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by Kelly Riggs
The social selling gurus keep telling me cold calling is dead.
Bwahaaahahahaahaa!
Seriously??
Not only is cold calling NOT dead, it is much more common – and WORSE than ever. That’s because “social selling” gives people a dozen new ways to cold call. In fact, I get more cold calls and unsolicited spam from people on social – especially LinkedIn — than I ever got as a business owner back in the day before social.
And they are wearing me out.
Here is the latest gem I received on LinkedIn (this is word-for-word, just as I received it):
Dear Kelly,
Would you like to communicate with each one in your network? Even better, increase your network and communicate with each one in a personalized way? Please send your response DIRECTLY VIA EMAIL. Very IMPORTANT: Include EMAIL/PHONE/SKYPE Otherwise it may take me more than 30 days or more to respond or not at all. Thank you.
You can’t make this stuff up.
First, what is this former LinkedIn contact trying to sell me? You are never going to get me to believe that this guy is just wanting to connect me with other people because he’s a nice guy. He’s selling something. A webinar. Consulting. Something.
Second, take a look at that dazzling opener: “Would you like to communicate with each one in your network?” No. Of course not. I have absolutely no interest whatsoever. Why would I want to communicate with people in my network? [In case you missed it, that was intended to be sarcastic.]
Hey, here’s some others you can try:
“What do I have to do to get you into a website today?”
Or this: “Do you want to make more money, or are you just stupid?”
So many insulting questions to choose from.
Finally, brilliant “social seller” that he is, you notice he didn’t include his email address in his message – even though I can ONLY RESPOND BY EMAIL. That is, if I don’t want to WAIT 30 DAYS to find out the good news. Don’t you LOVE THE CAPS? That means it is VERY IMPORTANT.
HURRY! WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!
OK, I grant you this attempt is a train wreck and not indicative of all the cold call emails I get. But many are just as bad and just as annoying as the old-school walk-in cold calls we used to suffer back in the day.
It’s everything from website development to online marketing to SEO to graphic design. And always the same.
“Hey, I noticed that ___________________.”
“Well, we can help you __________________.”
“Give me a call and let’s schedule 10 minutes to discuss how you can ______________.”
Is somebody actually teaching this stuff?
I will absolutely guarantee you that these people have never been anywhere near my website and have probably not even read my LinkedIn profile. They don’t know the first thing about me, what I need, or what issues I encounter on a daily basis.
They just have a LinkedIn connection. Or an email address.
Hey, don’t get me wrong. Social is awesome. And there are people out there doing it right and killing it.
But don’t tell me cold calling is dead.
It SHOULD be, but it’s not.
The problem is that people misuse social media and create a bad impression of the tool. Eventually, its users (like the individual above) will take on the same negative perceptions common to a used-car salesman.
Used effectively, the real value of social is two things: 1) the ability to engage with a specific target audience, and 2) the ability to create credibility with that audience distributing world-class content.
However, using social media to bombard unsuspecting prospects with unsolicited drivel is the worst kind of abuse.
Jack Kosakowski is a self-declared “social selling” guru and advocate. And, by the way, he will be a guest on my live business radio broadcast (BizLockerRadio) on January 4. Here is his take on the right and wrong way to use social media in engaging prospects:
The plague that kills content engagement for almost every brand is… SELFISH SOCIAL! Now, if you want to build an engaged audience, it’s time to get proactive. This is very time intensive but it’s the only way to build an audience in the beginning. Identify the people you hope will engage with your content – and start sharing theirs. Go out and engage with your future audience and bring them into your network. Offer quality un-gated content freely. Once you do that, then your gated content will start to see some engagement. Spray-and-pray social doesn’t work and just wastes your time and money. Proactive engaged social through sharing and advocacy of others is the way to build an audience and get the engagement you need to get a return (whether that return is monetary or applause).
See? Not even a hint of spamming unsuspecting LinkedIn connections with the kind of mindless solicitations I showed you earlier.
And, although Jack is a passionate advocate of social selling, he also suggests that “traditional” selling methods still have a role in the sales process:
I’m going to make it clear that not once did I say you are getting rid of traditional models like the “PHONE” or “COLD CALLING.” These are two pieces of the process as a full multi-channel sales process that now has infused social media. You need to be on every channel, listening, engaging, and most importantly having as many conversations offline on the PHONE as possible. This new mindset and social selling strategy will enhance traditional models and give you the competitive advantage.
So, according to Jack, social is a set of tools you use to build and engage your target audience; one that fits nicely into existing sales strategies.
And that perspective gets broad-based support from other professionals in social selling. In a Xoombi blog article entitled, “What is Social Selling? Answers from 3 Top Social Sellers,” author Lolly Spindler looked at three experts for clarification on the meaning of social selling.
Koka Sexton, formerly a Global Senior Social Marketing Manager at LinkedIn, “believes it has to do with ‘leveraging your professional brand to fill your pipeline.’”
Ken Krogue, the founder of InsideSales.com, thinks social selling is “not so much selling as it is prospecting.”
Jill Rowley, well-known “Social Selling Evangelist,” believes social media is actually the process of “using social networks.” It is the “act of doing research to be relevant to buyers and build relationships with them.”
So, there you go.
Social is a means to an end; a set of tools that play a role in the sales process.
A set of tools that some morons abuse and to short-cut that sales process.
Because there will always be people looking for shortcuts, cold calling will never go away. It is definitely NOT dead.
But I sure wish it was.
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Get your New Year started with a bang!! Join me and co-host Miles Austin as we interview the indomitable Jack Kosakowski on BizLockerRadio, Monday, January 4 at 3:00 pm CST (1:00 pm Pacific). And FYI…the best place to catch the show is to watch it LIVE on Blab!
Kelly Riggs is a business performance coach and founder of the Business LockerRoom. A former national Salesperson of the Year and serial entrepreneur, Kelly is a recognized thought leader in the areas of sales, management leadership, and strategic planning. He serves clients ranging from small, privately held companies to Fortune 500 firms. Kelly has written two books: “1-on-1 Management™: What Every Great Manager Knows That You Don’t” and “Quit Whining and Start SELLING! A Step-by-Step Guide to a Hall of Fame Career in Sales.”
