Who Killed the Cold Call?

A Murder is Announced

First off, is there even a body? Is cold calling dead or alive? Well there is no doubt in the mind of Forbes contributor Ken Krogue. Others such as Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing, blogger and author, suggests that If you think Cold Calling is Dead, You are Doing it Wrong. As it happens, for every article heralding the end of cold calling there is another extolling the virtues of the very same thing, providing you just do it right. LinkedIn though are looking for the final word on the subject. They have announced it's imminent demise.

It is hard to believe that businesses continued to invest in any activity that works three times in a hundred for so long

The Usual Suspects

When I speak at sales conferences and workshops, I often ask the assembled group of professional sellers ‘Who really enjoys cold calling?’ Inevitably, I will see one or two defiant hands reaching high and I have made it a habit to seek them out during a break to find out more. They are invariably resilient, optimistic and interesting people. However, I am not sure I am asking the right crowd.

If I asked a room full of business buyers ‘how many of you enjoy receiving a cold call?’ then I suspect I would be faced with an uncomfortable silence. In fact a study on buyer preferences commissioned by IBM revealed that cold calling is 97% ineffective. As buyers, we simply do not like the intrusion.

Crime Scene Investigation

Those three positive connections must seem pretty good to the caller after ninety or so curt and dismissive responses. I have heard it called ‘living for the yes’ a euphoric high as a result of affirmation after a boat load of human rejection. I have nothing but admiration for those that do it, do it well and manage to stay positive dial after dial. However, it seems to me that we are asking the wrong question too.

It is hard to believe that businesses continue to invest in any activity that works three times in a hundred. One reaction seems to be to find ways to do it at lower cost. As it becomes increasingly ineffective we use email, automated phone calls and other digital intrusions to disturb many and find the few. All of which spectacularly ignores the real problem. For every three, usually reluctant, yes’s we have inflicted an activity that is un-welcomed by 97 potential customers. Is that how we really want to treat those with which we hope to enjoy a commercial relationship?

There is no candlestick or lead pipe in the library and there is no one technology, company or person holding a smoking gun

Means, Motive, Opportunity

The real reason that cold calling is nearing its end is a new breed of business buyers; the connected business buyer. They are not millennials, generation Y, digital natives or so-called screenagers. Nor are they about to enter the workforce; they are already there. They are sophisticated business buyers that use online resources and professional social network to make their purchasing decisions today. These, often senior decision makers, prefer to find their own information and validate with social proof through those they trust. They refer to their peer group, to ‘people like them’ rather than vendors in almost all buying choices. Connected buyers are in control of their decision making process and are simply not interested in being invited into a sales funnel at the wrong time for them through a cold call.

Cold callers are being told that their target is ‘in a meeting right now’ but they are not. They are buying from someone else. Someone who understand the new buying behaviour

Zeds Dead

Connected Business Buyers are screening their calls, setting up junk filters and ignoring voicemails from sellers. Their colleagues tell cold callers that their target is ‘in a meeting right now’ but they are not. They are buying from someone else. Whilst they are mostly doing it for themselves on-line, social and mobile they eventually partner with a seller that understands these new behaviours and was supporting them through their own digital social presence. Sellers have a new role in a digital and social world that involves a new set of behaviours including;

• Establish a personal, authentic on-line reputation
• Really Listen. Not to handle objections but to understand the customers challenges and opportunities
• Build and nurture a digital social network of individuals that they can help
• Develop a mindset of serving your customers not selling to them

And this is the real reason the cold call is at an end. There is no candlestick or lead pipe in the library and there is no one technology, company or person holding a smoking gun. Instead it is slowly being starved of oxygen by an unrelenting change in buyer behaviour and those that chose to serve them on their terms.

About: Dale Roberts is VP Professional Services for Social CRM Innovator Artesian, author Decision Sourcing, Gower 2013 and a regular speaker on the impact of Digital, Mobile and Social on organisations. He is currently helping large enterprise B2B sales teams improve the way they engage with their customers and completing his new book The World of Workcraft.