Is Cold Calling Still Effective?
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Krissy Manzano: Hi, and welcome to another episode of the Blueprint Round Table. Today, we have a pretty interesting topic. Just us being former sales leaders, and ICs. I definitely, I’m interested to hear thoughts on this, but it’s basically around the question is cold calling dead? Right and kind of setting the stage here.
Krissy Manzano: We’re in an era where everyone has so much accessibility to each other. You can find out information from anywhere. All of these tools to email people, to do auto dialing all of these things. Right? And so. Where you have spam laws, especially in 2024 that are coming, like, from email, and then you have cell phone carriers working to try to, minimize spam. Is cold calling going to be effective, right?
Krissy Manzano: Anymore from a sales perspective. So, Matt. Pass over to you curious your thoughts
Matt Lewers: Yeah, I don’t think, it’s definitely not dead. I don’t think it’ll ever die. When you think about an average, sales cycle from initial cold call to closure, right? The majority of that is going to happen through either a phone call or perhaps Zoom or some other platform, right? I think buyers and humans in general are used to having to deal with some level of business transaction on a daily basis on the phone. And so for that reason, I don’t think cold calling is ever going to go away. I think anybody that’s been alive in sales as long as I have where, my first job was calling cold calling out of phone books, I think dating myself a bit, but I think anybody realizes it’s not like it used to be right and it won’t, it’s not going to probably tick back up anytime soon, especially depending on the personas you’re calling if they’re a in office five days a week, or maybe they’re hybrid.
Matt Lewers: And then B, are they at their desk a lot? Right? That’s what I always used to ask myself when I was calling through Personas when we were in environmental health and safety and other blue collar industries. Like, are these people at their desk often? Probably some of them, probably not others. And so the phone is just another channel through which to attempt to reach them and you can’t give up on it fully.
Matt Lewers: You should never at least in my opinion. So I don’t think cold calling is dead, but it’s probably not as strong of a channel as everything else that’s more automated in today’s world. And you mentioned auto dialers. I just go times back into cold calling, right? You can now make 200 calls instead of 60 or 70 a given time period by doing it manually.
Matt Lewers: I do think that tools like auto dialers and, calling from local numbers has sort of oversaturated. I think there’s a reason people pick up the phone less than they did, even if they’re at their desk. So, technology has made it more efficient for cold callers, but it’s also probably pushed buyers further and further away from picking up the phone.
Matt Lewers: But that’s a tangent for another day. Short answer, Krissy, is cold calling is not dead. It is effective if you use it correctly, and it will never die.
Krissy Manzano: So I kind of disagree with you and I say this, I like really struggle with this because I had found so much success in like cold calling and pushy. And I also think like, you’ve got to be able to source your own business. Right? But so I think there’s an element of like, calling. But I think to use that as your only tool to be successful or a major tool is not, it’s not effective.
Krissy Manzano: Right? Like, if you’re like, I’m going to go call all day long. Okay. I believe you. I believe you’re going to work hard, but I don’t believe you’re going to get so many results. Right? Like how many times are you going to call, in order to get a sale? Right. and obviously persistence and hard work pays in, but I just, I, I think, like, when we look at this past year, and what’s happened, right?
Krissy Manzano: Like, there’s some, I think it was that pavilion where they were saying 20 percent or 10 percent of companies have hit their number. Right and I know, obviously, this was a rough year, so you could argue that. Well, when it’s good, it’s not as challenging. Right? But I think buyers are really in a place where they, they’re coming out of a tough year. It’s been a crazy, with covid, it’s just all kind of a blur. It feels like a very intense last 4, 4 years, 4 to 5 years and so people are really kind of demanding more trust. So, how do you build trust with people that you don’t know? And I don’t have all of the answers, but I think if the strategy is, I want you to go call all these people, that it sounds like you can’t get results, but I don’t think you’ll get the results that you want, or the number of outreaches that are needed to get that. Right? So I think you can use that with email or whatever you do to try to build more solid relationships. I think asking for warm intros, we have to use multiple outlets, I think not just 1 strategy and using them all at the same time. Right? That email and call an intro can be that way too. And maybe someone listening to what you’re writing on LinkedIn or a video like this, right. Kind of gives that view of who is this person that I’m talking to? is it just someone in a calling center wanting to upgrade myself on plan or something?
