Everyone knows the story of the old salesman: a world-weathered man who lugs a suitcase of samples from door-to-door in the July heat or the November slush or slogging through his rolodex late into the night, hustling to make ends meet. In the end, his hard work and charisma are rewarded in sales and grateful customers.
Decades ago, making unsolicited calls to generate new business leads was effective simply because there weren't many alternatives. But the era of the salesman has ended, and consequently, the effectiveness of marketing methods has also evolved. While sales still requires hard work, cold calling is as outdated as Don Draper and smoking in the office. The digital age has rendered the arduous and thankless practice of cold calling entirely obsolete.
Research shows that 91% of potential buyers won't respond to unsolicited contact, and 71% of buyers believe that cold calls are bothersome, according to NoMoreColdCalling.org.
To be fair, the death of cold calling is a little more complicated than business owners simply avoiding calls. It's actually becoming increasingly more difficult to get live bodies on the phone at all. In these fast-paced, text-me-first times, people generally don't answer the phone for unknown numbers.
The next logical step would be to leave a voicemail, except Inc.com reports that fewer people are retrieving them. In fact, the service has become so unpopular that Fortune 100 companies, like Coca-Cola, have actually discontinued voicemail services at their corporate headquarters, Bloomberg.com reports.
How to do you generate leads if potential customers are their own gatekeepers? The answer is simple and may bring you a bit of relief: never cold call again.
A Better Way to Sell
The advent of social networking platforms has brought more sophistication to the clunky and antiquated process of cold calling. So you must stack the deck, and utilize the newest tools of the trade - and the newest methods - before ever picking up the phone. Use these tools to your advantage with these simple steps:
- Create a prospect list.
- Research heavily.
- Create a touchpoint for introduction with an educational piece.
- Follow up with a warm introductory call.
- When the prospect is ready, start the inbound sales cycle with a discovery call.
First, you will need to create a list of potential clients that will benefit the most from your products or services. A smaller, more selective contact list may be more effective than an all-inclusive one. For example, someone selling vegan desserts, you probably shouldn’t waste time prospecting to hunters and fisherman.
Once you have a strong list of potential clients, it's time to start your pre-call research. Social networking sites, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the client’s website, can help you decipher a potential client’s current needs before ever speaking to them. Next, you should reach out to these potential customers with a specifically crafted email sent a few days or weeks prior, along with a high-value piece such as an ebook or other relevant awareness stage offer. By doing this, you're making contact in a professional yet unobtrusive manner, and the client will not feel put on the spot and can respond at their earliest convenience. It also may create name recognition so when you call in the future, they might be more inclined to answer.
Then, you will make a warm call. Peter Levitan, an international advertising agency new business development consultant, writes for LinkedIn.com, “I call it warm calling because you are not going to create a list of total strangers and just start hammering away. Like every thing else you do in your business development plan, warm calling is an integral component in a master plan. In this case, you have already made contact with the prospect because they are on your short list.”
The focus of the call should to be to assess the client’s needs so you can make product or service recommendations and/or set up a future appointment for a discovery call. It's the first step in the empowered sales methodology of inbound: learn more here.
After reaching out, it’s important to embody the can-do spirit of the old salesman, and persevere. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t make progress immediately. It is important to continue to reach out in a way that is helpful and informative, and that shows the client what you have to offer without being overbearing. Forbes.com reports that an estimated “80% of sales happen after the fifth contact attempt.” You can follow up via email to touch base, forward an article you think they may like, or a blog post produced by your marketing department in order to keep your name and company top of mind.
This is streamlined, closed-loop strategy approach is a more time-efficient and targeted way to generate new leads. And while it may not always be successful, it increases the likelihood of making a sale or establishing a connection with a client that may bear fruit in the future.
The old salesman definitely would have preferred it.