Introduction:
Forums and group discussions are one of the oldest forms of Social Media. They provide an unbiased insight into the thinking of your peers on a variety of topics, but are also time consuming, intrusive and distracting to follow.
However, for all the drawbacks, they are an outstanding source of information and insight, dealing with questions and problems that resonate with many decision makers. Here’s a look at the comments from both sides of an ongoing discussion.
What Are Your Peers Thinking
Cold Calling –Is it a Dead Technique for Lead Generation?
Background:
Many subjects in sales and marketing create controversy and the viability of cold calling as a lead generation tool is certainly one of them. In this discussion, participants express their beliefs about how effective cold calling is as a lead generation tool from the perspective of making the connection and initiating a conversation with a prospect who has picked up the phone.
The Discussion:
This is what your peers who believe that “cold calling is dead”, have to say:
- Cold calling isn’t totally dead, yet, but it’s dying. There are more up-to-date ways to develop business leads – such as social marketing.
- Yes- Cold calling is dead. It is a totally inefficient way to prospect and creates/ignites negative reactions from those who receive a cold call. Companies who cold call ignore the ability of social media to build real trust and relationships.
- Yes. Cold calling is a waste of time. It begins with an awkwardness that hinders an effective presentation. It might create leads, but they are not leads that will close.
- Yes. If you’re offering any type of professional service, cold calling is a poor initial presentation of your “thought leadership”. Instead of cold calling, you need to be found by people who are already looking for solutions to the problems you can help them with. Before you engage with a company, you need to first establish your expertise.
- Yes. “Dumb” cold calling is totally dead. Smiling and dialing to an unfocused list with an “all about our company” message is a total waste of everyone’s time.
Here is what your peers who believe that “cold calling is a valid lead generation tool” have to say:
- No. Cold Calling can easily be turned into warm calling with the use of good data and a list that has been segmented to provide different discussion outlines for different buyers/problems.
- No. If you’re calling to offer an executive something that they perceive as valuable, cold calling will never be dead.
- No. Cold calling isn’t dead, but you must build your initial discussion around a prospect’s external versus internal challenges. The cold call is an important sales starting point.
- No. Cold calling isn’t dead. Those who claim that Social Media is a total replacement are missing the point that no one single solution or technology will solve every problem.
- No. Cold calling makes a personal connection. Even for business, people buy from other people- it’s timeless, but now more than ever you need a compelling message.
- No. Cold calling is one part of an overall communication plan.
- No. Cold calling is still highly effective with the C-Level Executives.
- No. But you have to be smart about it. Clean lists and a good message.
- No. Cold calling isn’t dead and only the people who can’t do it say that it is.
- No. Cold calling delivers a lot of value when compared to other lead generation activities. You need the telephone contact in order to build one to one relationships, but many companies miss the boat using junior and low wage trainees to do cold calling. It’s a highly skilled activity and requires a long term effort and commitment.
- No. Smart cold calling can nurture leads.
Finally, here is a comment that doesn’t take a side, but adds some great perspective:
It depends on who you want to reach. I know of a surveyed prospect who gets up to 64 cold calls/sales calls a day and will never pick up the phone for an unknown number. Every one of them is sent to voicemail. Another executive cites 300 sales pitches a week via email, regular mail and the phone –every one of which is screened. If you start with a clear understanding of your audience you can fine tune your mix of lead generation strategies to fit.