any method of selling that has shown results. I would only question the practice of the method and how to maximize its value.

Again, please keep firing off those comments as dissention is what will stimulate ideas and better education.

I blogged about this here

http://inquisix.com/blog/2007/09/11/do-not-call-registry-139m-numbers-have-spoken/

and

http://inquisix.com/blog/2007/08/14/cold-calling-ineffectiveness/

So instead of spending any time cold calling, hunter sales reps should spend their time networking. While networking over wine and cheese (your example) is nice and fun it’s rarely effective. I’m sure most rep’s rate of conversion for networking as you describe is no better than a cold call conversion rate. It’s just more fun.

I would put networking with fellow sales people second behind networking with your customers. They have the same DNA as you – they understand the value of referrals, they want to give & get referrals, they think about referrals all the time. networking with the sales people who sell to the same customers as you is very effective. And don’t limit your networking to reps in your industry but rather look at who your customer buys from and then network with those reps.

My point & pitch – my passion, like your’s Karl, is selling and coaching. I’ve turned that into a blog and a solution for like-minded sales people.

Why not join us!

http://www.inquisix.com – Meet Better Prospects

- Michael Kreppein

I will look at your article and comment on your blog.