What is Gained from Sourcing / Cold Calling Experience?

getting comfortable on the phone
overcoming obstacles
learning to fail (you will, if you are good you will be successful 1% of the time)
learning how to be aggressive/persistent

etc.

i dk about relevant experience though and what exit opps you could get

I would agree with the above...

While cold calling doesn't really give you an exit option, the skills and confidence you gain from going through the process are what really gain from that experience. It's tough not getting your way, or failing and being told, "No" but people who can overcome that are people who tend to be successful in life.

Good luck to you.

While I agree there is something to be gained from cold calling in terms of learning to deal with failure, overcoming obstacles and all, I couldn't really see myself being a full-time cold caller. It's the type of thing that might be interesting for a week or month but would then get quite boring.

(This is in fact why I passed on a number of PE opportunities last year that required cold calling.)

I think it is possible to spin it into relevant experience, but I'm not sure if it would lead directly into a sales job... sales at most companies certainly involves SOME cold calling but it's generally more than that; it's more about developing relationships with customers and such.

If it's just an internship I think you could probably get another PE gig out of it or possibly do banking afterward. Just make sure that you do MORE than just cold-calling.

Some people are fine with it; personally if I were you I would make sure you just keep it to an internship and then move onto something else afterwards.

http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/
Mergers & Inquisitions

Cold calling is probably one of the hardest things to do.... ranks up there with telemarketing and street selling. I think, however, you could definitely spin this into a positive story and experience.... whenever i have had really bad jobs I spin it into how it was a learning experience about the company or the industry.

One job i had was just being a receptionist for a very small managed information service provider (basically did IT and stuff for small companies). Since this was a pretty useless job.... if it ever came up in an interview I would discuss that I was basically doing the usual tasks of taking calls, setting schedules, filling in paper work.... and then talk about how it was interesting because I got to learn about how that industry was changing since larger players like Dell and Microsoft were trying to contract out IT type of services under their own umbrella by creating partnerships with local groups and their own set of IT guys..... then would talk about how the company was changing from an fixed one time fee structure to something more like a subscription based service that fit in better with their planned expenses......

With your job being in the financial industry you probably have an even better opportunity to spin this into a good story and something interesting in an interview. Think of ways to quantify what you do on the resume like "contacted x amount of individuals to discuss possibilities of partnerships or whatever it is your selling/calling about...... brought in x amount of dollars of business...... increased successes by x percent over the summer" however you want to put it and then discuss how what you did might be interesting ......

Cold calling can be a good lesson in one of the hardest aspects of selling -- getting clients or customers...

I had to cold call all summer for an internship last year unpaid. I could literally feel myself dying a little bit each time I woke up to go into the office.

in my experience, any industry worth pursuing does not require cold calling - perhaps occasionally, but never a routine task.

Over and over I've seen people make fortunes because they entered an industry or a particular niche in financial services where it was exploding in demand. They didn't call CEOs, CEOs called them.

Try to catch the wave, wherever it might be. If you're trying to make a wave (by cold calling), it's already an overmarketed industry and you'll just get frustrated because you're too late to the game.

Now back to work, so I can make my quota of cold calls ;(

"Do any of you financial analysts out there hate cold-calling? Learn to master it. It is your ultimate training in marketing. Imagine what it can do for your career when you can sell your products to strangers over the phone?

As a financial analyst, you’re always marketing something. Before you can even step your foot in the field, you’ll have to successfully market yourself in job interviews. Whether you’re in equity research, institutional sales or investment banking, you’re always marketing ideas.

Cold-calling is only dreadful when you don’t have a game plan...

Before you even pick up the phone, there is a number of preparations to do.

Know your products, your company and your competition. Ideally, you must believe in the product you’re selling, i.e. a product that you yourself would buy. But in the case of an internship program, this may or may not be the case.

Research the products and pricing of close competitors so you know how your company’s products compare. Understand how the products’ strengths play out against its weaknesses so you can effectively handle objections.

Remember that the first impression you can make to your prospect over the phone is through your voice. When you believe in the products you’re selling, you will exude confidence in your voice.

Prepare an irresistible script. The best “script” is a conversation, not a sales pitch. A listener is more open to a friendly conversation than to a sales pitch. If the company gives you a script, use it as a reference. If you read it verbatim, I bet that everyone you call will hang up on you."

To read the rest of this article, click here:
http://financialanalystblog.com/financial_analysts_cold_calling1/