Why cold calling is dead and Jeff Weiner is my hero.

Cold calling is dead, or at least it should be. 

I'm flying to San Francisco tonight to speak at LinkedIn's HQ. I'm not going to try and act calm and collected because it's an incredible opportunity. A few years ago I had the opportunity to sit a couple feet away from Jeff Weiner during an interview he gave at Yelp HQ. He was the most impressive person I had ever listened to. He balanced his incredible intellect with his philanthropic pursuits in education, and then topped it off by spatting off some crazy 18th century poem... an f'ing poem guys. Needless to say he pretty much became my north star for the type of leader I wanted to become. So when I was asked to be on a panel, be interviewed for an e-book, and do the LinkedIn business webinar on Social Selling, I pretty much crapped my pants. 

Heading into this week at LinkedIn it made me start to think about what LinkedIn was. How it changed from being and online resume to, in my opinion, the number one social selling tool on the planet. 

I think it all started when LinkedIn realized that cold calling was pretty much the worst thing since socks with sandals. (you know who you are)

Here's what I'm not saying, "using the phone is dead". In no way is that statement true. However, pounding the phones and hoping for a 30 second elevator pitch is a waste of time.  

UPDATE: Click here for the follow up post.  

And we all know that time is valuable, especially because we can't get it back. 

Here's the solution, "Social Selling". Seems to be all the rage right now, but let me break it down for you in three parts. 

1. Do your homework

In a world where you can impulsively swipe left, or right, to pick your mate, it's hard to preach the gospel of reciprocity. 

Sales can be incredibly rewarding when you have two things. 1. a great product or service. 2. tools to build long lasting and valuable relationships.

Social selling let's you accomplish this by giving you a target market that provides consumable information that you can use to authentically get to know someone. LinkedIn is a great example because people put their entire professional life online. You can see what they like, what groups they're in, what they write about, and what they care about. You can start to engage in meaningful ways, commenting on their posts, finding common threads.

I'm not encouraging you to become a stalker. Please don't say "I love the color of your new curtains in the  living room", but make a connection and genuinely care about it. 

This is the way you "earn" the ability to sell to someone. 

2. Add Value

Make sure that you're putting out content that is helpful to your target market. Make sure you are doing that on social platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, SnapChat, etc.). Make sure it's consistent across your professional platforms and strategically placed in arms reach of your customers. 

Make sure your damn LinkedIn profile is up to date! (need help, here)

Always ask yourself "would I want to connect with me"?

3. Less transaction, more reciprocity 

Mutually beneficial. Two words that make every deal that much sweeter. Make sure you're giving, and then give some more. 

Cold calling doesn't allow for this. It doesn't provide a space to provide value. In my experience it's one sided and even when you are practicing the popular 80/20 listening to speaking method, it still feels dirty. 

Why do we hate cold calling so much? Because we don't pick up numbers we don't know! Because (yes, grammatically my english professor is rolling his eyes right now) we don't talk to strangers on the subway, and we don't open the door for traveling evangelists. You don't have my permission and I like my personal space. That's the attitude. However, that dissipates the moment you decide to invest more time in the humanity of selling and less time in immediate gratification. 

Jerry Springer Final Thoughts:

Some of the biggest multi-million dollar deals that I have been a part of took real relational investments. True transparency and online vulnerability. Social selling coupled with talented sales people can change our economy. Yes, I actually believe that. 

Have a good day.