Few things strike terror in the hearts of salespeople more than these words: COLD CALLING BLITZ!If there was one thing I HATED while working in sales, it was the stupid and idiotic cold calling blitz.
Cold calling blitzes are predicated on this logic: "We don't have enough sales coming in, since cold calling isn't working for our reps, so let's do MORE AND MORE of it!"
The concept is this: Get every sales rep in the office either on the phone, or out door-to-door, and spend the entire day making cold calls.
Umm..... DUMB.
Do cold calling blitzes result in lots of appointments? Sometimes.
Do these appointments turn into sales? No.
Why Cold Calling Blitzes Don't Work
It's pretty obvious that with enough cold calls, you can definitely set several appointments. But, appointments made from cold calls convert into sales at an astonishingly low rate.
I can remember spending 80% of my time cold calling, back before I knew better, while cold calling generated only 5% of my total sales.
Why is this so?
Quite simply, because busy, successful people will almost never accept cold calls. In fact the famous University of North Carolina study concluded that only 20% of decision makers will take a cold call.
Who does this leave?
The time-wasters, people with no authority to sign but who have nothing better to do, or worse yet, who get a sick power trip out of taunting salespeople. Sales author Tony Parinello calls them "Seymours" because they always want to "see more" but they never buy!
The main problem with a cold calling blitz is that it forces sales reps to set the greatest number of appointments within a short period of time. What happens? Salespeople madly dial the phone or rush from door-to-door, quickly setting appointments without doing ANY qualifying at all. (Top sales pro go so far as to quality prospects OUT, not just merely qualify them.)
The end result is a bunch of wasted time and worthless appointments with people who are never going to buy. So you've not only wasted a bunch of time on the cold calling blitz, but now you get to waste time on fruitless appointments, and probably leaving endless voicemails and emails for these non-buyers!
How To Solve The Problem
Hey sales managers, listen up: If you want to increase sales, improve your team's attitude, and increase the bottom line, drop the cold calling blitzes!
And if you're a salesperson, here's my advice to you: STOP cold calling and START doing something that works instead!
View The Original Article On LinkedIn Here
Learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System here.
New York Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas is the author of the Never Cold Call Again® System and has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company’s top 30 most influential people online. To learn more, and to download a free 37-page PDF preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system, visit NeverColdCall.com