Krissy Manzano: Right. So, there’s, you have to find more ways for buyers to see is credible. I’m not a sales leader anymore, so I don’t have to give like the specific answer on how you do that. Because I honestly don’t know right at this moment, but I’m interested to see as things are starting to pick back up how that works, because, the majority of time, if I don’t know the number, I’m not answering it.
Krissy Manzano: Right? Unless they leave me a voicemail and share that information, but you could also argue if you share that. And it’s something that someone needs. They might actually call you back. But all that to say, I think. It’ll never die, but I don’t think it’s effective and it shouldn’t be your number one strategy.
Krissy Manzano: I think we have to look more at account management and, looking at accounts targeted specifically to, to what the needs are. So in order to be effective and do quality over quantity. So that’s what I have, but, any parting thoughts?
Krissy Manzano: He said it all. He said it
Matt Lewers: There you go.
Krissy Manzano: Alright, well, until next time, we’ll see you all later.
Krissy Manzano: Thanks. Bye.
Episode Summary
We all know what happens when a number shows up on our phones that we don’t recognize. Recently, the level of spam calls has multiplied, with phone carrier services enacting special software and algorithms to help alert us to calls we send to voicemail.
But this got us thinking—if so much work is going into making sure only individuals who know you can reach your phone, is cold calling still going to be an effective sales strategy in 2024 and beyond?
Join Matt and Krissy for this episode as they share their views on where selling is headed and how relationships and connections will matter more than ever in the future.
Tune in and don’t forget to subscribe!
*DO NOT USE OR REMOVE*
Transcript
Krissy Manzano: We’re in an era where everyone has so much accessibility to each other. You can find out information from anywhere. All of these tools to email people, to do auto dialing all of these things. Right? And so. Where you have spam laws, especially in 2024 that are coming, like, from email, and then you have cell phone carriers working to try to, minimize spam. Is cold calling going to be effective, right?
Krissy Manzano: Anymore from a sales perspective. So, Matt. Pass over to you curious your thoughts
Matt Lewers: Yeah, I don’t think, it’s definitely not dead. I don’t think it’ll ever die. When you think about an average, sales cycle from initial cold call to closure, right? The majority of that is going to happen through either a phone call or perhaps Zoom or some other platform, right? I think buyers and humans in general are used to having to deal with some level of business transaction on a daily basis on the phone. And so for that reason, I don’t think cold calling is ever going to go away. I think anybody that’s been alive in sales as long as I have where, my first job was calling cold calling out of phone books, I think dating myself a bit, but I think anybody realizes it’s not like it used to be right and it won’t, it’s not going to probably tick back up anytime soon, especially depending on the personas you’re calling if they’re a in office five days a week, or maybe they’re hybrid.
Matt Lewers: And then B, are they at their desk a lot? Right? That’s what I always used to ask myself when I was calling through Personas when we were in environmental health and safety and other blue collar industries. Like, are these people at their desk often? Probably some of them, probably not others. And so the phone is just another channel through which to attempt to reach them and you can’t give up on it fully.
Matt Lewers: You should never at least in my opinion. So I don’t think cold calling is dead, but it’s probably not as strong of a channel as everything else that’s more automated in today’s world. And you mentioned auto dialers. I just go times back into cold calling, right? You can now make 200 calls instead of 60 or 70 a given time period by doing it manually.
Matt Lewers: I do think that tools like auto dialers and, calling from local numbers has sort of oversaturated. I think there’s a reason people pick up the phone less than they did, even if they’re at their desk. So, technology has made it more efficient for cold callers, but it’s also probably pushed buyers further and further away from picking up the phone.
Matt Lewers: But that’s a tangent for another day. Short answer, Krissy, is cold calling is not dead. It is effective if you use it correctly, and it will never die.
