Is Cold Calling Dead?Written by Frank J. Rumbauskas, Jr.
Is cold calling dead? And if laws are being passed to put it to rest once and for all, how do we generate business from now on?Opinions on subject vary greatly depending on background of individual. For example, most of old-timers are vigilant in preaching their belief that only possible way to succeed in world of selling is to make no less than fifty calls each and every day. On other hand, younger salespeople tend to become frustrated with this rather quickly and begin looking for more innovative ways to generate business. I was just reminded of how ingrained this cold calling belief is. I spoke with a friend who left a sales position with a major merchant processing bank only a few weeks after starting. The reason? He was required to make a minimum of 400 cold calls each and every week and to document his activity with business cards. He is highly experienced and knows how to generate business without knocking on 400 doors per week and decided to discuss strategies that have worked for him in past with his managers. Their response? This is how we've done it for forty years and we're not about to change. That response, in my opinion, is reason we're seeing record business bankruptcies today. The world and our economy have changed and are breaking into bold, unchartered territory. But management of most business organizations insists on doing things old way, even though old way produces less and less results as time goes on. The concept of "Permission Marketing" is slowly but surely gaining popularity as old idea of "Interruption Marketing" becomes less efficient and more wasteful. There are several reasons why cold calling in particular has become less effective as we move further into Information Age. It destroys your status as a business equal. It forces you to spend time with unqualified prospects while qualified ones are buying from your competition. It annoys people and is increasingly considered to be rude and disrespectful. Moreover, it may now be illegal (and in several states it's been illegal for quite some time). But, most importantly, it destroys sales peoples attitudes.
| | Why Cold Calling Is DeadWritten by Frank J. Rumbauskas, Jr.
Our world of selling is closed off from other areas of business that continue to adopt and embrace new, efficient ideas. I was reminded of this recently while re- reading Seth Godin's "Permission Marketing." Here's a book that was intended for business owners and marketing executives, yet it provides a much-needed dose of common sense that would be of great benefit to sales organizations, especially sales managers, who continue to cling to very old, and, in their minds, very right, ideas. Unfortunately, our brave new world has made these old ideas very wrong.Seth Godin talks about Interruption Marketing versus Permission Marketing. Interruption Marketing is traditional advertising that interrupts your day in an attempt to get your attention and sell you something. In other words, it is marketing equivalent of Cold Calling. Permission Marketing is systematically getting prospects to give you permission to present to them. In other words, it is marketing's equivalent of what I teach salespeople to do. In book, Seth uses metaphor of someone trying to get married to describe flaw in Interruption Marketing, or Cold Calling. The bachelor goes into a singles bar and asks every woman in place to marry him. When they all say no, he blames his clothes, buys a new suit, and tries again at another bar, only to fail again and again, just like a cold caller. Are you getting point he tries to make in that story? Think about it. A salesperson spends weeks cold calling with dismal results. The salesperson goes to sales manager for advice on what to do differently to start getting results. A conversation ensues about what salesperson is doing. A lot of old ideas begin to surface. Ideas such as "Initial Benefit Statement," "Elevator Speech," and other concepts that once upon a time were right answers, but have since become very wrong answers. Working on these things is equivalent of man in story blaming his failure on suit, changing into a new suit, then going to a different singles bar to do it all over again.
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