5 Reasons to Take Cold Calling Behind the Barn and Shoot It A good sales phone call isn't entirely dead -- but please, let's put an end to cold calling.
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Do you like receiving cold calls? Of course you don't -- nobody does.
The phone is still a valuable tool, but traditional cold calling needs to die. It's a horrible first impression. Ask yourself this: When was the last time you purchased something over the phone from a random company? Here are five reasons why it's time to take traditional cold calling behind the barn and shoot it.
Related: Seven Secrets to Cold Calling Success
1. Cold calling takes away people's most valuable asset -- time.
Time is our most valuable asset. We all have 24 hours each day to allocate between personal time, family time, work time and rest. So, when someone receives a cold call, it interrupts their flow and sucks away that valuable asset.
Imagine you are driving to an important meeting. Out of nowhere, a car cuts you off and immediately slows down. It's a one-lane road with a double line -- no passing allowed. You more than likely immediately think that person is a complete a**hole. They came in out of nowhere and interrupted your flow. I promise you that nobody receives a cold call and thinks, "Wow, I'm really glad this random person called me to interrupt me." Nobody.
2. Cold calling has become ridiculously spammy over the years.
Cold calling has become very spammy -- robocalling and caller ID spoofing has become the norm. Now, I'm not saying everyone cold calling is using these practices, but the bad apples have definitely given it a black eye. While most VoIP providers make it very easy for users to block numbers, it does very little to stop the calls, because they constantly change phone numbers.
Compare it to email spamming for a minute. If you receive an unsolicited email that was blasted out to every email address the particular business could scrape together, are you going to respond? No. Not a chance.
3. People don't want to talk on the phone.
Let me ask you this: Do you get legitimately upset when someone calls your cell phone instead of texting you? I'm willing to bet the majority of people reading this will answer "yes" to that question. It circles back up top to point number one -- we value our time. We don't want someone to call our cell phones, because that would require us to stop what we are doing and talk to that person.
Digital communication is favored in almost every form of personal interaction. Most people would prefer a friend text them rather than call them. In the business world, an email will typically receive a faster response than a phone call. Heck, look at modern dating -- people go from Tinder to text messaging to date -- a phone call doesn't even fit into the equation anymore. That's just the way it has become -- modern culture is phasing out phone calls. Nobody wants to talk on the phone.
Related: The Rise of Inbound Marketing and the Death of the Cold Call
4. Decision makers won't take a call from someone they don't know.
"Hey, there is some random person on the line wanting to speak to you. They say they just need five minutes of your time -- want me to forward the call to you?"
How would you respond to that question? The truth is that 99.99999 percent of people are going to opt for one of these two replies:
"No."
"No. Send them to my voice mail."
Either response spells the end of the possible connection. Even if the person leaves a voice mail, the intended recipient isn't even guaranteed to listen to it. Some businesses, like JPMorgan Chase have eliminated voicemail entirely.
Decision-makers receive multiple requests a day. Even just a half dozen requests for just five minutes of time would equal a half-hour -- valuable time that nobody wants to give away.
5. Cold leads don't convert nearly as high as warm leads.
Put 100 cold calls up again 100 warm leads generated online through content marketing, and I promise you that the close rate for the warm leads will trump the cold calls every single time. There is no contest.
When someone reaches out and requests information, it creates a warm lead that can be nurtured until it's ripe for closing. They already know who you are, what you offer and will welcome a call from you.
I'm not saying the art of the sales call is dead -- it's not. A sales person who can work magic on the phone is a rare commodity. So, imagine how good he or she would be if they transitioned from calling cold leads to working warm prospects -- either inbound leads or using social media to create a warm introduction before picking up the phone.
Related: LinkedIn's Updated Sales Navigator Looks to Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling
