Is cold calling an addiction? This author and business owner thinks so and believes that salespeople get hooked on cold calling out of fear of the unknown. Break the cold calling addiction once and for all!
3. First, a bit of background…
because there are 3 varieties of cold calling
addicts - the first two are related because one
eventually morphs into the other, and the third
is another story altogether.
4. “Tradition" type.
"Because that's
…and so on down the line
the way we've
always done it."
…who learned it from their bosses
…who learned it from their bosses
….taught cold calling by their bosses
5. The “Addict."
This type of salesperson frequently starts out
as the "tradition" type, who has been taught by
sales managers that there is absolutely,
positively no other way to prospect other
than by making cold calls.
6. But, eventually….These sales reps spend many years of their
sales careers cold calling. They fall into a comfort zone, they
get complacent and become satisfied with barely meeting
their quotas - and the income that comes with only making
quota - and they begin to fear the
very thought of trying
something different.
"What if it
doesn't work?”
7. The addicts are all
fighting each other for
that measly 20% - only 1 Here's the problem:
out of 5 prospective
Making cold calls is very much
buyers!
becoming a zero-sum game.
80% of American
business decision
makers won't buy
from a cold call.
Study by Kenan-Flagler Business School
(University of North Carolina)
8. To make matters worse, they
manage to get a sale from
cold calling just often enough
to convince themselves that
it's "working," and so they
continue the addiction.
In reality, what they're doing
is fighting a zero-sum game
with their peers, while those
who have opened their minds
to alternative methods of lead
generation are having an
easy time picking up sale
after sale after sale from the
80% who reject cold calls.
9. And each time they do make
a sale, they feel that rush,
just like any other kind of
addict, and they fall right
back into the pattern of
making cold calls to
find the next sale.
10. The Macho Man
“Real men" cold call
and if you make sales
without cold calling, it
somehow doesn't really
count.
11. In summary, if you're suffering
from the cold calling addiction,
you need to break it and
move on toward other, more
modern, more effective
methods of finding prospects
- things like social media
and LinkedIn, online lead
generation, publicity,
effective networking, and
the myriad of other lead
generation strategies that blow
the doors off of old, antiquated
cold calling any day of the week.
That's the question I'm asking today: Is cold calling an addiction?
First, a bit of background, because there are three varieties of cold calling addicts - the first two are related because one eventually morphs into the other, and the third is another story altogether.
The first variety is the "tradition" type. If you ask why they cold call, they'll tell you, "Because that's the way we've always done it." They were taught cold calling by their bosses, who learned it from their bosses, and so on down the line. They don't know anything different and, to make matters worse, don't care to. They're convinced that cold calling is the only way, and their minds are so closed to the possibility of alternatives that they won't even hear you out.
The second variety is the "addict." This type of salesperson frequently starts out as the "tradition" type, who has been taught by sales managers that there is absolutely, positively no other way to prospect other than by making cold calls.
But, eventually, something happens. These sales reps spend many years of their sales careers cold calling. They fall into a comfort zone, they get complacent and become satisfied with barely meeting their quotas - and the income that comes with only making quota - and they begin to fear the very thought of trying something different. "What if it doesn't work," they'll say, pointing out that cold calling has enabled them to stay employed (barely).
Here's the problem: Making cold calls is very much becoming a zero-sum game. As an example, the Kenan-Flagler Business School (University of North Carolina) did a study on the topic, and concluded that 80% of American business decision makers won't buy from a cold call.That leaves the remaining 20%. Who will buy from a cold call. The result? The addicts are all fighting each other for that measly 20% - only 1 out of 5 prospective buyers!
To make matters worse, they manage to get a sale from cold calling just often enough to convince themselves that it's "working," and so they continue the addiction.In reality, what they're doing is fighting a zero-sum game with their peers, while those who have opened their minds to alternative methods of lead generation are having an easy time picking up sale after sale after sale from the 80% who reject cold calls.
And each time they do make a sale, they feel that rush, just like any other kind of addict, and they fall right back into the pattern of making cold calls to find the next sale.
The third category of cold callers is unrelated to the first two: It's the macho-man type who thinks "real men" cold call and if you make sales without cold calling, which most of us are doing nowadays, it somehow doesn't really count, much like a ridiculous old employer of mine who only counted sales generated from cold calling toward quota (?) as though any other kind of sale wasn't bringing in real money!
In summary, if you're suffering from the cold calling addiction, you need to break it and move on toward other, more modern, more effective methods of finding prospects - things like social media and LinkedIn, online lead generation, publicity, effective networking, and the myriad of other lead generation strategies that blow the doors off of old, antiquated cold calling any day of the week.
