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Did buyers ever like cold calls?
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Customer 2.0 Is Mad as Hell
One of the narratives in sales/customer 2.0 is that cold calling is going and this is driven by a new buyer. Really? Did the "old" buyer like being cold-called? or is this a case of sellers have more access to information than ever before affording them the opportunity to be even more effective?
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4 Answers
I don't think any buyer wants to be "cold called". The problem is that just as there is no definition of a lead (as an example), there is no definition of a cold call.
My definition of a cold call is calling into a contact you know nothing about at a company you know nothing about. The chances of this resulting in a positive outcome are slim. Today, there is a wealth of information available to buyers and sellers - it just seems that buyers are using that information more effectively than are the sellers. Perhaps the sellers just need to catch up.
Your third sentence (did "old' buyers like being cold-called") is the key to this question. I don't think they actually liked it more than today's buyers, but it was the channel by which they received information. Today, it is still the channel by which buyers receive information, they just have a lot more access to other information than ever before - AND THAT makes it even more necessary to make telephone calls. Do you want to depend on your website, the public or clients to make your case for you; or do you want to step into the fray and make sure that the benefits of your solution are understood and are being reinforced. Marketing automation vendors, as an example, are among the most active outbound callers of any industry. They use their tools as they were designed to be used - as a filter, but not as the arbiter of the value of a prospect.
Over-dependence on any one tool or channel is a mistake. There are companies out there today that are finding this out the hard way.
I hope this helps.
Craig - Interesting question. Dan - Interesting answer. Both got me thinking, so here's my $0.02, if it's okay with you guys.
I have to disagree (respectfully) with Dan about the definition of a cold call. I always thought it was a call to someone with whom you have no prior relationship of any kind. I never thought of it as calling a contact you know nothing about. But that does raise an interesting issue: Can you make an effective cold call to someone about whom you know nothing? To be sure, I believe you can, since the essence of a good call (cold or warm,) is being able to ask good questions. You don't have to know a lot about the prospect in order to do this. In fact, you don't even have to know the prospect's role; you can simply ask his role as a Qualifying Question, and then go from there. Granted that you only have about 15 seconds to get his attention and interest, and wasting it on asking him his job title is dumb, but I believe you can theoretically make a great cold call with no prior information (and I've seen it done many times.) Nevertheless, having some information about the prospect is certainly helpful, and 5 minutes of research on his Web site can go a long way. But I do like your perspective on this.
As for the idea that in sales/customer 2.0 cold calling is going away, I contend that the technology has enabled sales and marketing people to avoid doing the hard work of selling (i.e. cold calling) and marketing (i.e. market research). And the narrative certainly provides an excuse. But we have made many thousands of cold calls (on behalf of our clients) where the prospect actually thanks us for calling, while expressing an interest in talking to a salesperson about solving an uncovered need (that's our definition of a lead). What they don't like is a bad cold call; but that doesn't mean cold calling per se is bad, it just means bad cold calls are just that: bad.
Having done this for over 30 years, I can't say there's any difference between today's buyers and buyers from long ago with respect to their reactions to cold calls. I can say, however, that the overwhelming shift of sales and marketing people towards 2.0 has made it a lot easier on those of us who practice the art of cold calling. They've ceded the territory.
Believe or not, what works for some may not work for others. There are people who do not mind people giving them a call regarding their products and services only because some appreciate the phone call obviously when they have nothing to do. And if the timing is right, you may be able to talk them into something they never thought existed before. Everything is timing in my opinion.
If we assume that the sales rep did not like cold calling either, we might be in for a Win/Win!
Nowadays it is pretty easy to find information about clients and their challenges on the Internet, at least for the somewhat larger companies. Makes you call somewhat warmer.
It is often also possible to find information about the person you are calling and it is even possible to get yourself introduced virtually through a mutual connection. This provides a huge advantage and will make for a very different first call.
So, in my opinion, if you put in some extra effort, Call 2.0 is no longer cold, it is at least tepid and can be warmish if you use social media to your advantage.
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