The CRAP Report

Today on Focus.com, Craig Rosenberg (better known, to me at least, as “The Funnelholic”) posted a question about cold calling and whether it was dead or not.  Taking into consideration Sales 2.0 tools, low connect rates, and the rise of lead nurturing, he wanted to know if people are still cold calling, and if so, how has it changed and how have those making cold calls adapted.  First of all, it’s a great question, and although I answered his question (among some other great names in sales prospecting), I wanted to expound on it further.

I don’t think cold calling is dead – not by a long shot.  If you’re reading this (and you’re not my Mom), chances are you’re interested in improving your team’s teleprospecting skills, you’re involved in inbound/outbound marketing, or you just have a thing for B2B lead generation, right?  Okay, well in either of those scenarios, how can you NOT be cold calling!?  Sometimes I think the cold calling naysayers are the ones who aren’t good at it, and because of that, cold calling is seen as passé and hackneyed.  Let me ask you this – if you’re not reaching out to your prospect list through a targeted outbound teleprospecting campaign, why?  If you’ve got a group of individuals that you WANT to buy your solution/service/product, executing a laser focused teleprospecting (NOT telemarketing as they are two different things) campaign has to be part of that process.  Although the Internet is wonderful and allows us to market to our prospects in amazing ways, there are some individuals that are only going to buy from you (us) if we, as my colleague Terry Dolan says, “tap them on the shoulder and say, ‘hey, I think I have something that can help/might alleviate a pain you have’”.  Cold calling is a way to reach those individuals.

Sending emails, building beautiful websites full of fantastic content that brings your solution/service/product to the top of a Google search is a must, but I believe that it has to go hand in hand with cold calling.  Think about it this way:  when you fill out your LinkedIn profile, there are milestones that you meet before LinkedIn tells you whether or not your profile is “100% complete.”  Just filling out the basics generally gets you to a complete percentage of what, say 85%?  Got a picture?  Great, you’re profile just went up to “90% complete.”  Got three people to recommend you?  Booya, now you’re at “100% complete!”  Why wouldn’t you complete your profile knowing that when you do, you get found in “x” amount more searches which may yield to “y” more job opportunities or “z” more business opportunities? 

The same thing goes for your marketing and lead generation efforts.  You can do all of those wonderful things like search engine optimization, videos on YouTube, awesome landing pages, podcasts, email blasts, etc., but you’re not at “100% complete” unless you’re making cold calls.  Cold calling completes the package.  Great cold calling, with highly skilled Business Development Rep’s who pass superbly qualified sales opportunities, wraps the package up for you with a nice little bow.