Cold calling is dead. Cold calling died years ago, actually. Cold calling is a waste of money and a drain on your time you don’t need.
None of this is true by the way. But there are lots of people who are happy to offer you the advice that you should never cold call. They offer no evidence that it does not work or actual proof to back their alternate advice up. Why? Because usually they really don’t know what they are talking about. Here is a list of the people whose bad advice on cold calling you should ignore:
ANYONE WHO PROFITS FROM YOUR ADOPTING THE BELIEF THAT COLD CALLING DOESN’T WORK.
These people are putting their financial interests over your own. They are preying on your fears and weaknesses. Your competition does not have your best interest in mind, remember this. They can make gains where you fail.
ANYONE WHO HAS NEVER SOLD PROFESSIONALLY.
The person suggesting that you abandon the phone has never had a successful cold calling themselves; they do not have the requisite experience to give you this advice. They are parroting what they hear other people say without any personal knowledge.
ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU THAT COLD CALLING DID NOT WORK FOR THEM.
The fact that the person offering this advice wasn’t good at cold calling does not mean that that is a universal experience. A lot of diets work for people who follow them but not for people who don’t. Do not allow yourself to miss out on something that will work for you by other people’s beliefs or limitations.
ANYONE WHO GETS PAID TO CREATE CONTENT FOR COMPANIES THAT SELL SERVICES TO SALESPEOPLE AND SALES ORGANIZATIONS.
The fact that someone is a writer for a blog belonging to a company in the sales space is no evidence that they have the expertise or credibility to speak about cold calling. A writer isn’t a sales rep, sales manager, or sales leader. They don’t make cold calls. They don’t have qualified cold calling tips they don’t know anything about sales strategy or the sales process.
ANYONE WHO SENDS EMAILS OFFERING YOU LEAD GENERATION SERVICES AND PROMISING TO BUILD YOUR FUNNEL USING EMAIL.
The email you received is this company’s exact approach. How effective was their approach when they used it to obtain your business?
Obviously, these are all things you would expect a company offering cold call lead generation to say. We are, after all in thecold-calling business. We also, however, believe thatcold email,LinkedIn lead generation, lead generation via content marketing, and more. We believe that to keep your sales pipeline full you need to generate leads from a variety of sources.
Going back to cold calling though.
The only way a cold calling campaign will work – for anyone – is if it is properly executed. Here’s a look at some of the biggest reasons that a cold calling campaign will fail.
COLD CALLING DOESN’T WORK WHEN YOU AREN’T MAKING ENOUGH CALLS.
If you make between 6 and 10 calls a day, you aren’t really prospecting. That isn’t enough sales calls to give yourself a fair chance at success. To make a cold calling campaign work you need an already researched target list and 60 to 80 faster dials. That number will not only produce appointments but will also give you enough reps to get better faster through your cold outreach.
YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION IS WEAK.
If your cold calls aren’t producing results, one of the primary reasons for failing to obtain appointments is that your sales call value proposition isn’t compelling. How would you like someone to “stop by,” to introduce myself and my services?” The great benefit your prospective client can expect is a chance to listen to you talk about yourself and your company? You can see why they might pass.
To make cold calling work, you have to ask for a meeting where your prospective client receives the value that make it worth their time. A positive response like that depends on how great your sales pitch is.
ASKING FOR BIG COMMITMENTS EARLY ON CAUSES RESISTANCE.
If your “ask” is open-ended when it comes to time, you frighten your prospective client off. They believe you may wear out your welcome by sitting in front of them for 120 minutes. Even asking for an hour can be too much.
A smaller commitment, like 15 or 20 minutes instead of an open-ended request, is more palatable. Your prospect can say “yes,” confident that they can bail out if you aren’t creating value and that you won’t blather on for an hour and have to be removed by security.
COLD CALLING WON’T WORK IF YOU DON’T ASK FOR A MEETING TWICE.
You should expect a “no” to your request for a meeting on your first attempt. Your prospective client probably says “no” to everyone who calls, not knowing how to tell who is worth meeting and who isn’t. The first attempt elicits an objection, a test to see if you might be worth meeting. You must ask twice and the right person will agree.
YOU CAN’T SUCCEED AT COLD CALLING WITHOUT RESOLVING YOUR PROSPECT’S FEARS OR CONCERNS.
You will hear “We are already working with someone.” You’ll hear, “We are happy with the people we work with now.” You will also hear “Just mail me information,” and “I don’t have time right now.” None of these objections to a meeting is likely true. In fact, some of your competitors are meeting with people who gave them these objections.
The decision-maker has a real concern that you aren’t going to make a meeting worth their while, that you don’t have any real insight, that you can’t really help them, and that they are going to regret meeting with you. You have to promise that none of these things are true.
Having a cold calling success is not easy. That’s why it does not work for many people, and why so many people continue to proclaim it is dead. In the right hands, cold calling is an excellent way to generate leads. In the hands of people like our expert sales team at Pearl Lemon. So why not leave your cold-calling lead generation to them?
