Recently I’ve heard a lot about the value of Social Selling – a process that involves connecting and interacting with prospects on social media platforms. The objective is to create a relationship first and not to sell your product or service at the time of connection. I think Social Selling has its place, but to me, nothing can replace Cold Calling as a very important selling tool. After all, human conversation is social!
Cold Calling is a direct outreach to a targeted list with the objective of having a conversation to determine if there is an immediate need for the product or service you offer. I believe Cold Calling provides faster sales results.
A salesperson’s success is measured in sales and our sales are directly related to the number of times we have conversations with people who have a specific need for our solution (qualified leads). The more frequently we have those conversations, the higher our conversion rate. There’s a misperception that business people don’t engage with Cold Callers. But statistics from Crunchbase indicate that 69% of buyers have accepted Cold Calls and that more than half of C-Suite buyers actually prefer to be contacted by phone.
I’m not saying that Social Selling is ineffective. I use it as a tool in my own business. But my experience has shown me that Cold Calling is the fastest route to actual sales. Let’s do a quick comparison.
Social Selling
In Social Selling, you identify a target list based on factors that suggest the prospect may have a need for your offering. You connect, engage and share content with the prospect with the objective of working up to a meeting. This could take a month or more to get to this point, and the prospect still may not be fully qualified as having an immediate need for your solution.
Cold Calling
When we Cold Call, we work with a targeted list and make direct phone contact. We quickly establish who we are and why we are calling. We confirm whether there is a need for the solution that we offer and the prospect determines whether a conversation should continue. A successful Cold Call takes on average about 6 minutes, and ideally, during most of that time, it’s the prospect that does the talking.
I’ll admit that I am biased, but our success is our proof. We know that many people dislike Cold Calling. But because it is so effective, businesses that don’t use this tactic are missing opportunities. Crunchbase reports that businesses that don’t use Cold Calling have 42% lower growth than those that do.
If Cold Calling isn’t something that you enjoy doing yourself, or if you have an inside sales team that is not as effective as they could be, reach out to One of a Kind Sales. We love Cold Calling. You can outsource your Cold Calling to us or we can provide support and training for your inside sales team. Call us at 908-879-2911.
