By Tibor Shanto - tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca
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Sadly I am at an age where I find myself saying “I remember the first time that was cool”, I have seen thin ties come and go enough times enough time to know not to throw out any ties, because it is only a question of time before someone says, “wow, that’s a cool tie, is it new?” The only thing I can’t remember if it was 1987, 1993 or 2007 when I actually first bought it.
Well it seems that cold calling is coming back into fashion. Not only do you find people dropping euphemisms when referring to the activity, companies popping up all over the place to perform a service many are needing but forgot how to execute. Many closet callers are coming out and proudly proclaiming not only that they regularly part take in cold calling, but that it producing results that exceed the expectations many, and helping many exceed quota.
Amazing what an Arctic Vortex will do. Here we are less than two weeks into the New Year, and the signs are all over that cold calling is cool again. Just last week I had a notice for a webinar from one of the original Sales 2.0 gang, inviting me to a webinar on cold calling. BTW, if you want to attend a webinar from someone who never wavered from cold calling,click here.
Other pundits who not so long ago wrapped themselves in the Sales 2.0 cloak, before dawning top layer of social selling, are now shedding their load, and freely speaking about the virtues of cold calling.
What is truly refreshing in some of their proclamations, is not so much their embracement of this staple and age old tool of sales success, but more importantly their abandonment of the “Us vs. Them” dribble that often dominates the debate. The former stance that cold calling is dead, and it is all about the new thing, is now more reasoned and tempered, and sounds more like those of us who were out in the cold for a while. Namely that it is about a blend of approaches and means of engaging with potential buyers, not one means vs. another.
Maybe it has more to do with the fact that the economy is showing some life, revenue expectations by Wall Street and companies themselves, are causing people to realise that they will need to be more than found if they are going to make quota, they’re actually going to have to go out and find some potential buyers who are not currently in the market or expressed that they may care to be.
In a recent LinkedIn group discussion asking if cold calling is dead or not, the comments were absent of the usual posturing about how cold calling was bad or dead. The tone was more logical, again, putting cold calling alongside social selling and other techniques and tools that make up a successful tool kit.
LinkedIn itself, seems to be leading the charge back. Despite a recent article “Cold Calling is Dead, Thanks To LinkedIn”, seems to have jumped on the band wagon. As with most leaders and pundits, the measure of their commitment lies in what they do, not always in what they say. Since a picture is worth 1,000 words, let me point to a recent advert for asales position at LinkedIn, promoted on LinkedIn. When it comes to Responsibilities, just look at what is number one on the list:
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
About the only thing that could make cold calling more fashionable is to call it Zombie Calling!
