"Over 80% of decision makers absolutely will not buy from a cold call."
-Kenan Flagler Business School
University of North CarolinaDespite this hard truth, most salespeople today continue to waste valuable time and effort cold calling, usually because they don't know what else to do. Cold calling is all they've been taught.
Never cold call again. I'm going to share with you my cutting-edge, information age lead generation strategies that will bring you an endless supply of hot, qualified leads, without ever cold calling again!
I like some of this guys stuff. Unfortunately, his basic premise is just nor correct--at several levels. I won't beat this topic to death, but number one--it depends on what kind of sales, products, services, or ideas you are selling. Cold-calling works better with some things over others.
Number two--today, most salesmen absolutely do not, will not, cannot, and don't know how to cold-call. In a sense they have been spoiled by being too dependent upon other "easier" means for generating sales leads.
And three--while may possibly be true that somewhere approaching the 80% stat quoted by Kenan Plager Business School of North Carolina--is a good number, I doubt it beause as I cited in point one, there are too many variations in types of sales and products being sold to make such a generalization, I trurly doubt that it IS a good number.
In fact, there are some fields within the field of sales, wherein the only way allowed to contact the principle decision-makers is to make unannounced cold calls. These segments accept the process and it has proven over time that it is the absolute best method to use--if not the ONLY method.
Moreover, good lead-generation must not rely on just one means of reaching potential customers. This is often the part of sales that becomes indistinguishable from marketing. The most successful salespersons whom I have ever known, including myself, have not necessariloy been the best "salesmen". They've been good salesmen, but they have also been creative marketers.
So I will defer to a marketing concept known as "marketing mix". It means that you combine many different methods of getting the word out and preparing potential consumers to receive your salesmen or sales efforts. This concet is equally applicable to the acrtual sales effort itself.
I once had a salesman who decided to short-circuit my proposed sales mix by using only one of the sales/marketing methodws that I required of my sales force. I knew what worked and only wanted to teach what would be the most effective mix of ideas in order to reap the most reward for the total effort.
Upon his dogged insistence, I allowed his to play out his desired lopsided methodology. Unfortunately, he didn't make it in sales. It is a shame because I saw w great deal of potential in him.
With all that said, I acknowledge the merit of using the ideas presented by the methods presnted in the system touted above. The header is largely designed to catch the attention of salesmen in order to ure them in to reading farther. In the minds of some salesmen, the absolutely most terrifying thing that thye can think of is making cold calls.
Done correc5tly, cold calls is an art. I am not even sure that it can be taught entirely, but the skills requried can be greatly honed with explanation and practice.
If you are interested in hwo to make cold calls--so a search within this blog as I have made several posts that treat it fairly in depth. I also answer question posted here.
