Is Cold Calling a part of the future of Lead Generation or is it dead?
This is probably the number question most salespeople today wonder and debate about. Some may want to hear that it's dead because they dread the sound of a hard "NO" from the person on the other side of their next call. Others may want to hold on to it for dear life because if they can't cold call, what will they do?
For decades cold calling has been the way we reach out to leads and find new prospects to engage with but like with everything in life, bad times never last and all good things must come to an end. Is this a bad time running out or a good time ending?
Stepping back and having to use alternatives, I've learned about the limitations that come with cold calling as opposed to more modern methods of marketing, such as Digital Marketing. Cold calling isn't dead, we cannot say that it is because in an ideal situation with, a great pitch, you're going to find somebody that will have the problem you solve and you'll engage with them and they'll purchase from you. Businesses don't survive on a few sales though and with limited resources, it makes it even more difficult for them to grow
If you do Business to Business (B2B) sales, you may be able to relate more. Especially with COVID19 in existence and the legislation that comes with Lockdown in our country, when working from home became a standard, sales based on cold calling professionals at their offices became difficult. We live in a world today where things are nothing like they were the past 10 - 20 years. Believe it or not, things have changed and with the evolution of technology, the way we live has changed too.
Cold calling is disruptive, very disruptive. You're calling somebody you don't know and that may not know you, to gain their time while they're busy with something you don't know about. While that's okay because you can call somebody back, you've already created your first impression with that prospect and lost time. Each day, one salesperson can call between 70 - 90 numbers considering that you're intending to have good but fairly quick conversations (so it's dependent on your pitch). With this in mind, you can only call (a maximum of) 450 numbers in a 5-day working week. Consider the talk-time it costs depending on your tariffs and consider the salary to pay your staff.
With Digital Marketing, on the other hand, you can create an ad with the opportunity to choose one of the various goals for your ad in easily 10 minutes and reach more than 450 people in one day or one hour depending on the amount of money you invest to advertise. This, in turn, increases your engagements and therefore your sales. Costs to advertise vary from platform to platform. For example, Google Ads has a different pricing structure compared to Facebook and Linkedin, etc. But this increases your chances of reaching people in a quicker time frame astronomically.
Consider these facts and consider the cost, with the opportunities you could be losing every single day. You'll soon understand that what you may need is not more cold callers. What you may need is a Digital Marketing Specialist and that is exactly what Virtual Sales SA is. Make a decision to chat to us about helping you increase the revenue and growth of your business today.