Agree or disagree: Is it easier than ever to reach prospects on the phone?

It is amazing to me how Sales people have abandoned cold calling and meeting in person in favour of email. The answer is obvious, less rejection and more a sense of accomplishment through volume. The fact is that a great direct mail and or email campaign generates less than a 2% return.

While it has never been easy to make a cold call, if you have a relevant message, if you are engaging and if you can create a compelling reason to meet it still can be very effective.

Look at the barriers to organizations adopting new technology; fear of technology obsolescence, no compelling ROI and approach and messaging.

If you can tackle that head on and now start to go where others fear to tread it has to be a great opportunity for fearless, professional sales people.

Take the road less travelled and do it in a better vehicle!

Want to know why sales reps are so into email when research shows that calling is still the best way to prospect? Look no further than Neil Rackham’s explanation of why salespeople used to be obsessed with those cheesy “closing” techniques on page 38 of the 1988 classic SPIN Selling:

P. 38: “When I stopped to think about it, closing behaviors were the only ones, out of the 116 we studied in our research, that were directly rewarded or reinforced by orders. Like so many other salespeople, because my close was rewarded by an order, I’d somehow assumed that using the close caused the order. Any reader who understands the theory of reinforcement will also recognize that ‘some of the time’ rewards are even more powerful than ‘all of the time’ rewards in causing a behavior to continue.

Today’s sales reps are so in love with email because returned emails frequently yield appointments while unreturned emails yield no harm. Calling provides mixed reinforcement whereas emailing provides more positive reinforcement. The results? Sales reps are conditioned to prefer email to live conversations. What a shame!!

I'm counting down the minutes until a "social media guru" shows up and laughs a pompous laugh at the notion -- claiming that cold calling is dead and that "it's about time." Lots of that going around lately.

Yes, it IS easier. And I think I understand why. Because "social media" and e-mail, for instance, are such terrific noise machines, echo-chambers and time-wasters. I simply cannot find *meaning* in social spaces like I can when someone cold calls me -- or when I cold call them with, yes, a time-tested, effective approach to meaningful, **purpose-driven** conversation.

I am pleased to see that so many answers have focused around the problem of reps rushing to email marketing (because you do get some responses and rejection doesn't hurt as much as getting the phone slammed down in your ear). One of our clients had the following results when their reps were forced to do all of their own prospecting. The defaulted to email marketing as almost the only media they used: total deals rapidly declined, average deal size dropped by 65%, they had no forecast, they had no pipeline. However, the telephone alone is not the solution. Multi-touch, multi-media, multi-cycle programs multiply results.

My two bits: it's tempting to think reach (with the click of a mouse) will convert to revenues (with time). It's also tempting to conclude that the more emails we send, the more conversations we'll get. Not so fast.

Who truly knows what combination of email, calls, and timing triggers will yield the best Return-on-Effort in sales for my business? Aren't we really debating, here, the strength of practices we've seen work well for ourselves? Is it possible that my nirvana could very well be someone else's path to destruction?

I agree most profoundly with points made above that suggest 'life on the front lines ain't what it used to be'. There are new methods + new tools emerging all the time. Buyers needs are changing all the time. Surely what we need is better metrics that help us understand, faster, what sales practices (including any imaginable combination of email, phone, and social triggers) for *my* business will produce the greatest funnel velocity with the highest Return-on-Effort from our sales + marketing efforts. On this, I need the metrics on my business to inform our practices and, with such metrics, the curiosity to test for the benefits of new practices that have worked well for others.

Is it clicks, calls, or courage that's most needed?
My vote? Curiousity, with testing, proven with metrics.

The faster, the better.

Easy is a relative term. Getting a new buyer engaged in a real conversation on the phone has never been "easy." If it was easy, cold/warm calling would be much more popular. The fact that so many sales people are avoiding the phone may be making it easier.

Bottom line: If you want to be successful, calling must be a core channel in your prospecting activities. It takes persistence, determination, and a plan of action to be successful.

I agree wholeheartedly with Trish. It's all about how you can construct a compelling reason to call at the right time. Merely being connected to someone socially isn't enough nor is having the best pitch on your product or service. Be interesting and be relevant and be timely.

I neither agree or disagree. It really depends on the prospect you are trying to reach. For example I work in the online world and you will never reach me on the phone, yet you can reach me on twitter, facebook, BMM, text messaging, skype...etc.

I'm a former commercial insurance salesman who hated using the phone. Unfortunately, to be successful I think the phone is the way to go with e-mail being a great supplement. No one enjoys cold calling but I believe it's necessary to succeed.

Now as the owner of a social media marketing company (amongst others) I still believe the phone and face-to-face is important if you're going to close deals. Social Media and e-mail can be great for marketing and developing relationships but I've never closed a deal without picking up the phone or meeting someone in person.

I sit in a slightly different seat. Since my company sells Lead Management Software I will have to base my answer in part on sales of our product as it relates to Inside Sales Teams. Over the last several years we have seen rapid growth of companies changing models moving from outside to inside.

Naturally, this was driven in part by the recession and the cost to acquire new customers with an outside sales team.
Additionally, we have seen customers grow seats organically meaning they are having success in reaching prospects, engaging with them and making sells.
It depends on the quality of your prospect universe and you ability to engage.

With that being said, I vote YES /Agree; it is easier than ever to engage on the phone.

Utilizing a broad front, "Air, Land and Sea" if you will...Email is effective, if it drives action, as in closing remarks asking to schedule "further discussion". Cold calling is effective in a variety of ways, as a follow up to an email, as well as a referral. I often engage prospects to "gain their insight" on an applicable white paper, ect. I usually call upon C level individuals, and start a relationship with their admin as to best times to reach and the best method to reach.

Hi Craig and fellow respondents! The most positive aspect of this discussion is that so many participants raise vital caveats to the “yes it is easier” answer … such as appropriate technology, pinpoint lists, adequate and accurate pre-call prep, top-flight call conduct, and so on.

We and our clients define “reach” as live human-to-human phone communication with one’s intended prospect or customer. “Reach” is not necessarily a full marketing or sales conversation yet, but is at least a real-time exchange of words. So … how many of us in BtoB are at or above 50% first-call reach? 25%? Who is in single-figures? How many attempts does it typically take to reach, and over what period of time? How much does a reach cost? How many reaches become conversations? How many of us actually know?

Maybe there are better adjectives than “easy” … perhaps do-able, viable, worthwhile, and critical to doing business.

We recommend these positive steps to boost “reach-rate”

• Analyze your marketplace and the typical day-pattern of your three most frequent levels of contact. Look at the call records in your CRM system or contact manager to determine the times of day when your calls have been completed and not completed. Continue or change accordingly.

• Call early and late in the day, especially when calling high-level contacts. Also, call executives at :25 or :55 after the hour. That is when they are most often available.

• Ask gatekeepers and AAs for their guidance about the best times to call Mr/Ms Big, and the times to avoid. Ask about typical meeting and travel schedules and plan your calls around them. Also clarify when to phone v. e-mail v. postal mail v. in-person.

• Actually rehearse your phone mail messages and listen to them yourself before sending them. How do they sound? Boring? Compelling? How would you, yourself, respond?

• Test your marketing media mix, contact timing, and frequency. Amend as warranted. Drive inbound response via non-phone media. Call second or later in the communication sequence.

• When you do reach them live, make 100% sure you deliver a powerful, compelling “reason for my call” based on them not you, followed by “Is this an OK time to talk?” Ask before telling and learn before selling. Give first, get second. Then issue a call to action!