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March 2, 2015 by Brett Leave a Comment

5 Reasons Why Cold Calling Is Not Dead (and Never Will Be)

I love social media more than the average sales professional. I love to blog and tweet and Facebook and connect on LinkedIn. I even have a secret affinity to Pinterest and Instagram – not typical for insurance sales guys.

But having been involved in social media for this long simply confirms my belief that cold calling is not dead.

If you want to make hay in higher stakes selling, then you must pick up the phone and make calls. Just like the most beautiful cheerleader wasn’t running around searching for dates, your most coveted future client isn’t trolling LinkedIn to find a service provider.

That client already has someone who that client assumes is doing a good job. Further, fewer individuals are on LinkedIn and Twitter than we imagine, especially when it comes to key contacts in targeted firms. These contacts didn’t rise in the rinks because they were spending all their time on social media.

Cold Calling, Defined

Much current sales literature might malign cold calling by redefining cold calling as blindly taking a list of prospects and powering through dial after dial.

That is a version of cold calling.

These days, most of us can do a little research and relationship-building online or through other venues. I would include making calls based on basic research as cold calling. Unless you’ve gained specific permission to call, then it’s a call that is unexpected.

At the very least, you should be clear on the type of firm or client you can best serve before you start dialing.

Current social selling proponents might call well-researched calling ‘warm calling’, but when most new sale pros have any leeway NOT to make calls, even well-researched calls, they will not, citing that ‘it doesn’t work’ or ‘nobody takes calls’ or some other excuse.

A cold call for our purposes here: Any call you make during a specified prospecting session to a company or individual who is not expecting a call from you, for the purpose of building a business relationship. 

Why Cold Calling Is Not Dead

There are a bunch of reasons why cold calling is not dead. Even when you hear your favorite online or sales trainer gurus tell you that it’s an ineffective method of prospecting, please do not believe that person. Find that trainer or online resource (I suggest Anthony Iannarino or Paul Castain as places to start) who are active on social and blog regularly, while still encouraging using prospecting calls as part of your relationship-opening arsenal.

5 Reasons Why Cold Calling Isn’t Dead

Your key client isn’t looking for you

I touched on this above, but the client you want to work with – that whale, isn’t always looking for a new provider of goods and services. You might need to start adding value. But before you do, that client needs to know you exist. Making a telephone call is a very effective way of doing so.

Your key client might need you, but doesn’t know where to find you

I’ve run into this scenario a few times. I call a prospect from a general, but targeted list, and gotten the response, “You sell insurance specifically to nonprofits? Oh good. We need you. We’ve had a hard time finding an insurance agent that gets us.”  If you niche out well, then your future clients desperately need you, but they don’t know where you are.

Your key client isn’t actually on Twitter or LinkedIn

Again, we touched on this above. My whole C-Suite at my current employer’s office is not active on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. You would never get in with my firm as a service provider by trolling social media. You might gain a little information about us, but you’d never directly connect to a decision-maker.

Cold calling requires clarity about your value proposition

Cold calling requires that you lead with value, not relationship. The person on the other end of the line does not know, like, or trust you yet, and one of the only ways to gain traction is by a quick hit of value. Consequently, making effective cold calls requires that you mine the value that you create for others. This makes cold calling relevant because it requires that you define your own relevance to your prospects. As a by-product, this practice will make your social media efforts even more compelling.

Cold calling requires that you gain commitments

This reason might sound more like a skill you have to acquire vs. a reason why cold calling isn’t dead. In truth, all sales is a practice in gaining commitments.  All sales requires some measure of boldness.  Cold calling is an effective way of learning how to ask for the next commitment from your prospective client and why they should commit to your process in the first place. Social selling often is an endless circle of likes, reposts, and favorites, never requiring someone to ask for a commitment, thus, never resulting in sales.

Bonus Reason: Cold calling allows you to tell people about your content and social marketing efforts

Your social efforts could, possibly, make your cold calling more relevant by giving you a very tiny, simple commitment to gain from your prospect. Use the call to connect on LinkedIn, Twitter, or to point the individual to your stellar blog content.

Do You Still Make Prospecting Calls?

Do you still find success making calls? Do you have a regular weekly or daily practice of picking up the phone and calling individuals who aren’t expecting your call?

Let me know in the comments what works for you – or if you’ve punted the practice, and why

Filed Under: Marketing Experiments, Mindset Experiments, Sales Experiments, Social Media Experiments Tagged With: cold calling, cold calling is not dead, lead generation, prospecting

September 25, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

I Have a Crush on Pinterest

And I blame Cynthia Sanchez and Vincent Ng. I also blame the fact that I went through a brief spat with Twitter and Facebook. They just weren’t giving me what I wanted. I needed more.

So, I started flirting with Pinterest. She is gorgeous. I love her long, slender images. And the fact that she’s always full of surprises and suggestions and fun ideas.

I still feel a little awkward around her (her being Pinterest, of course), but that’s why I love Ms. Sanchez’s Oh So Pinteresting Podcast.

Sanchez has a handle on how to make your pins as searchable as possible (hint: pin descriptions and image names and alt-text are really important. If you don’t know what that means, neither did I). She also offers wonderful insight whenever Pinterest changes (which seems to be daily).

When I first started getting into Pinterest to help out a friend’s ecommerce efforts, I found her podcast and power listened to about 15 episodes (at least). If you’re new to Pinterest, I recommend doing the same to give yourself a solid foundation.

In addition to helping me with the ecommerce work, I ended up picking up great tidbits to use for my B2B day job as a commercial insurance man.

Vincent Ng’s book Pinterest to Profits with Pintalysis is also a wonderful resource. Mr. Ng helped teach Sanchez’s Oh So Pinteresting Pinterest for Business Workshop – a solid little course that takes you from 101 status to 301 status pretty quickly.

