Why the phone is still an important business development tool.

So I've been doing B2B business development for over 20 years and I remember the time before LinkedIn, email and the web, when the phone was the primary channel for BD outreach and you used the business yellow pages to find a phone number!

Since then, content-based, automated inbound marketing has become the ideal, but it can be costly and time-consuming to set up and manage properly, and it is slooooow at producing meetings and tangible results.

For many small businesses, ￡1k per month for HubSpot (other services are available) and the cost of producing all the content required is just not justifiable.

So they are left with one or two people doing what they can on LinkedIn, via direct email and social channels to identify, reach, meet and convert new prospects.

If you share my recent experience, very few unsolicited emails are ever opened, let alone responded to, even 10 minutes after someone has accepted your LinkedIn invite.

If you think calling is cold, try sending 10 emails to people you have never met or spoken to.

So I'm back on the phone for the following reasons:

1. It is easier to find a prospect's phone number than ever. (Many add their mobiles to their LinkedIn profile)
2. You know when your message hasn't been received!
3. If you get through, people tend to open an email you send in follow up
4. If you get voicemail and leave a friendly short message, your email is more likely to be opened.
5. Fewer people are doing it

So get a post it note, write "Phone First" on it and stick it to your monitor.

I did, and it's working.