If you been in sales for any length of time you've probably heard someone say, “Cold calling is a numbers game.” It might have been your manager, or perhaps one of your colleagues who advised you to simply keep dialing because if you speak with enough prospects one will eventually say ‘yes’ to you. Keep “smilin’ and dialin’” is often how that advice is framed.

Unfortunately many sales professionals blindly follow this advice as if it tells the whole story. And all too frequently sales managers tell their struggling sales representatives to simply make more dials, and more dials, and more dials.

Hundreds of daily dials, however, does not always result in success. Hundreds of daily dials does not always fill the pipeline. The reason for this is that while ‘the dial’ is the basic unit of measurement for success, it is not the only factor that influences the outcome of a cold calling campaign. Sometimes the problem for a representative lies not in the number of dials but in the preparation before the dials or in the execution of the dials.

The first factor that will influence the outcome of your cold calling campaign is targeting. Without a list of highly targeted prospects your cold calling efforts are doomed to failure. Those sales trainers and sales professionals who rail against cold calling as being ineffective generally site the idea of opening up the phone book and calling anybody. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of what cold calling really is. Cold calling is not opening up the phone book and calling anyone. Cold calling is a process by which you introduce yourself, your company, products or services to highly qualified prospects. You will never be able to introduce yourself to highly qualified prospects by simply opening up the phone book. Step one in any successful cold calling campaign is to do the homework and develop a highly qualified list. Then and only then should you get on the telephone.

The second factor is skill, your skill in accessing decision-makers and your skill in conversing with them. The really good news here is that cold calling is a communication skill and like any communication skill it can be learned and it can be improved upon. Unfortunately, because so many rely on the idea that cold calling is a numbers game, few take the time to really hone their skills in this area. Sales professionals who will spend hours preparing prospect presentations and designing and redesigning PowerPoint slides, will get on the telephone with a prospect and wing it. Then they wonder why the prospect was not interested in what they had to say. And while it is definitely more difficult today to reach prospects directly, it is not impossible. Representatives with persistence and skill are able to get through to have productive selling conversations with their prospects.

A successful cold calling campaign then hinges on three elements: First preparation and putting together a targeted list. Then dials. Then skill level. In combination these three elements are powerful. Any cold calling campaign that is missing one of them will fail. Cold calling is a numbers game plus.

Known as "The Queen of Cold Calling," Wendy Weiss is a sales trainer, sales coach and author specializing in cold calling and new business development. She helps clients speed up their sales cycle, reach more prospects directly and generate more sales revenue. Learn more at: www.WendyWeiss.com.

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