Ask HN: Is cold calling ever an acceptable marketing practice?

Not sure about the cold calling, but you may want to do some SEO on some keywords you think the web dev firms would look up regularly.

That way the clients find your business on their own instead of you "forcing" it to them.

Cold calling isn't just acceptable - it is highly effective. Just make sure you register at https://telemarketing.donotcall.gov/ if you want to do it correctly.

Wait, this is software related to web development, and you don't believe there's a community online to create 'buzz' about the product?

Two points:

First, if your product truly is amazing then there is nothing wrong with cold calling someone to alert them of it's existence. Particularly if you are offering them free use of said product. In fact, if your product truly would enhance their lives you owe to them to let them know about it.

If someone cold called me and offered me 25 hour days I would not call it spam.

Second, do your best to warm the cold call. At least narrow the distance between you and your prospects. You would be surprised at how connect you really are. Just remember specifically who your target is and how it can help them. Tell everyone you know to look out for these types of people and see if you can't get 5 minutes of their time.

Bottom line, targeting the right type of person with the mission of improving their lives is not spam. Mindlessly sending out requests to anyone and everyone is spam.

Sales calls -- especially in the business to business market are part of the game. If you don't do it, you're giving yourself a severe disadvantage.

They are ok if you do them correctly. First piece of advice would be do not use a dialer. There are very few things business owners hate more than talking to some robot asking them to press 1. Second, cold calling is VERY hard work regardless of how good your product is. You might want to hire a sales professional. If you don't(and I presume you have no phone sales experience) they'll eat you alive. Finally, there are other ways of marketing you may have left out. Have you advertised in trade publications? Or asked for a story in the tech press? Remember that reporters have deadlines to meet and they'll cover almost anything that's interesting. Hope this helps. Good luck on your launch.

I worked as a cold-call telesales rep between the ages of 19 and 21.

If you have a product targeting SMEs, then I would highly recommend you consider cold-calling. It's cheap, fast, highly effective and every owner/manager of such a business is used to fielding these calls.

I was able to consistently secure my employers £1k-£2k of business per week, selling a pretty mundane (non-tech) product. Not figures on their own that will make anybody a millionaire, but any early-stage startup should kill for that revenue.

Selling to larger businesses is more difficult and time-consuming, because it's rare/impossible to be able to get an instant decision over the phone. But it may still be worthwhile to try.

Making the calls is quite hard work. I crafted a rough script, but as I practiced more I'd deviate increasingly from it: it's important to sound friendly, confident and non-robotlike. And you've got to have a pretty thick skin, and accept that some days will be relatively barren. On the other hand, it's a great buzz when you get a few sales in a row :)

Good luck

Yes. Cold calling is part of b2b sales.

You have the chance to advertise it right here. I am curious.

Cold calling != marketing

Cold calling = sales

... And should be evaluated like any other sales vehicle. How much time & money is it going to take v/s how much revenue is it going t generate.