Cold Calling P1: Is Cold Calling still Relevant?
This is the first of a further three posts dedicated to the one of the hottest of sales topics: Cold Calling
Cold Calling is probably the one subject that truly divides opinions across the sales community. When it comes to cold calling there are generally two polar opposite viewpoints, one being that you can learn to use cold calling as a effective means of generating new business meetings, going on to claim that by applying the right tactics and approach you can not only be successful but even learn to enjoy the experience.
Past its Sell by Date?
In the other corner cold calling is viewed as an ineffective old school dinosaur that only serves to destroy the souls of sellers claiming that it has little or no relevance in today’s hi-tech marketing led business environment.
How do Prospects Feel?
Your prospects too will often have strong opinions. I have come across prospects that will get angry at the mere thought of receiving a cold call while others have no difficulty what so ever. In either case, you will often find that prospect’s opinion merely reflects whether or not their own business and sales team use cold calling as part of their own prospecting strategy.
So for what its worth, I would like to give my take on cold-calling debate which is this:
I believe its really comes down to getting the balance right in terms of quality versus quantity.
Cold Call Strategies
Bad cold calling strategy, which is unfortunately rampant, relies on making a large numbers of calls with little or no pre-call planning or research. It should be pointed out that this can initially deliver results through sheer call volumes and levels of attrition but quickly becomes soul destroying for the person doing the calling.
Companies who promote this approach and expect their salespeople to deliver in this type of selling environment will usually suffer from high sales staff turnover as a result.
Poorly planned cold calling inadvertently feeds into the anti cold calling argument and strengthens the case in many people’s minds against cold calling. In other words, because of the sheer numbers of calls and people involved, most people’s experience of cold calling is negative. It’s a bit ironic perhaps that this is the case for both the prospect and the salesperson.
From the prospects point of view, the majority of cold calls that they receive are viewed as simply annoying while taking up valuable time. The more of these unintelligent cold calls they receive, the more desensitised they become to what’s been said and the more hostile they become to the caller.
The Salesperson in the Middle
This leaves the salesperson getting it from both sides, prospects who are hostile and sometimes even rude and a sales manager who expects them to make large numbers of highly ineffective calls to these very same prospects. Something got to give and it’s usually the salesperson.
Lets be Friends
This leads to some sales trainers to promote “be the prospects friend” approach. My opinion would be that I can never remember receiving a cold call where the salesperson wanted to be anything other than my friend, this didn’t translate however into having a genuine reason for calling, being able to grab and hold my attention or having the slightest insight into what their product could do for my business.
So can it Work? , Yes you can!
Cold calling can and does work but to be effective requires very good planning. The salesperson needs to spent sufficient time on researching the potential client so that he or she can have an effective communication with the prospect.
Concentrate your efforts on making low numbers of high quality calls backed up with research and insight into where your product can make a genuine difference to the prospect’s business.
Cold calling is a much criticised way of generating business and there are prospects and companies who are anti cold-calling to the extent that won’t do business in this way based on principle so cold calling these companies is and will remain a futile exercise.
If it is proving impossible to talk to the decision maker through cold calling him or her, my advice would be to take the hint and find another avenue to start the conversation.
There are also as many companies that will listen provided you have something of value to say. It is actually not that difficult to stand out when cold calling because most cold callers start conversations with prospects having nothing of interest to communicate and work for companies that force them to repeat this approach in large call volumes.
In parts two and three I will look at the actual mechanics and techniques of effective cold calling but just for now I thought it was important to give my overall view on the topic.
Posted by Niall
Tags: Appointment Setting, Cold Call, Cold Calling, Cold Calling Sales, cold calling techniques, Cold Calls