HELP...is this purposeful prospecting?

Below is an email that was shared with me; while I agree with some of what is said here, i.e. it only takes 1 lead to open a $MM account, is prospecting this way going to do it? Is this an effective use of time? I would like objective opinions from Sales professionals, Recruiters, Hiring Managers, Marketing SME's and all others. Do you feel this is an appropriate way to prospect for new client business? Have you done this and what was your ROI? What would you do differently?

"One of the best resources I have ever used for prospecting was to review the job ads in my local paper every Sunday evening. I was able to find out which companies were hiring, what their technical profile was, where the job was located and often times the hiring manager. Obviously posting want ads in the local newspaper is a thing of the past… BUT reviewing job ads is still one of the best ways to prospect. It just has to be done electronically through the many job boards that are available to candidates today.    You don’t even have to have a license to review job postings as most boards allow applicants to review postings without a license. Unfortunately, most of our sales people do not invest enough time reviewing the open job postings every week. I would like that to change. I know new prospecting activity is a challenge for all of you and this is one way to overcome that challenge.  Many of you have been asking for tools to prospect. Well, here you go…

I have attached a worksheet of 50 Job Boards or Technical Blogs that we are considering for our Recruiters. Some are standard job boards like DICE, Career Builder, Indeed or Monster. BUT there are many other job boards and blogs that allow job postings that most of us have never even heard of, like TechFetch, MashUp, ICrunchData, GIT, Dribble, TechCareers, StackOverFlow, JustTechJobs, etc. There are even specific job boards for IC’s and Contract positions like FreeLancer and UpWork. Our Clients use these job boards and blogs as both hiring managers and applicants.

Your assignment is to invest at least 2 hours per day/ 8 hours per week reviewing the job postings in your local area from the Job Boards on the attached Excel worksheet.  Obviously, you may not be able to get the hiring manager through the job posting, but a simple cross check on LinkedIn of the skill sets required and the company name will give you a potential list of hiring managers with similar skills. Then send them an in-mail on LinkedIn with a resume attached, or call the company’s main number and get their phone number. Reach out any way you can. Another alternative is once the hiring manager is identified, search to see if they have posted their resume on any of the boards because it will have all their contact information. Then you have their cell phone number… and as you know cell phones are the PRIMARY mode of contact for all of us these days… Then you have the ability to also send them a text. The objective is to turn a cold call into a warm call because the people you are targeting may actually be the hiring managers. These managers will be much more open to your call or email if they have open positions they are trying to fill. IF they are not the hiring manager it's either a new lead for Sales or a new candidate for Recruiting. It’s a solid investment of time prospecting either way.  

The nice thing about the job boards is they also list contract positions. NEWS FLASH! Any contract positions you come across are, in fact, REQUIREMENTS! If you come across contract positions while prospecting you should blindly submit any candidate in our hired queue who fits the role. Obviously, it is a bit of a long shot, but we miss every shot we don’t take. So take your shot whenever you can. Submit whom you can wherever you can. Once we get our foot in the door with a potential candidate we can fall back to our face-to-face selling approach to farm and grow the account. Remember, it only takes one solid lead to open a $5 Million account you can work for the next 5 years.

Invest the time, review the job boards 2 hours per day, submit candidates to all contract positions, ID hiring managers in your local target accounts, send them an In-mail, send them an email, call their office number, call and text their cell phone number, and keep trying until you schedule an appointment with them. Either a 15-minute phone call or a face-to-face meeting. You’ve got nothing to lose by trying… so by all means… TRY! You might just open a new account or two..."

THE END

I welcome all comments.....go!