Cold Calling Rapidly Disappearing

As more and more people enter the sales profession, less and less are utilizing cold calling as their prospecting technique of choice.

Why is this happening? Why is cold calling going away?

There are several reasons. First of all, prospects have become so sick and tired of cold calling that they have reached the point of total intolerance. Seasoned salespeople know this, yet many continue to cold call, if only because they haven’t been taught anything different and have become used to the daily rejection. Rookies, on the other hand, are taken aback at the reactions they get while cold calling and immediately abandon it or switch professions.

Second, prospects don’t need salespeople to inform them anymore. Years ago, a prospect would be open to listening to salespeople who were cold calling, take in the information, and possibly move forward with a purchase. This is no longer the case because prospects who are in a buying mode have all of the information they need right at their fingertips thanks to the Internet. So, while salespeople are still necessary to carry out the actual selling process, cold calling is rapidly going away now that we’re in the Information Age.

Third, the Internet has taken business networking to a whole new level. Only a couple of years ago, it was a rite of passage for a salesperson to waste lots of time and money attending chamber mixers and networking groups, only to walk out empty handed. This was no more effective than cold calling, but was the extent of networking sophistication for nearly all salespeople. Now that we have rapidly growing business networking sites with tens of millions of members, it’s easier than ever for salespeople to make valuable connections without ever cold calling or wasting time at mixers.

Fourth, younger salespeople are becoming marketing-savvy. It’s no secret that a well-executed personal marketing plan can generate more than enough leads, so marketing is taking the place of cold calling as far as prospecting goes. In the last couple of years, the idea that one can replace cold calling with an intelligent personal marketing plan has finally been accepted as reality. Now that sales managers are finally starting to catch on, cold calling is disappearing quickly.

Finally, cold calling is a morale killer. New entrants into the sales profession see the drudgery and misery of cold calling, and realize that it will get them nowhere. You can’t be successful if you hate what you do, so why do something you hate? That’s why cold calling is so detrimental – everyone hates doing it, and performance suffers as a result.

The bottom line is that cold calling is dead, and is a leftover relic of a previous generation. Today’s successful salespeople have said no to cold calling and yes to smart marketing.