Is cold calling dead?

I have been following with interest the debate about cold calling being dead and the revolution of so-called ‘Sales 2.0’ (whatever that means!). I have read quite a few articles, a recent book by the self-proclaimed expert on the topic as well as getting involved in a number of leading sales forums. I have even had the privilege of interviewing some interesting people on the subject (for example Liz Jackson in Episode 2).

I have been wrestling with the issue, not wanting to appear too ‘old school’ and an ‘irrelevant dinosaur’ (which seems to be the immediate cry from the latest gurus should anyone dare question their new wisdom), but at the same time not getting too carried away with the euphoria that seems to have come with the introduction of recent enabling technologies.

I am actually a big fan of new technology and am always keen to try things out and see what works, but I have to say that on many occasions the reality has not lived up to the hype. I dare say that having been a sales person selling technology based solutions for a number of years, I have also been guilty at times of over-hyping the solution.

There is much to be said for the new technologies, but I feel there is a huge danger if we reject the telephone as a channel – in effect throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

The case against cold-calling is that it is inefficient and ineffective, with so many prospects putting a barrier of voicemail or the so called ‘gatekeeper’ keeping pesky salespeople at bay. In short, the claim is that it no longer gets results. It is easy to see why sales people might jump at this new paradigm, who wants to cold call anyway!

If we go back a little way, in previous times all the salesperson could do was make calls, send letters and perhaps man the stand occasional at trade shows. Most other forms of communication were the domain of marketing. In my experience, most marketing people (and I was one for quite a few years, before coming over to the ‘dark side’) were not particularly interested in running campaigns for individual sales people – with the tools at our disposal it was all too much of a hassle really.

It is very different today though – there are so many tools around (many of them low cost or even free) that require very little specialist knowledge to operate and enable the individual sales person to put their own ‘micro’ campaigns and communication plans together. Much emphasis is now placed on using social networking (web 2.0) tools, such as Linked-in (and the various other similar services), Facebook, Twitter, blogging etc. These tools allow the individual sales person to build up their own personal network and communicate with that network in a highly interactive manner (ahhhh….so that is what Sales 2.0 is about)

Highly functional free email automation is also now available and platforms such as WordPress enable an individual to set up their own blog for free in just seconds (by the way, if you want a list of all the low-cost/no-cost tools that I use, just drop me an email).

This kind of power, for an individual salesperson to communicate with the customer base, is probably striking fear into the heart of many a marketing manager – the loss of control over messages emanating from the organisation being a real concern. In some cases this concern might be valid, in many others though the concern is unfounded, the sales person being more in touch with the needs of the market and knowing what messages are most appropriate.

So there is now a real blur between sales and marketing, with the savvy sales people making full use of the new technologies to their advantage. But if you listen to latest crop of Sales 2.0/Cold Calling is Dead gurus, many seem to advocate dropping the use of the telephone entirely.

I think this is a big mistake. As Liz Jackson commented in Episode 2, “only a bozo would say cold calling is dead – its like saying conversation is dead”. I do get the distinct impression however that taking such a strong stance against cold calling is as much about selling books as anything else.

Personally, I use a number of the new tools and techniques in order to ply my trade – I write articles, I tweet, I use linked-in, industry forums etc. However, I must say the bulk of my business originates from cold calls and personal face to face networking (although the other activity can very helpful in communicating key messages to my target audience). This is perhaps due in part though to operating in quite a tightly defined market sector which does seem to be a great adopter of many of the new channels.

We should also be clear that even if we reject cold calling, this does not mean we can stop using the telephone altogether. In many cases I find it is only a personal telephone call that tips someone from being merely interested to agreeing to a meeting. Effective use of the telephone really does help accelerate sales cycles and also helps to clear out the junk from the pipeline – often a brief telephone call asking the right questions will lead to a prospect being ‘qualified-out’, thereby saving wasted effort that could be spent on better qualified prospects.

So I would advocate we take a multi-channel, multi-tool approach, making use of the best tool for the job according to circumstance – with the telephone being very much part of this mix. We just need know to when each tool is appropriate and how best to use it; and that includes the telephone.

What do you think – do you think cold calling is dead?