Pinterest and Editorial Perspective

While I’m not sure if Pinterest is the most effective social channel for insurance, I know that developing an editorial perspective with Pinterest in mind helps me work harder to get inside of the heads of my clients.

As a matter of fact, one of my favorite things about all content and social marketing methods and options is that they have helped develop my voice as a sales professional. They force you to clarify your value and gain greater understanding of your audience.

But like any other social channel, you have to be social. And that’s what today’s short action is about.

Today’s Action: Reach Out to Pinners Who Pin Your Pins and Pin Their Pins

Yes… that was an intentional attempt at a tongue twister. The Oh So Pinteresting (OSP) episode 71 encouraged being a little more social on Pinterest. It’s a great idea. And it seems normal to do. I went into a couple of my accounts and dug through the people who pinned my pins and followed boards, left comments, and repinned pins.

Simple. Easy. Not groundbreaking activity, but this challenge isn’t about being a daily groundbreaker. It’s about taking a small action daily. I did the action. Yay me. 🙂

Today’s Listening and Reading (besides the Oh So Pinteresting Episode 71)

How to Overcome Addictions and Be Courageously Vulnerable with Glennon Melton – The School of Greatness Podcast with Lewis Howes. Melton’s story is powerful. Check out her blog, The Momastery, to learn more.

The Power of Consistency: Prosperity Mindset Training for Sales and Business Professionals (Affiliate Link) by Weldon Long  – I’m still making my way through this book. Look forward to being… consistent with the info that is in the book, doing my daily quiet reflection exercises.

Until tomorrow…

Filed Under: Marketing Experiments, Sales Experiments, Social Media Experiments Tagged With: consistency, cynthia sanchez, glennon melton, lewis howes, marketing, pinterest, school of greatness, social media marketing, vincent ng, weldon long

September 24, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

It’s My Birthday and I’m Going to Tell Stories Like Grandpa

It’s My Birthday and I’m Going to Tell Stories Like Grandpa

The 80/20 rule. Is it really a universal truth like gravity and the perfection of Moose Tracks ice cream?

Maybe it’s not so universal. And I’m not just saying that it’s more like the 90/10 rule.

The 80/20 rule is actually the Pareto principle, the idea that 80% of results derive from 20% 0f the causes.  The principle has its origins in economics. An example would be that 20% of individuals own 80% of the land.

There is some solid applications we can make from this principle. Many of us in sales could trace 80% of our revenue to 20% of clients. 20% of our sales activities can be leveraged to 80% of our effectiveness.

The 80/20 or 90/10 rule often gets applied to social media activities, also. It’s become almost universally accepted that 80% of social media posts should be content curation (i.e. posting links to other’s blogs or resources) and 20% links to your own business’s information or blog posts.

Oh So Pinteresting, Oh So Helpful (and Eye-Opening)

But then, listening through the Oh So Pinteresting Podcast, I landed on the gem that is episode 069 – Is Your Social Media Content Curation Just Noise OSP 069.

It was refreshing to listen to Ralph Rivera challenge this 80/20 practice of focusing on content curation vs. learning how to usefully and generously tell your own business story. I love the basic premise that if we want people to benefit from the value our businesses bring to the table, why do we always highlight everybody else’s work? Is it really helpful to send people away from our own websites and content where we should be showing how we can solve their problems?

It was like a breathe of fresh air. (He wrote two blog posts on the topic: Part 1 and Part 2). We don’t have to try to be the most well-versed blog readers out there! We just need to do a better job at translating our work into a generous story that can benefit readers, fans, and others who might run into our work.

He uses the metaphor of listening to Grandpa tell stories at the dinner table. Nobody tells him to shush. He’s wise. He has experience. He has some humor about him. We love to hear him tell his story. We don’t want him to toss Readers Digests to everybody and tell them to go find a spot on the couch.

My Action Today: Use social media and other content to amplify the value of those I help vs. sending people to others’ home bases all the time.

I help a few folks with their social media. I drafted an initial plan that will help move our work from a 80/20 type output to translating our offerings into a story that will engage readers with our products and services vs. some sort of falsely humble content curation generosity thing (although I won’t stop completely).

As a part-timer in the social media game and as one who has fallen prey to the 80/20 gospel, I’m excited about the shift.

Rivera also pointed out that brand awareness doesn’t necessarily put money in the bank. Sales put money in the bank. And the problem with much social media striving is that it is not tied to revenue.

Over the next few days, I look forward to seeing how I can tell marketing stories in a way that draws engagement to my work and the work of my clients vs. overworking my Feedly to Buffer connection (as much as I love that connection).

A huge P.S. here: Check out Cynthia Sanchez and her work over at Oh So Pinteresting. Especially check out her podcast and give her workshop a whirl if you are interested in using Pinterest for your business. It has singlehandedly caused me to become a Pinterest nerd.

And today’s my birthday (hence the post title). Happy birthday to me. 🙂

It's my birthday and I'm going to start telling some stories. I'm the blond kid.
It’s my birthday and I’m going to start telling some stories. I’m the blond kid.

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How do you use social media in your business? Are you a curator? Are you a storyteller? Can you use curation to tell a story? 

Filed Under: Content Creation Experiments, Social Media Experiments Tagged With: content curation, cynthia sanchez, marketings, oh so pinteresting, pinterest, ralph rivera, social media, social media marketing, websearchsocial

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Hello!

Brett the sales experimenter and the challenge accepter Brett - Sales and Marketing Experimenter. I'm a reluctant sales professional. I didn't start out my career in sales and marketing, but I've grown to enjoy it. Here I discuss marketing, sales, productivity, and mindset experiments that will hopefully yield greater results and a more deeply satisfying sales career.

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Recent Posts

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