See those little black boxes? They are called telephones.

Nowadays, I hear over and over again that cold calling is dead. Is it dead or is the courage to do it dead? Decision makers that I speak to on a regular basis often say that they receive “too many” sales calls from people “just like me.”

I’m not sure if I should be offended or motivated!

With the rise of social media over the last 10-15 years, more sales people are relying on “social selling” over the old-school method of cold calling to drive sales and build relationships. Two things are causing this trend: Fear and Passiveness.

Now as a disclaimer, I believe that social selling works to an extent. After reviewing my own experiences, most interested customers that I cold call will check my Linkedin profile within a day or so of my call. Based on my personal branding or posts or experience, they make a judgement. Good or bad…In life, first impressions are crucial. In the 21st century sales culture, Linkedin is your first impression. Social selling can be powerful, but it should be a supplement to good, old fashioned phone calls.

The major issue that most people have with cold calling vs. social selling is a matter of definition.

According to Wikipedia, cold calling is defined as:

"The solicitation of business from potential customers who have had no prior contact with the salesperson conducting the call."

And social selling is defined by Wikipedia as:

"The process of developing relationships as part of the sales process. Today this often takes place via social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest."

The goal of cold calling for outside sales reps should be exclusively to set a meeting or at the very least gain additional information about a customer. The goal of social selling; however, is developing relationships via social networks. While sales is a very relational business, cold calling prospects is the first step to potentially developing a relationship, if it makes sense. Social Networks should be used to expand, supplement and develop those relationships further not the exclusive tool. Emailing and messaging through social networks to set meetings is a great way to be ignored. It’s also not as personal as a phone call. There are two main reasons why many “sales people” are saying that cold calling is dead.

There are two main reasons why many “sales people” are saying that cold calling is dead.

Fear. Trust me there are many days when the phone weighs 500+ pounds. Let me be the first to say, it’s not easy! The fear of rejection is a powerful demotivator. It’s hard to execute a call list of 50, 100, 150 calls in a day. Let alone every day! But successful sales people will and should do it. If you’re in outbound sales, your responsibility is to set face to face meetings. There’s no better way to do this than to call your prospects using the telephone. Sometimes it’s a very cold call, other times its little warmer. But rarely, do customers call you begging to meet with you based off a Linkedin post from last week. So, cold calling is the best way to land that next big meeting with your next big customer.

Tip: Remember, David J. Schwartz, the author of The Magic of Thinking Big, said, “Action cures fear.” Make the “easy” calls first, then move to the harder ones.

“Action cures fear.”

Passiveness. Staring at Linkedin for hours will not grow your business. Trust me I’ve tried it! Being passive is your marketing department’s job. Not yours. Outside sales is about being proactive not posting witty sayings or quotes on Twitter and hoping that your big target customer calls you. Passive sales people are soon-to-be unemployed sales people. Personally, I typically envision my competitors stealing food from my dinner table or withdrawing money from my bank account when I think about not being aggressive or proactive in my sales approach. The bottomline is being passive is an easier and safer plan or “sales strategy,” but it doesn’t result in executing and surpassing your quota.

Passiveness can be a result of fear. But in sales fear and passivity are two different diseases. Social media is a tool to build and expand your business and business relationships. Not replace the hard work of prospecting. It’s also a great way to identify and construct a cold call list. Through different social networks, you can easily discover who decision makers are and learn a little about them prior to calling them. This can make your cold call a little warmer. And that’s the goal!

As a caveat, networking groups that meet in person weekly or monthly are also a great way to build relationships with potential customers, but again fear of rejection and passiveness keep many sales people away from these events.

Will cold calling ever die? As long as sales is a human occupation and not delegated to robots or AI, cold calling must live on. And to that point, as long as sales is about relationships and trust and human interaction, in the event of the singularity, sales people who make cold calls and begin relationships through the telephone may be the only humans allowed to remain…

So, I think it’s time to pick up the phone and start dialing!