Will Social Selling End Cold Calling?

With social selling growing at a very rapid rate, a lot of people are wondering whether it will over take cold calling as the key method of sales prospecting. More and more people are using and engaging through the internet, so could this be the end of cold calling?

Social selling is when salespeople use social media to interact directly with their prospects. Salespeople will provide value by answering prospect questions and offering thoughtful content until the prospect is ready to buy.

Selling has always been social, always has been and always will be. Even before the internet and social media, people bought from people in social ways. They discussed products with their friends, got referred to products and services from happy customers and they could easily promote their distress if they weren't happy.

Cold calling is defined as the solicitation of business from potential customers who have had no prior contact with the salesperson conducting the call, therefore making the call cold. Cold calling is used to attempt to convince potential customers to purchase either the salesperson's product or service.

Cold calling has been a key strategy for sales people all across the world for a long time now. It's one of the main methods of finding and engaging new customers to create business. Companies would buy data and their sales teams would spend time

Cold calling is a very traditional and reliable method of finding customers. The problem is it also has a very low conversion rate. On average only 15% of cold calling activity will generate interest, with even less actually converting into a sale.

Social selling currently adds around an extra 20% to that conversion rate, which is ever growing. As more and more people join and start to engage online, those stats are growing.

There is no denying the impact social selling is having in the sales world, and I would encourage everyone to start utilizing it. To get the most out of it, training will be key. There are so many tips and tricks, methods and strategies, that if mastered can unlock so many more sales opportunities. www.salesforlife.com do some great courses, one of which I am currently working through now and is proving hugely beneficial.

Can social selling really end cold calling though?

There is no reason to say that the world couldn't and won't become totally digital. There is every possibility that the majority of people and businesses will become more interactive online than face to face or over the phone.

Right now, cold calling is still a very effective tool and one that works just as well as it always has done. Both cold calling and social selling yield great results, and so the best strategy is to use them together. Use social selling to enhance your cold calling.

There is no point choosing one over the other, social media is out there and it is a very lucrative market. Use it to market your products, to connect, learn and engage with prospects. Then use cold calling to grow that relationship, build trust and start the sales cycle.

 How can you use social selling AND cold calling to sell?

There are some great ways to use both social selling and cold calling to smash you targets and achieve your quota. Here are a few:

• Grow your LinkedIn network through your cold calls. If you are cold calling and speaking to people every day, connect with them on LinkedIn. They may not be interested in what you're selling right now, but keep in touch with them, let them see what you share, and continue to build the relationship.
• Use LinkedIn or other social media platforms to find the best person to speak too. If you are trying to engage with a company, find who works there, what positions they are in and you can then target the person most likely to make the decision. Once you have a name, you will be more likely to get through to them when calling.
• Share relevant content through LinkedIn and use it as a conversation piece when you call them. Ask them if they read the post you shared and use it to build a relationship.
• Join groups with your prospects and potential customers and keep up to date with what they are interested in and what they are talking about. When you the go to cold call them, you have a lot to talk about. Suddenly you can have a much more friendly conversation and will build a lot more trust.

What do you think? Do you think social selling will end cold calling? Do you have any tips to succeed at social selling? Please write them and share them in the comments box.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post, if you enjoyed it please do click Like and click Share to share it with your own network.