I just got another one of those emails saying, "You are a stupidhead, Frank! Cold calling works!"
Ok, cold calling works. Fine. Let me put it this way - I'm a car detail nut. I like my car to be perfect, flawless, with a "miles-deep, wet look" finish.
There are two ways I can achieve this: By the old, "wax on, wax off" method. I can do it by hand. The job will get done - in other words, it "works" - but it will take a tremendous amount of physical effort and leave me with burning arms and shoulders, and severe soreness the next day. This is the equivalent of cold calling.
Or, I can simply grab my machine tools - my rotary buffer to remove defects, and my orbital polisher to finish to a mirror-like shine. They take little effort, and even though less work is required on my part, they do much more than I ever could by hand. And on top of all that, it takes about one-fourth the time that doing it by hand would! What a great deal! This is the equivalent of self-marketing.
Take your own choice ... do it the hard way only to suffer and get less results, or do it the efficient way, enjoy yourself, have a good time, and wind up with 4x the production. They both "work." They just work in different ways.