Most practitioners of new media have an utter disdain for cold calling. Recently, I read Unmarketing by Scott Stratten in which the author–a social media consultant well-known for his influential Twitter presence–infers that cold calls makes him want to throw up. I think most business people on the cutting-edge of marketing trends feel the same way. A relationship must be established before a pitch can be made.
On the other hand, according to many sales authorities, cold calling is still a valid tool in the prospecting tool kit. Anthony Iannarino offers a fantastic (and free) eBook called, “How to Crush It,Kill It,and Master Cold Calling Now!” Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, authors of The Challenger Sale, argue that relationships don’t even matter at all; what makes the highest earning salespeople successful is their ability to proactively push creative solutions to customer problems.
featured image courtesy of Kelly Robertson (from a great article on Cold Calling).
To Cold Call or Not to Cold Call; That ISN’T The Question!
So, my take on the cold call issue is that pundits are hung up on the wrong issue.
It isn’t about HOW you’re reaching out; it’s about WHO you’re reaching out to.
In other words, cold calling isn’t bad because you don’t know the person you are calling; it’s bad because they are more often than not irrelevant to what you are selling. Most people who engage in cold calls are doing it in a rapid-fire, spaghetti-against-the-wall manner and really have no idea whether or not the person on the other end of the line could benefit from what they’re selling. They just take the random list they’ve been assigned and start dialing for dollars.
I define cold calling the same way I think most people do: calling people you don’t know. That in and of itself isn’t offensive. It’s offensive when you waste their time. Think about it. Why do we hate to receive cold calls? It isn’t because we don’t know the person. Most of us talk to people we don’t know on a daily basis. But the real reason I suspect we hate cold callers is that we believe they are wasting our time. They are interrupting us with a pitch for something that we don’t want.
Make Cold Calls the Right Way
It’s perfectly fine to call someone you don’t know in order to start a conversation about how you might work together. But make sure every call that you make is pre-qualified. Never work from a random list. You’re wasting your prospect’s time, and you’re wasting your time. The person you are calling may not know you, but you better know them…and know them well. Otherwise, the spaghetti isn’t going to stick.
Also, when you do call someone you don’t know–even if you’ve done your research on them–don’t launch into your pitch. Depending on how the conversation goes, you probably will not even make a pitch on the first call. The cold call, I believe, is about opening a relationship. It’s really no different than following someone on Twitter or friending them on Facebook; it’s just using a different tool–the telephone.
The point is this: don’t be afraid of reaching out to people; be afraid of reaching out to the wrong people. Relevance is everything. Guard your time. Guard your prospect’s time. Reach out to those who could actually benefit from having a conversation with you. That’s the spaghetti that sticks.
From experience, having tried multiple forms of generating prospects, a targeted list that is cold called has been by far the most effective way of generating calls, followed by networking. Twitter and the web have not generated very much interest at all.
@DigitalPoss
Twitter (social media) have a supporting role to play in any outreach to prospects. In a B2B sense Blogging, Linkedin, Twitter all have their part to play. One great summary I heard - if you don't use social media it's like having a sandwich shop closed at lunchtime.
Cold calling, social media et al are all tools that are used differently for different jobs and achieve different things.
Your challenge is getting the mix right.
@kilfrew
@kilfrew @DigitalPoss @kilfrew Every industry is different, and different social media activities are effectively different tools. Blogging and having a website help underline your credibility, so they actually help with the sales processes once initial contact has been made (potentially by cold calling).
LinkedIn is a resource to find targets, or with groups to engage with people, so can be used for prospecting; and twitter the same is true.
I think that even using social media in a targeted fashion, it is harder/slower to generate business than via cold calling; at the end of the day.
@kilfrew @DigitalPoss @kilfrew "Sandwich shop closed at lunchtime." I love it!
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@DigitalPoss The reason why Twitter and the web do not generate leads for people is that they don't use it in a "targeted" manner. Again, it's not the method by which you contact a prospect; it's the relevance your business has to filling their needs. If all you do is send out tweets (to followers that you've bought) and wait for people to take interest in you, it's like cold calling from a random list or--better yet--shouting into the streets through a megaphone. People are people. Whether they are at the other end of a telephone, an email, or a tweet, people make buying decisions. It's all about who you're reaching out to--not how you're doing it.
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When I first started reading Anthony's blog (my FAVORITE Sales Blog) I thought he was dead wrong advocating ANY form of Cold Calling... I prefer Luke Warm calling at least. With Social Media and all of the other ways of connecting, you should be able to have some sort of point of reference to connect you to your target. However, when you read his posts on the subject you understand that there IS bounty to be had in picking up that phone. People are emailed to death... very few sales people reach out live. Great post by the way.
@AmyMccTobin Yep, spam is spam. Whether it's through the telephone, email, or Twitter. If what you are saying doesn't interest the person you are saying it too, you're wasting time--yours and theirs.
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its much more than having 'clean list'. you have to link it to a targetted campaign possibly involving emials, social media etc. It about building the pipeline, creating a calander of contacts with a prospect over time, facilitating them to buy. Yes use your time wisely, hone your message and ask the searching questions but do more than just call from a list - no matter how clean
@kilfrew Right on! You should reach out to each potential customer from a variety of platforms. Great comment!
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What you are saying without really saying it is your prospecting data is the foundation of your prospecting success or failure. If you have good, clean targeted call lists, your success on the phone will be imminently more easy to attain. Inside sales teams and 3rd party service providers often do not focus enough on the quality of the data they are calling from.... and their numbers more than likely reflect it.
@Runner4703 Exactly! Too much emphasis on "more" leads; not enough emphasis on "better" leads.