Cold calling, dead or alive?

Cold calling died many deaths. I don't know how many articles I have already consumed about how dead cold calling actually is. And still, not only my team is still performing cold calling occasionally but based on a whole bunch of other sources cold calling seems to be alive, again.

Check the following website, "Crush your numbers with these 9 cold calling techiques" , it's from May 2023, and it recommends actually quite interesting approaches, love it! Based on that, cold calling is not only alive but drinks cocktails in the Caribean. Let's check what google thinks about it...Let's google "Cold calling is...":

Google hasn't decided yet. But is cold calling a waste of time as google might assume? Depends. If you compare it with generating leads via digital marketing, then the answer is yes! If you compare it with doing nothing and procrastinating until the next day, week and year, then cold calling can become the game changer you need to succeed.

Let me draw the following conclusion for B2B: If digital marketing is in place and a sufficient number of leads is generated on a daily basis then you might as well skip cold calling or use it only for special purposes. But not every product or service can be marketed online and to many companies digital marketing is still a black box. In these cases cold calling is one of the best options you might have to generate leads.

Using Artificial Intelligence

I use ChatGPT to get company names for certain applications. In the next step I do an online research, by visiting the websites of these companies and check for contact details like phone numbers and emails. Then I do a quick research on linkedin to find potential contact persons working at these companies. Then I generate a lead in the CRM and forward it to my team.

Make the cold calling as convenient as possible for your team. Do the research, let them do the calls.

Why still cold calling?

Well, for starters, sometimes digital marketing is not helping. Recession, vacation times, full warehouses, all this leads to less searches and less leads. But there is another reason: Using cold calling for collecting market information is great. Yes, you might sell as well, but just make research your primary goal. Also making appointments before trade shows is recommendable if you want to make sure that the right people are at the booth. Call exhibitors before you visit them, talk to purchasers and make appointments. It's a game changer for the outcome of every trade show.

Alright, 3min are over. Feel free to leave me a tweet what you think about cold calling :)!

Happy selling!