Cold emailing / cold calling definitely works. But it's a Good Idea to do your homework first. Here's a little tip I learned some time ago, and have been working on implementing lately:
Say you want to sell something to Foobar, Incorporated. But you have no warm contacts there. OK, you can go to Hoovers.com, or use LinkedIn, Jigsaw, etc. and get names, contact info, etc. BUT... and here's the "tip" part... on LinkedIn you can also find people who used to work for Foobar, Inc. and contact them first. Why? Because there is a good chance they'll offer to talk to you (people like to be helpful and it makes them feel important) and they have little to lose (they don't work there anymore), but yet they can still give you TONS of valuable inside information (depending on how long they've been gone) to help you establish credibility when you do call.
Example: The info on LinkedIn, Hoovers, etc. can be outdated. So let's say you have a list of 15 names of people at Foobar, Inc. Some of those people probably aren't there anymore, or have changed titles, etc. When you talk to an ex employee, you can run through the list with them and find out what's going on.
You also get a chance to ask things like:
"Who is the real power broker over there?"
or
"Are there any big landmines I should know to avoid walking into"?
or
"What are the main strategic issues management is grappling with there"?
etc.
Of course, not all ex employees will want to talk to you, but for any reasonably sized company, you should be able to find a few. And, you do have to be aware that they, in turn, have their biases and misconceptions, etc., and so you can't take everything they say as Gospel truth. But go through the exercise with a couple of people and you should be able to get pretty clear picture.
Now when you call somebody at Foobar, you can start off sounding very credible:
"I know companies like yours often deal with issue X, and may have tried solutions like Z that didn't work... I'd like to talk to you about another way of solving that problem..."
Where you learned about "X" and "Z" from those "ex employee talks".
Say you want to sell something to Foobar, Incorporated. But you have no warm contacts there. OK, you can go to Hoovers.com, or use LinkedIn, Jigsaw, etc. and get names, contact info, etc. BUT... and here's the "tip" part... on LinkedIn you can also find people who used to work for Foobar, Inc. and contact them first. Why? Because there is a good chance they'll offer to talk to you (people like to be helpful and it makes them feel important) and they have little to lose (they don't work there anymore), but yet they can still give you TONS of valuable inside information (depending on how long they've been gone) to help you establish credibility when you do call.
Example: The info on LinkedIn, Hoovers, etc. can be outdated. So let's say you have a list of 15 names of people at Foobar, Inc. Some of those people probably aren't there anymore, or have changed titles, etc. When you talk to an ex employee, you can run through the list with them and find out what's going on.
You also get a chance to ask things like:
"Who is the real power broker over there?"
or
"Are there any big landmines I should know to avoid walking into"?
or
"What are the main strategic issues management is grappling with there"?
etc.
Of course, not all ex employees will want to talk to you, but for any reasonably sized company, you should be able to find a few. And, you do have to be aware that they, in turn, have their biases and misconceptions, etc., and so you can't take everything they say as Gospel truth. But go through the exercise with a couple of people and you should be able to get pretty clear picture.
Now when you call somebody at Foobar, you can start off sounding very credible:
"I know companies like yours often deal with issue X, and may have tried solutions like Z that didn't work... I'd like to talk to you about another way of solving that problem..."
Where you learned about "X" and "Z" from those "ex employee talks".