Why Cold Calling Is So 1968 –- And What To Do About It
By Terry Brock for DSound & Steemit
Cold calling. Ugh!
We don't like it when someone we don't know tries to sell us something we don't need. Yet, why do some marketers and salespeople still think they can somehow magically get the attention of someone using this tired old technique? How 1968!
Rather than obnoxiously intruding on someone, a much better way to connect is to get to know your prospects through social media. I like the way sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer says it: “Social media is the new cold calling.” Back in the 60's sales managers would teach their new sales people to go into an office, look around for mementos like baseball cards, fishing pictures, and other keepsakes, and then ask questions to connect with the prospect. This was the way they could establish rapport and strengthen the relationship based on common interests.
Alas, what was the best question to ask back then is the worst question to ask today. Prospects find it insulting today if someone asks “So, tell me about your business, John.” Here's a video and audio I put together that explains that in more detail:
terrybrock.com/bestquestionworstquestion
Today if you walk into a company and ask them about their industry, you are likely to be shown the door. Today marketers and salespeople need to do their research before connecting with a prospect.
There are wonderful options that help to create a solid relationship. Some of these include studying your prospect's public information on LinkedIn, then using Facebook to see what they like personally. Smart marketers go the extra mile and do this. Advanced relationship marketers will use a tool like HootSuite to study and monitor what a prospect says on Twitter. You can even set up a simple Google Alert to notify you if your prospect is in the news. If someone has any presence on those three networks, you will know a lot more about them through these data mining techniques.
Think about it for a moment. Do you honestly like to get bothersome, annoying, interruptions from people trying to sell you stuff that you don't need? If you don't like it, what makes you think that your prospects will tolerate you bothering them in a similar manner?
Sure, someone might say that they have had success with cold calling. I remember back home in the country we had a saying that I think applies here:
"Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then.”
Just because you might get a few sales once in a while from cold calling doesn't mean that it's the best way to generate business today. We have a far more friendly (and more profitable!) way to connect with customers today – ways that will be much more welcomed by our prospects. n
Don't do the “social media ugly cold call” either. This is what I call those (increasingly too many) requests on LinkedIn, friend requests on Facebook and other bothersome intrusions from people that I do not know. If someone wants to make a favorable impression today, get to know the person first as a person. This is what relationship marketing is about.
Marketing today is not about "blasting" a message to a bunch of people in a non-caring, inhuman way. When someone tries to reach me on a medium like LinkedIn without knowing me, it is like an obnoxious cad approaching me in a country club and forcefully shoving his product in my face, yelling at me to buy it.
Not cool!
Take the time and effort to get to know someone before you contact them. It is easier than ever today to find out about someone before you make that initial contact. Think about how to help them from their point of view.
Gary Vaynerchuk talks about this. He talks about the 19-year-old young man who tries to jump too soon, too far to get a young lady to be with him. Gary says it with much more colorful language than I'm going to use in a publication like this, but I think you get the idea. Gary Vaynerchuk is absolutely right when he says you need to get to know the person first as a human being. You must really care. That means you go out of your way to connect with them on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other networks.
Find out about your prospect. Do your research. Get to know as much as you can about them first before making the call.
Make a commitment to embrace today's connected, more human marketing --- even if you have to pay a little extra in TME (Time, Money, Energy). It is well worth it in the long run.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Terry
@terrybrock - Steemit
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