4 Myths About Cold Calling, Debunked

By Staff Reporter

Aug 16, 2019 11:58 AM EDT

Cold calling gets a little bit of a bad rap, not just for its perceived intrusiveness, but also for how challenging it can be to a new sales development rep. Done right, however, cold calling is neither intrusive nor difficult to execute, and can, in fact, be the most powerful tool in your sales arsenal. 

So why are some sales teams so slow to embrace this once popular approach? The problem is that certain myths around cold calling continue to permeate the sales industry imagination. The rise of social selling caused a thousand think pieces to launch about the death of cold calling as if there was only enough space in the sales lexicon for one of the two. And some use their own worst experiences with telemarketers to inform their opinion on cold calling, neglecting studies about its effectiveness. 

This article will aim to dispel a few of those myths and illustrate how cold calling remains an important skill and, when done right, an effective, cost-effective, expedient sales approach. 

Cold Calling Is Dead

Let's start with this pronouncement, making the rounds in some corners of the blogosphere a while back. Blame the enthusiasm around social selling for this one - in their efforts to promote social selling as an effective sales approach (which it is,) some blog writers felt they needed to construct an "x vs. y" narrative around the two sales approaches. To demonstrate the rise of social selling, they pronounced the death of cold calling. In actuality, the two work well side-by-side, and many sales teams use social selling to warm up their cold calls. 

Cold Calling Is Not a Great Use of Time

On the contrary, with the right software, cold calling can be an incredible use of your sales reps' time. As long as you automate the process with cold call tracking software that auto-dials and uses lead routing to slash the time spent between calls, cold calling is an incredibly productive approach. 

Cold Calling Scripts Are Stiff and Ineffective

Yes, the cold calling scripts of old weren't the most "human" things; they weren't especially conducive to back-and-forth conversation. But cold calling has grown with the times and become more sophisticated. Nowadays, as part of a sales engagement platform, you can use what's called "logical branch scripting," which presents the salesperson with branching dialogue options based on where the conversation is going. 

Cold Calling is Annoying

The issue here is that this statement is way too absolute. Sure, some businesses find cold calling annoying, but others rely on receiving cold calls to expose themselves to different business solutions. Especially if the caller is skilled and uses active listening, there shouldn't be anything intrusive or annoying about the process. If everyone thought cold calling was annoying, it wouldn't work - yet, it is second only to referrals in terms of lead generation

Cold calling isn't dead, or inefficient or stiff or annoying. At least not when it's done right. A team of sales reps trained to cold call skilfully, along with the right automation software and backed by other approaches, will help your organization increase sales. 

© 2024 VCPOST, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Join the Conversation

Real Time Analytics