You have perfectly described the problem with sales - you don't know who is at the other end of the phone and whether or not they have a problem for which you have a solution. I like to use what I call "Bruise marketing." Oh look, I see you have a bruise. Then I push it lightly to hear the ouch or confirmation. Then I can provide the salve to ease the pain of the bruise and then the way to avoid in the future.

But that means you have to get in front of the right person who has a need for your product. That's your question. I have never been a fan of cold calling. The ROI is often dismal because the numbers game relies on calling a lot of people to get the small percentage of those who might be interested. You still have to make the sale so that small percentage may drop again.

I believe that you need to reach out first - via email, ads, press releases, online presence, referrals, or through other means of catching the attention of your target audience. Yes, it can be slow, but it brings about a more qualified audience which will result in higher sales.

You may not remember the early days of search engine techniques. Web designers would put the words sex sex sex sex sex in the same color as the background of the web page because they knew people searched on the keyword "sex" a lot. That black hat technique, of course, was soon discovered and the search engines denied traffic to those websites that weren't actually sex-related. The other downside to that technique is that those teaching on the keyword "sex" were seldom looking for an estimate for a new roof or dog clothing. They were interested in finding sex-related sites.

This is the problem with cold-calling. The sales person can only hope that someone at the other end of the line is perfectly aligned with a need for the product being sold. Even if the call list is targeted, if I am selling accounting software, not everyone in business is looking to buy accounting software at the time the call is made. So you hangup and go on to the next prospect. It is a tough business and requires a thick skin.

So if my two choices are pickup the phone or ask to call, I say, ask to call. Then I say, expand your presence in your industry to be in front of people who feel bruised by not having your product to ease their pain.