I went on the hunt for Sales Directors and Business Owners for their views on cold calling. Is it still viable today and what is the best alternative? That’s the question I posed, and I found some interesting insights from a variety of sources.
No matter the business there is always a need for sales. You need to bring in the business and grow with it if you want to succeed. With the Cold Calling practice being challenged with social selling, email marketing and targeted advertising should salespeople and business owners seek out better alternatives?
Is Cold Calling Still Viable?
For a business, of any size, will cold calling generate viable results? Results that could sustain a business. Here are a collection of insights…
“I started selling back in the early 90s by making smokestack calls in the Texas oil patch.
It was as it sounds; driving down roads and looking for smokestack, pulling over when I saw one.
Driving in, then Knocking on the door and asking for someone’s time to make my pitch.
Looking back, aside from the rattlesnakes that seemed to favour the warmth of those front door locations, my impromptu meeting requests were almost always granted.
From then till now, the world has changed and changed again.
CoVid still rattles loudly. Companies are being tasked to do more with fewer people. Of all commodities afforded to employees, time is the most precious.
In my opinion, traditional cold calling customers is disrespectful to their precious time.
With professional networks like LinkedIn, you have a way to illustrate and educate the customer on your value proposition.
Failing that, there is a traditional email.
My caveat here is that the text of the approach must illustrate awareness to an existing problem, whether the customer is aware of, or not.
Then, only then, should the problem-solving aspect of the product be introduced.”
Kingston Vickers
Aerospace Manager
Technetics Group
“We have been trying cold calling for about 4 months now. We definitely get some good leads from it, but we still haven’t gotten a deal from cold calling. It’s a total numbers game and you need to call a list of 10,000+ to get any meaningful volume of decent leads. Less than 10% pick up the phone, and most of those will hang up once they find out it’s a cold call solicitation.
Part of the problem is that this marketing method is saturated right now. Everybody is getting multiple cold calls per day about various subjects – some are legitimate and some are not.. So it’s hard not to get lost in the crowd.”
Kyle McCorkel
Real Estate Investor
Safehomeoffer
Is Cold Callings Disruptive Nature Hindering Sales?
The very nature of a true cold call is to get into direct contact with a lead and convert that call into a discovery call or, in some cases a sale. Disruptive marketing works by forcing the prospect into your world, but in a sales platform, does the intrusive nature of this selling method do more harm than good?
“Cold calling can irritate some people. Generally, most individuals dislike unexpected phone calls. They may not want to take time out of their busy schedules to listen to an unwanted presentation from a sales representative. Additionally, even if the potential customer picks up the phone, you risk reaching them at an inconvenient moment or being directed to their voicemail.”
Jennifer Harder
Founder & CEO
Jennifer Harder Mortgage Brokers
“The times of “Spray and Pray” are over. Smashing the phone and randomly calling business is over. But that doesn’t mean cold calling is dead.
Cold calling can still help your business generate revenue – Just make sure you know the company, the people working there, trends in the industry and how to provide value. Be an expert and consultant, not a flaky salesperson.”
Jacob Engels
Co-Founder and VP of Sales
Paperless.io
“I personally don’t like cold calling. While it does have the opportunity for you to convert leads into customers, for the most part, it’s not the best way to contact people and generally has a very low conversion rate compared to other lead generation and conversion methods.
The problem is, cold calling is known for being annoying and intrusive, and I just don’t see why businesses would want to use a method that is widely disliked – it can really damage your brand’s reputation. Instead, we prefer to use other methods for generating leads such as email campaigns, remarketing, warm calling (i.e. connecting before the call and scheduling a call with a potential customer if they’re willing to have one), etc.
These methods have proven to be much better for us in terms of building and maintaining relationships with customers, and they have more of a positive impact in general for our brand than that of cold calling.”
Teri Shern
Co-Founder
What is the alternative?
Many responses to the alternative weren’t to completely negate the effectiveness of cold calling but instead pivot to warming up clients before getting in touch. Removing the cold aspect, but keeping the key tool, the call.
“I believe that there are more viable options out there than cold calling. This can be tedious and very time-consuming. It can also be extra challenging if you don’t know the specific person to look for in the company that you are cold calling. This can lead to a lot of waiting time on the phone that can end up with nothing.
Some good alternatives to cold calling would be cold emailing and networking. Emailing is a far more efficient and accessible way to reach out to people while networking by attending social events can make you create connections faster.
Living in the digital age allows us to access information with just a few clicks on our phones or computers. We should use this to our advantage by grabbing opportunities to build our social media presence, and make connections through these networks.”
Emily Cooper
Founder and General Director
Oliver Wicks
“It definitely would be naive to dismiss cold calling as ineffective. Plenty of people, including my own sales team, go on to snug appointments and close deals from cold calling. I believe the secret lies in fine-tuning your target audience through careful research, segmentation and targeting so that you are calling the right people at the right time.
That said, we cannot ignore the fact that people are less interested in unsolicited calls from salespersons these days. As a result, the lead flow in many organizations is dwindling by the day, and sales targets are going unmet.
The solution: It would be naive to make cold-calling your go-to strategy for prospecting. It can still be part of your arsenal, but leveraging modern lead-generation strategies can give you better results. When used together, tried and tested alternatives to cold calling, including social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, search engine marketing, and referral marketing, can super-charge your sales efforts and get you real results.”
Paul French
Managing Director
Intrinsic Search
“The best way to cold call a client is to see if they have signed up to your service, newsletter, email subscriber list or SMS list. If they have done so then you can first send out an email about your services or discount offers, then after 2 days send out an SMS directly to their phone (almost 99% of people open their SMS within 3 mins of receiving them). Track and see if the person viewed the email or SMS. Based on that then give them a call after 3 days of sending the SMS. You will get a better response and it will not annoy the client as much. “
Safwan Khan
Founder
Startupily
“Cold calling is not as effective as it used to be. In this age of better and advanced social vices, it is better to go with alternatives to cold calling because cold calling puts both the caller and the prospect in an awkward position before and during the introduction. It could happen at the wrong time. I would say it’s no longer viable. If you must call, then try warm calling, which is a much better alternative to the cold calling; it involves getting in contact with a prospect through social platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, amongst others, before making the call.”
David Reid
Sales Director
Warming Up Prospects
It seems that a lot of Business Owners and Sales Directors either stay away from cold calling altogether or choose to switch up the formula. Many businesses simply will not traditionally cold call if they’re in certain industries because they know it will lead to little results or burn bridges. Many of those still using “cold calling” techniques mention adding personal touchpoint to the call or simply using the call as a primer for another call itself.
What is clear is cold calling as it was known is gone, and innovators are turning to data-driven strategies and social selling to fulfil these needs. A strategy that will lead to greater results down the line.
