“Cold calling is dead!” – give me a break.

If some of the “experts” on LinkedIn are to be believed, cold calling has seen it’s sunset. Once the most valuable weapon in a sales rep’s arsenal, cold calling to some is dead; a strategy that’s “outdated”, a “waste of time”, “irritating”, and “exasperating”.

 

 

Give me a break. As someone who has has set 700+ qualified demoes using the phone as a primary source of new business growth, it’s time to put that adage to bed. The cold call to prospects is not dead & the ones who are telling you otherwise are either too full of F.U.D. or are doing it incorrectly.

 

Tweet containing: The world has changed a lot…

 

One of the more comical things I read is that cold calling is dead because the number of calls it takes to book a meeting or close a deal is too high. Essentially if you’re not closing or booking the meeting on that initial call the strategy is a waste of time.

 

Industry statistics indicate that cold calls have an average 2% success rate. 

https://www.hatchbuck.com/blog/4-reasons-cold-calling-dead/

 

Does that mean marketing is dead too? Or advertising?

 

Does every marketing email or business card from a trade show or commercial that we’re exposed to make us want to buy a specific product or service at that exact moment?

 

Duh, no.  

 

Why should it be different for cold calls? Cold calling in 2018 and beyond is just as much marketing as it is sales. Just because you don’t make the sale on the initial cold call doesn’t mean that it’s a failure. What it means (if you want to look at the big picture) is that your product or service has been introduced to an account that otherwise would likely have no idea of your existence. Then, 6 months or even a year down the road at an executive meeting when the issue that your product solves is being brought up, your hat’s in the ring. I’ve personally had those conversations where the initial call resulted in stone nothing but a follow up call a few months later proved fruitful.

 

Smart sales is all about leveraging every resource you have available to you. By not including the phone and cold, outbound outreach in your sales strategy, you’re missing a massive opportunity to grow brand awareness & remain top of mind. Add me on LinkedIn for more sales strategy advice.

 

Alex Riesz is a Sales Development Rep with Clearview Social. He’s passionate about technology that makes sales/marketing teams run more efficiently and effectively. He can be reached at alexr@clearviewsocial.com.