Krissy Manzano: So I kind of disagree with you and I say this, I like really struggle with this because I had found so much success in like cold calling and pushy. And I also think like, you’ve got to be able to source your own business. Right? But so I think there’s an element of like, calling. But I think to use that as your only tool to be successful or a major tool is not, it’s not effective.
Krissy Manzano: Right? Like, if you’re like, I’m going to go call all day long. Okay. I believe you. I believe you’re going to work hard, but I don’t believe you’re going to get so many results. Right? Like how many times are you going to call, in order to get a sale? Right. and obviously persistence and hard work pays in, but I just, I, I think, like, when we look at this past year, and what’s happened, right?
Krissy Manzano: Like, there’s some, I think it was that pavilion where they were saying 20 percent or 10 percent of companies have hit their number. Right and I know, obviously, this was a rough year, so you could argue that. Well, when it’s good, it’s not as challenging. Right? But I think buyers are really in a place where they, they’re coming out of a tough year. It’s been a crazy, with covid, it’s just all kind of a blur. It feels like a very intense last 4, 4 years, 4 to 5 years and so people are really kind of demanding more trust. So, how do you build trust with people that you don’t know? And I don’t have all of the answers, but I think if the strategy is, I want you to go call all these people, that it sounds like you can’t get results, but I don’t think you’ll get the results that you want, or the number of outreaches that are needed to get that. Right? So I think you can use that with email or whatever you do to try to build more solid relationships. I think asking for warm intros, we have to use multiple outlets, I think not just 1 strategy and using them all at the same time. Right? That email and call an intro can be that way too. And maybe someone listening to what you’re writing on LinkedIn or a video like this, right. Kind of gives that view of who is this person that I’m talking to? is it just someone in a calling center wanting to upgrade myself on plan or something?
Krissy Manzano: Right. So, there’s, you have to find more ways for buyers to see is credible. I’m not a sales leader anymore, so I don’t have to give like the specific answer on how you do that. Because I honestly don’t know right at this moment, but I’m interested to see as things are starting to pick back up how that works, because, the majority of time, if I don’t know the number, I’m not answering it.
Krissy Manzano: Right? Unless they leave me a voicemail and share that information, but you could also argue if you share that. And it’s something that someone needs. They might actually call you back. But all that to say, I think. It’ll never die, but I don’t think it’s effective and it shouldn’t be your number one strategy.
Krissy Manzano: I think we have to look more at account management and, looking at accounts targeted specifically to, to what the needs are. So in order to be effective and do quality over quantity. So that’s what I have, but, any parting thoughts?
Krissy Manzano: He said it all. He said it
Matt Lewers: There you go.
Krissy Manzano: Alright, well, until next time, we’ll see you all later.
Krissy Manzano: Thanks. Bye.
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Do you recruit outside of the US and Canada?
What roles do you recruit?
- Customer Success: Standard, Senior, and Principal Customer Success Managers, Onboarding Specialists, Implementation Managers, Community, Customer Support, & Solutions Architects
- Marketing: Growth & Demand Generation Marketing, ABM, Events, and Content / SEO Marketing
- Sales: Sales Development, SMB, Commercial, Mid-Market, Enterprise, and Strategic Account Executives
- Account Management
- Revenue Operations and Enablement: Marketing, CS, and Sales Operations
- Solutions Engineering and Post-Sales Solutions Architects
- GTM Leadership: Front-line, second-line, VP, and SVP / C Level placements (CRO, CMO, COO)
I've worked with so many headhunters and recruiting firms. What makes you different?
Put simply, we aspire to be as proficient in articulating your business value prop as your internal employees. Exceptional talent does not want to speak with “head-hunters;” instead, they want to connect with educated ambassadors of your business and your brand about meaningful career opportunities.
We go deep on your business and into talent markets to foster connections that other recruiting firms tend to miss. And we work with our hiring clients to ensure excellence in their hiring process. Please reach out to us for more information!
Is SaaS experience important when hiring?
Hmm, what does this mean anyhow?! We recommend defining the skills and behaviors sought before running a search rather than using buzzwords or phrases from other people’s job descriptions. We help employees go beyond acronyms to ensure they develop robust job descriptions that tie to specific candidate profiles for targeting in the market. Need help? Let us know!