Whenever you see an article that claims cold calling is dead, look and see where the article is coming from. There is a good chance that it is coming from a company selling services that are alternatives to cold calling. Take for example this article from the popular website Hubspot 16 Compelling Statistics That Prove Cold Calling Is Dead. This article and graphic has been around for quite a while and is still generating a lot of traffic. The truth is that many sales professionals wish that cold calling was dead. It is hard work. So is it really dead?
From Forbes, a recent article with the title Cold Communication Isn’t Dead, Bad Messages Are – author Jim Keenan, CEO of Sales Guy Inc, writes –
“There has been a lot of discussion and discourse around whether or not cold outreach is dead. To me, there is no argument. If you want to crush your quota, this is a moot discussion. Cold calling outreach is NOT dead. Therefore, let’s accept that calling and interrupting your prospects and customers is part of the job and that we need to get better at it.”
In this recent piece in the Globe and Mail ‘Is Cold Calling Really Dead?’ Ben Firman, managing director of the 80-20 Growth Corporation writes –
“Against a rising swell of opinion to the contrary, I would like to propose that not only is cold calling alive and well, but that when executed brilliantly and augmented with insights that challenge the status quo, it is the most powerful, cost effective and expedient way for a B2B focused organization to grow.”
Hubspot’s tools are highly useful, there is no doubt, but a nicely designed infographic and a barrage of disconnected statistics does nothing to support that cold calling is dead.
Take the claim that only 1% of cold calls convert into sales appointments supports the death of cold calling. Our Business development reps make between 25-30 calls per hour. 1% works out to one appointment every 3-4 hours – which most of our clients consider to be a very cost effective use of their resources. From this output they end up closing enough business to generate a very healthy ROI. We have some campaigns that generate an appointment 1 out of every 50 calls, or better. We have some clients where we are generating an appointment 1 out of every 200 calls, or less. In the context of those industries the clients consider even half of one percent to be effective.
We are a business to business call center, and we know better than anyone that cold calling is alive and well – and highly effective
https://yorkc.com/our-cold-calls-are-different-from-sales-calls/
