Sales calls still work

Maybe human interaction is still valuable after all.  When we asked contingent staffing buyers how they found their staffing suppliers, 45% said "salesperson called."  Yes, 45% of contingent staffing buyers quietly conceded that they hired at least one of their staffing firms because of a sales call.

In this age of the internet, in this technological age of MSPs and VMS and social networking and tweeting and video interviews and GoToMeetings, in this tech-savvy age, among modern very sophisticated buyers sipping their international coffees while keying orders into their VMS, 45% still found an agency because someone at a staffing firm reached out to them.

This survey result was confirmed on the flip side by an entirely different Staffing Industry Analysts survey, in which we asked staffing firms to name their most effective, highest bang-to-buck sales and marketing tactics. High on this list, shockingly enough, was "cold calling."  Twenty-five percent of staffing firms identified either telephone or door-to-door cold calling as their most effective sales tactic. 

Technology will likely continue to encroach on the traditional sales function, but at least for now--sales calls still work.