It's interesting to read about different views on cold calling. Consider the following scenario, though, if you use or plan to use cold calling as a business development tactic.
Imagine that you are a busy business owner who must deal with the day-to-day challenges of running a company.
Now imagine that you get several unsolicited calls per week (or per day) from sales people who got your name from some compiled list. For the most part, these sales people who call you have not bothered to take the time to do any research whatsoever on you, your company or its problems.
As you think about this, you're probably shaking your head in agreement.
Most B2B sales people assume that just because you are a business person, you should have an inherent need for what they sell. For example, if you are a Web site designer, you might assume that if a business doesn't have a Web site, they should be receptive to having you develop one for them.
What most sales people fail to understand is that just because people theoretically
need what you sell, that doesn't mean they actually
want it, or that they want it
now. If they did, don't you think they probably would have already called someone about it?
Alternatively, even if people
do want what you sell, they often have other problems to deal with that are more important than the problem your product or service solves. Until those front burner problems are solved, the problem your product or service solves will stay on the back burner.
You've probably heard of "permission marketing" — a concept first brought to the forefront by Seth Godin in his book of the same name. This concept, which has been widely applied to email marketing, says that you must get people's
overt permission before you contact them. Further, you also must honor that permission by not veering from the topic on which the permission was granted when you make subsequent contact. Otherwise, you're practicing what Seth termed, "interruption marketing." I call it "intrusion marketing."
And cold calling, dear reader, is a high-level form of intrusion marketing. When you cold call you are most likely intruding into someone's life. You are usually interrupting what they are doing. You are uninvited. Despite your best intentions, you are probably perceived as an annoyance.
If you disagree, ask yourself if you wake up every morning thinking, "Gee, I just don't get enough unsolicited calls from sales people. I sure hope I get some today." You say you
don't wake up thinking this? Well guess what,
no one else does either!
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to get business that don't involve traditional cold calling: where you call strangers out of the blue with an offer they probably don't want, at least not at the moment.
The antidote to cold calling is
strategic positioning. By that I mean, posturing yourself as an expert in your field through various methods so that people know something about you and how what you do can solve one or more of their problems.
When you use strategic positioning, you find that people start calling
you. When they do, they usually believe they want what you sell and they already have the perception that you are the best choice to deliver it. And being perceived as the one to call in your field is the key to your success.
Strategic positioning takes time to set up. It's not a quick fix. As such, many people are too lazy to implement a strategic positioning plan. But consider the amount of time and energy it takes to cold call day after day. If you use cold calling you know that most of that time and energy is wasted.
Now I'm not saying cold calling doesn't work. Heck, I was once a "cold calling cowboy" who smiled and dialed my way to the top of the sales heap.
But when I think about all the frustration and, yes, humiliation I had to endure along the way, I could kick myself (hard) for not knowing about strategic positioning.
If you want to know more about strategic positioning, simply reply to this post and let me know. If there's enough interest, I'll do more posts on the subject.
In the meantime, if you feel you MUST use cold calling, I highly recommend Art Sobczak's Web site,
BusinessByPhone.com. Lots of tips and tricks for getting through to decision makers using straightforward methods that don't waste time.
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Originally Posted by IncredibleValue
