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Cold Calling Rapidly Disappearing
by Frank Rumbauskas
Published on this site: April 20th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
As more and more people enter the sales profession, less and
less are utilizing cold calling as their prospecting technique
of choice.
Why is this happening? Why is cold calling going away?
There are several reasons. First of all, prospects have become
so sick and tired of cold calling that they have reached the
point of total intolerance. Seasoned salespeople know this,
yet many continue to cold call, if only because they haven't
been taught anything different and have become used to the
daily rejection. Rookies, on the other hand, are taken aback at
the reactions they get while cold calling and immediately
abandon it or switch professions.
Second, prospects don't need salespeople to inform them anymore.
Years ago, a prospect would be open to listening to salespeople
who were cold calling, take in the information, and possibly
move forward with a purchase. This is no longer the case because
prospects who are in a buying mode have all of the information
they need right at their fingertips thanks to the Internet.
So, while salespeople are still necessary to carry out the
actual selling process, cold calling is rapidly going away
now that we're in the Information Age.
Third, the Internet has taken business networking to a whole
new level. Only a couple of years ago, it was a rite of passage
for a salesperson to waste lots of time and money attending
chamber mixers and networking groups, only to walk out empty
handed. This was no more effective than cold calling, but
was the extent of networking sophistication for nearly all
salespeople. Now that we have rapidly growing business networking
sites with tens of millions of members, it's easier than ever
for salespeople to make valuable connections without ever
cold calling or wasting time at mixers.
Fourth, younger salespeople are becoming marketing-savvy.
It's no secret that a well-executed personal marketing plan
can generate more than enough leads, so marketing is taking
the place of cold calling as far as prospecting goes. In the
last couple of years, the idea that one can replace cold calling
with an intelligent personal marketing plan has finally been
accepted as reality. Now that sales managers are finally starting
to catch on, cold calling is disappearing quickly.
Finally, cold calling is a morale killer. New entrants into
the sales profession see the drudgery and misery of cold calling,
and realize that it will get them nowhere. You can't be successful
if you hate what you do, so why do something you hate? That's
why cold calling is so detrimental - everyone hates doing
it, and performance suffers as a result.
The bottom line is that cold calling is dead, and is a leftover
relic of a previous generation. Today's successful salespeople
have said no to cold calling and yes to smart marketing.
Frank J. Rumbauskas Jr. is the author of Cold Calling
is a Waste of Time: Sales Success in the Information Age and
Never Cold Call Again: Achieve Sales Greatness Without Cold
Calling. For more information please visit: http://www.nevercoldcall.com
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