1. point of view
Cold Calling Is
Stone Cold Dead
Authored by
Jeffrey Baker
Professional salespeople and sales managers react Today, however, it’s more challenging than ever to find
passionately to this provocative headline, easily joining in those high-quality prospects. Buyers now want to know
the debate. The meteoric rise of Web 2.0, the explosion individual salespeople and their company before buyers
of social media tools, and marketers rapidly adopting will make contact with them. Buyers at all levels of an
these tools to drive lead generation are offered by many organization use search engines and other information
as evidence for the demise of cold calling. On the other tools to find and evaluate possible suppliers well before
hand, many sales veterans and some younger salespeople they talk with them directly.
stubbornly insist that only through the time-tested According to a 2009 Forbes/Google study, the internet
discipline of a cold calling strategy supported by dogged is the C-suite’s top information resource, with six out of
determination and thorough preparation can salespeople ten executives conducting more than six searches a day
generate a sufficient flow of new customer opportunities. (“The Rise of the Digital C-Suite: How Executives Locate
Forum sees this is as a false choice, diverting sales and Filter Business Information”). Moreover, the entire
professionals’ attention from more profitable lines of social media world, alive with an exchange of ideas,
thought. Our client experience tells us that the need for perspectives, and potential solutions for every possible
salespeople to initiate contact with prospective buyers need, is a constant source of education to potential
will not end in the foreseeable future—at least not for buyers, who are increasingly online via many different
salespeople who have responsibility to generate new methods, communicating with others who share their
customer business. These salespeople must still get to business interests.
their prospective buyer at the opportune moment to offer a
Prior to purchase buyers took the following actions:
compelling value proposition against a probable need. The
requirement to make contact effectively is nothing new. „ 48 percent followed industry conversations on their topic
The question is: How? „ 44 percent conducted anonymous research on a select
group of suppliers
Traditional cold calling has always been terribly inefficient,
often requiring a salesperson to initiate hundreds of „ 37 percent posted questions on a social networking site
contacts to find a dozen leads that might be worth looking for suggestions/feedback
developing into strong prospects. Books on selling cite a „ >20 percent connected directly with potential solution
formula that borders on religious conviction: that is, any providers via social networking channels
salesperson in any given industry must make a set number After a purchase, 59 percent of buyers shared their
of cold calls to yield a set percentage of qualified leads research and buying process with others via:
to advance to a percentage of proposals that result in a „ One-on-one discussions
percentage of successful closes. Increase the number of
cold calls, and the formula will invariably yield higher win „ Blog postings
rates, or so the belief goes. But many sales professionals „ Participation in discussion forums
and researchers, including the highly regarded Neil „ Tweeting about their experience
Rackham (see interview in Entrepreneur.com), argue
“Inside the Mind of the B2B Buyer,” a 2010 study by The
that the prospecting “numbers game” is a myth and DemandGen Report (www.demandgenreport.com)
recommend that smart salespeople shift their focus from
sheer volume to focused high quality.
2. point of view
On the plus side, as more buyers use social media, 1. Every salesperson crafts and keeps current a
salespeople have the opportunity to find and listen to them professional profile online. Any number of social
as they exchange information in cyber space, revealing media sites can serve this purpose, including LinkedIn,
their business and organizational challenges, interests, Facebook, Baidu Space, and Orkut. Your profile
and needs. Listening online to well-qualified prospects enables customers to check you out before they talk
enables sellers to see “trigger events” as they unfold— with you. It can also be the platform from which you
any significant change to the status quo; for example, it expand your presence in the market through blogging,
could be something big, such as an acquisition of another links to useful sites and discussion groups, links to
company or consolidation of divisions; or something useful papers published by your company and others,
smaller, such as the individual buyer taking on new and so forth.
responsibilities or the emergence of a new competitor 2. Salespeople follow target customers or target markets
to the buying organization. Any event or change in online. Listen and learn what is top of mind and
circumstances that compels a buyer to respond is a trigger trending for prospective customers. Follow any
for the seller to call on that buyer to explore needs and postings that target customers make, such as a blog
potentially offer services. Sometimes, smart salespeople or tweet. Follow industry or trade group sites and
can see how an event might impact the buyer before the discussion groups that are relevant to your prospects.
buyer understands what is happening. This is a wonderful
opportunity to bring insight to a buyer to help him or her 3. Participate appropriately in sites prospective
shape an effective response to changing circumstances. customers frequent. Build personal presence and
professional credibility by interacting with others on
As social media causes the hunters to become the hunted the sites. Pitching products in discussion groups
companies must have an online presence, so buyers and community of interest sites is a major no-no.
can find them and they can find buyers. Marketing Many find it repulsive, and it destroys the credibility
departments are generally of whoever is pitching. Contribute value by offering
“... the hunters tasked with handling this. useful information. Answer a question, offer a link to a
Less obvious is the new
become the competitive requirement for
credible resource, and offer referrals to others. Asking
a thought-provoking question in a discussion group to
individual salespeople to
hunted ...” create a personal presence
stimulate new thinking is another way to add value.
online as a way to increase 4. Keep learning and growing. Experiment with different
the likelihood that potential buyers will find them, and approaches, share best practices with colleagues. The
as a way to establish credibility and to differentiate from technology continues to advance. Savvy users have
competitors. to continue to evolve, too.
Professional presence on the web is anything but static.
It is not a digital yellow pages ad with your name and
In online dating, it is
company capabilities on it. It is a regular, dynamic
interaction with others, giving and receiving points of
advised that to find the
view and relevant information. Your presence, generated perfect mate, be the perfect
through frequent, purposeful interaction, enables you to
nurture and cultivate relationships with the contacts you mate so that your beloved
have targeted. In doing so, you increase the likelihood that
when a contact has a need you can address they will either may find you. Similarly, in
reach out to you or will be open to receiving your call to
them (when you notice the trigger event). selling today, to find your
High-performing business developers must now devote
some amount of regular time to using social media just as
ideal customer, establish
they have always done with the telephone. At a minimum,
salespeople and sales executives should ensure:
yourself online as an ideal
supplier so your customer
may find you.
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