“Stop using your salespeople to find potential customers, and start making investments that will help create demand for your sales team and your company”. So says Teicko Hube in a spot-on article posted in a HubSpot Blog, Demand Creation vs. Cold Calling.
Teicko goes on to make a compelling point about how to generate leads to improve sales results, and asks a pivotal question: Why do businesses invest in good sales reps and then insist they pursue an ineffective selling methodology: searching high and low for someone willing to talk to them?
Fortunately, sales and marketing roles are evolving. It means that companies can make better use of resources to drive greater ROI and improved sales productivity. Yet, not everyone is climbing on board this bus. That’s surprising when you consider that cold calling is:
- Generally loathed by most salespeople and buyers
- A more costly method to develop new business than alternatives
- Rarely going to provide a next step, other than “go away”
- An ineffective and costly use of talented people
Some sales managers (and sales trainers) cling to the notion that cold calling is an effective method to get new business. Perhaps some consider it a rite of passage and proof that the rep is a “real” salesman. In reality cold calling is a process that demoralizes sales reps, aggravates potential buyers, and is built on the premise that to succeed, the rep must churn through countless “no’s” to get to the rare “yes”.
Think about the convergence of events that must take place for a cold call to develop into a lead; it’s astonishing that it ever succeeds. You have to reach the right person who:
- Has a need for your product/service
- Can be convinced of the benefit
- Is persuaded to speak with you about it
- Has or can find the funds
- Has authority to allocate those funds
- And if the stars are in alignment. . .
Successful marketing techniques that capitalize on Internet marketing strategies can be implemented effectively by aligned sales and marketing teams. Who doesn’t want well informed, more qualified prospects that are closer to a buying decision when a sales call happens? How can this not be a trend whose time has come?
Read more about these topics in increasing ROI by aligning sales and marketing, and successful lead generation on inbound marketing.