(Insert Blanket Generalization About Sales Tactic Here)........

Everyday like 1000's of other sales professionals, my sales team makes cold calls. They also send emails.......they send Linkedin messages.....some skype.....hell, I even have one guy who writes a hand written letter to every single one of his prospects. Why?

BECAUSE EVERY SINGLE CLIENT, EVERY SINGLE SALES REP, AND EVERY SINGLE DEAL ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. My sales team, like so many other successful sales teams know that approaching your clients and prospects with only one tool is a recipe for long term failure. Every six months, someone writes a new book, or a new piece of sales or marketing software is released - and "thought leaders" act as if the sales landscape as it has existed forever has abruptly changed.

I thought I'd take a second and clear the air.

• Cold Calling is NOT DEAD. Is it more difficult? Yes. Are their tactics that have generally higher conversion rates? Yes. Would I base the foundation of my sales approach on cold calling, absolutely NOT, but one cold call can change the trajectory of your month/quarter/year.
• "Social Selling" is NOT a new concept, and does not solve all of the world's challenges. In its basic form, social selling is about planting seeds across a large network of your target buyers, and letting those seeds grow into future opportunities. The same can be said for tactics like networking events and fax machine blasts employed some 25+ years ago. Social media is just another channel of communication, a platform to interact with your prospects.
• There are intangibles technology will never replace . Artificial intelligence can't feel the pressure to succeed. Sales Prospecting software can't have a hunch that the client is going to be in the office early. Google Searches and online reviews cannot look a prospect in the eye and make them feel comfortable in their purchase decision.

Bottom line - success in sales has little to do with the tactics you employ, and everything to do with the execution of those tactics. Anything executed well works well, and likewise anything executed poorly doesn't work. Given the choice I'd take my chances with 10 well executed cold calls vs. 10 poorly executed emails of social posts. Most important, don't ever put all of your eggs in one tactical basket, there are no two clients, companies, deals that are alike. Approaching them based on tactical generalizations is a recipe for sales mediocrity.