Cold calling is dead

 

The other day, I sat down to breakfast with one of my best mates in the world.

He works in real estate for one of Australia’s more prolific agencies. And during the course of our conversation, we got onto the subject of cold calling.

Specifically, we started talking about how hard it is to cold call these days.

That got me thinking about the reasons why that is. And I didn’t have to look far. I just looked at my own behaviour. 

For example… 

In my case, it’s impossible to get through to me on the phone unless I know who you are. If you’re not in my contact list, I’m not picking up.

So you can ring and ring and ring and I won’t pick up. 

Guess who’s not in my contact list.

…cold callers.

I’m not the only one. I’ve asked around and lots of people I know are the same. If they don’t know the number, they don’t pick up. 

And that’s just one reason why cold calling is dead (or at least, an activity for dummies). 

The simple fact is that we’re in a warmer world.

And I’m not talking about the temperature here.

I’m saying that you need to warm your prospects up before calling them. It just makes everything so much easier, especially at scale. 

And this is why I sing the virtues of content marketing. The content you put out allows people to get to know who you are and what you’re about. 

So when you do speak to them on the phone it’s a more pleasant conversation. And that translates to more sales and less pressure for the sales team. 

The stats back it up…

According to Demand Gen, 47% of buyers viewed three to five pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep.