To Cold Call or Not to Cold Call: Is That Really The Question?

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To Cold Call or Not to Cold Call: Is That Really The Question?

3 Questions to Help Define Your Prospecting Strategy

“To cold call, or not to cold call–that is the question:

Whether ’tis wiser in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous rejection

Or to take aim against a sea of prospects

By email and Linking with them. To call, to fail–

No more–and by a fail to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That sales is heir to…” (With deepest apologies to William Shakespeare)

Which side of the great Cold-Calling Debate are you on? There is a

seemingly never-ending debate in sales circles over the relative and

absolute merits of cold-calling as a method for lead generation and

prospect development. The proponents on either side tend to view this as

an “either-or” proposition. It shouldn’t be if you are asking the right

questions.

On one side of this argument are the “traditionalists” who believe that

cold-calling, even in today’s information-driven economy, remains:

a) An effective tactic for reaching new prospects

b) A productive use of a salesperson’s limited selling time

c) An essential skill that every sales person needs to possess.

On the other side are the “progressives” who believe that:

a) Cold calls are unnecessary as there are a variety of tools that

enable a seller to connect and engage with prospects before the first

call is made.

b) Cold-calling is an inefficient use of a salesperson’s limited

selling time.

c) Contemporary sales skills, such as social selling, are more

crucial to sales success than the “elevator pitching” skills of cold

calling.

While the arguments put forth by both sides in this debate have some

merit, the correct solution for most companies and individual sellers is

not an “either-or” answer. Managers and sales people have to ask

themselves a few key questions in order to decide which approach to

prospect sales lead gen and prospect development is the most practical,

and effective, for them.

Question 1: What Do I Need To Accomplish?

The first question to ask is “What do I need to accomplish?” Be specific

and determine how many prospects you need at any one time in order to

meet and exceed quota. Define how many leads you need to develop within

a certain timeframe in order to develop a certain number of qualified

prospects. Having this information in hand will let you determine

whether cold-calling, or some other prospecting activity, is the optimal

strategy to achieve your prospecting goals. What will be the most

effective use of your selling time?

In this day and age, given the abundance of new sales tools that exist

to make it easier to connect with potential customers, it seems unlikely

that even the most fervent advocates can unequivocally state that

cold-calling is the only answer to Question 1.

Question 2: What Am I Good At Doing?

The second question to ask is: “What am I good at doing?” Or, “What is

my sales team good at doing?” It is essential to align your prospecting

activities with your sales strengths.

The fact is that not everyone has to be good at all forms of

prospecting. Success in cold-calling, or the lack thereof, can be due as

much to a salesperson’s temperament as their skills. And no amount of

training can change that. The most talented and successful salespeople I

have ever worked with in my career were not very good at cold-calling.

Personally, I don’t like cold-calling. In 30+ years of a very successful

sales career I have avoided cold-calling whenever I could. It doesn’t

suit my personality and I have never grown comfortable with it. Even

when I was in the field, working my territory and making 30-40 cold

calls a day.

However, I almost always had a healthy list of prospects. What did I do?

Question 3: What Are The Alternatives?

Without question, there is almost always more than one method for sales

people to generate a sales lead, whether it is social selling,

referrals, inbound marketing or cold-calling to name a few.

It is important to not be reactive and make the assumption that there

will be only one solution to a problem because in most prospecting

scenarios it will be a mix of activities that will produce the optimal

results.

I mentioned above that I didn’t like to cold call. However, I have done

it throughout my career because I have needed to. I haven’t lead my

prospecting with cold-calling. I was never fortunate enough to work for

a company where new prospects would knock down my door begging to buy

the products I was selling. So, I would start prospecting with the

non-cold-calling activities that I thought would produce the biggest

return on my time. Sometimes those activities would generate enough

leads for me. Often times they didn’t. That’s when I would make

cold-calls. It’s one thing to say you don’t like to cold-call. But, if

everything else you try isn’t working, it is still your job to develop

new prospects, close orders and make quota. There is no hall-pass in

sales. If that means making cold-calls to help make your numbers, then

that is what you have to do.

Practical Sales Tip: Start your prospecting with those activities that

are best aligned with your strongest capabilities, or those of your

sales team. But if those activities aren’t generating enough leads, then

you have to try something else. Even if it means picking up the phone

and making cold-calls. (As Shakespeare said “ay, there’s the rub…”)

For more on this topic click here to read: Doing What You Need To Do

Andy Paul is author of the award-winning book, Zero-Time Selling: 10 Essential Steps to Accelerate Every Company’s Sales. A sought-after speaker and business coach, Andy conducts workshops and consults with sales teams of all sizes to teach them practical selling strategies that use responsiveness, speed and simple sales processes to increase sales. Enjoy what you just read? Sign up for our regular digest of valuable and practical sales tips and strategies, “Selling with Maximum Impact.”