It absolutely baffles me that salespeople still use cold calling as their primary tool for generating leads. Why are so many salespeople still using this ancient weapon to get the leads they need to do business? The main reasons are that they don’t know any better and that there are still plenty of active dinosaur sales managers that stopped developing in the 90s and still force their salespeople to make a number of cold calls per day.
Stop doing that! Cold calling no longer works and here are 5 reasons.
1. Everyone hates cold calling.
There are two categories of people who say they like cold calling; Liars and sales managers. There may be an exception here and there. Some rare species (I call them masochists) love to bang their heads against the wall over and over again and enjoy hearing ‘no’ fifty times a day. But the healthiest sales people among us just hate it.
Having to do something you hate every day does not contribute to your success. We expect the ‘no’ in every cold call we make and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. More rejections follow and the circle is complete.
Prospects hate it too. A group is very susceptible to cold calling. They are the ones that have doormen installed; the secretary and receptionist, who have strict orders to keep all cold callers away from the decision maker. Or they have a sign on the door: ‘No solicitations’.
Another group of prospects will talk to the cold caller; the ones who know how to deal with them and are not afraid to say ‘no’ to them, either immediately or after a meeting (Send us a proposal, send us some information, maybe in 6 months …… sounds familiar? ).
In short, if you manage to get a date, it is most likely with the wrong potential client.
2. Disproportionately time consuming.
It is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Let’s say a sales rep spends an average of 2 hours a day cold calling and let’s say he’s pretty good at it and hosts 2 meetings. Setting up those 2 meetings takes about 10 minutes. That means you’ve been busy for 1 hour and 50 minutes to no avail other than annoying people who could have been a quality leader had they been approached differently.
I won’t bore you with math, but it all comes down to fifty days a year of being busy without some Outcome.
3. People buy from successful sellers.
It is a well known fact that people buy easier, more and faster from successful salespeople. In the perception of a potential customer, a successful salesperson has something to offer. Apparently he is trustworthy. Why else would so many people buy from you? So let’s get together, we can’t go wrong there.
How does that relate to a cold caller? Successful salespeople don’t cold call. They don’t have time for that, they are busy … selling. Prospects know it. In other words, in the mind of a potential customer, a cold caller is a failed salesperson. Not a good start for a relationship, huh?
4. We sell more when we don’t need it.
Remember the ‘Facebook Brand’? The louder he yelled “no,” the more eager companies were to buy his company. Most sellers will recognize this. We have been lucky this year and we already reached our goal in October. No more pressure, relaxed and carefree until Christmas and New Years Eve. And what happens? We sell like crazy, almost effortlessly. Why? Because we no longer ‘need’ it. We get brave and even start playing ‘hard to get’. Prospects are intrigued and want to buy from you.
And the cold caller? Scream ‘I need your business so bad!’ all over. And if you manage to do business, you always wonder why you have to give so much discount …
5. We need to catch up with our prospect.
Decision makers have respect for their peers. For most companies, it is important to build a long-term relationship with customers. Strong relationships require both parties to see each other as equals.
You can’t seriously expect a decision maker to see a sales rep who almost begged for a meeting, to see you as a partner, right? And the fact that the customer doesn’t have a lot of respect for the sales rep will reflect on the quality of the relationship, as well as the quality of the order and repeat sales.
So what else if cold calling doesn’t work?
Look around. Or better yet, don’t look around, but stay focused on your screen. Many of the answers are in front of you, just a few clicks away. Email, social media, technical recommendation. The list is almost endless. One thing is for sure. If you really want to participate in today’s economy, stop using outdated tools.
Perhaps the best comment I heard about cold calling was: Cold calling is like filling a pool with a squirt gun. It works … eventually.
Happy hunting.
