Spend a day with a B2B sales team and it doesn't take long to see first-hand that the traditional cold call approach to sales is becoming less and less effective in the modern business world. As sales people, one of the questions we need to explore is if cold calling is resulting in negative experiences for our potential clients? Can this damage a company's reputation or decrease the likelihood of future business.?

The Perils of Cold Calling:

Aside from the fact that less and less people answer numbers they don't recognise, cold calling is subject to several obstacles. Firstly, cold calls are more often than not viewed as irrelevant to the person being called, which can lead to annoyance and a negative impression of the caller. This wasn't always the case, however, as digital means of communication take over, we naturally want to take less calls from people we haven't spoken with previously. This lack of relevance is due to the limited information available to sales teams, making it difficult to create personalized and targeted messages.

Another key issue with cold calling is its decreased effectiveness. With the abundance of information readily available on the internet, potential customers are able to research a company before deciding to engage with them. This results in cold calls being less likely to result in a sale and can even push potential customers away.

The rise of call blocking technology is another factor contributing to the decline in the effectiveness of cold calling. This technology makes it easier for people to block unwanted calls, rendering marketing efforts useless. Additionally, cold calling is subject to various legal restrictions such as the National Do Not Call Registry and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which makes it important for companies to ensure they are in compliance with these regulations.

It's an inceasing and widely held view that negative experiences with cold calls can result in damaging the reputation for the callers company and reduce the likelihood of future business. Whilst this often comes down to the callers skill and ability to navigate a tricky client or questions, this does likely demonstrate the need for a more effective and targeted approach to B2B sales outreach.

What solutions are there?

This is where new business technology, such as Ignite sales automation, can offer a potential solution. Automated LinkedIn outreach and sales automation can help sales teams overcome the challenges of cold calling by providing a more targeted and personalized approach to outreach and of course, hitting sales targets.

Automated LinkedIn outreach allows for more relevant messages to be sent to potential customers based on information from their LinkedIn profile and activity. This personalized approach to outreach can improve the likelihood of a successful sale and reduce the risk of negative experiences for potential clients.

Automated outreach can also streamline the B2B sales process, allowing for more efficient follow-up and nurturing of leads. This ultimately helps sales professionals and teams prioritize their time and focus on the most promising leads, resulting in a higher conversion rate.

Additionally, automated outreach reduces the risk of calls being blocked, as messages can be sent through LinkedIn's platform rather than directly to a phone number. This means that sales teams can reach potential customers more effectively and efficiently.

Are there results to back this up?

At HRS Ignite we have built a business from the ground up based on utilising modern business technology, including sales automation and outreach. We have seen the resounding benefits of automated LinkedIn outreach firsthand and share these with our clienta. By introducing automated sales technology l(ike Ignite), we have eliminated cold caling from our own business, and built a global sales team that is able to send more targeted and personalized messages to potential clients, resulting in a much higher conversion rate and more successful sales.

By using Ignite on a daily basis our the sales reps are able to send targeted clients personalized messaging, based on information from their LinkedIn profile. This can be done 24/7 and even while you sleep and some of our reps are saving up to 80 hours a month that was spent on traditional outreach.

Do we think that cold calling is dead? Absolutely not...however it is problematic which is not always the fault of the caller. But we do believe that automation can lighten the load, free up time, allow teams to become more effecient and enable more B2B sales companies to thrive.