Why Traditional B2B Cold Calling is a Waste of Time and Money
by Nick Nichols, B2B Sales and Marketing Expert
I created this executive briefing because although CRM systems, telephone technology and digital media have advanced significantly in recent years, B2B selling methodology has lagged far behind.
My company gets a half-dozen or more B2B cold calls every business day, 99.9% of which are made by clueless, time-wasting amateurs.
Traditional B2B Cold Calling Defined:
Calling a compiled list* of business people without making any effort to qualify them in advance based on a general expectation that they should want to buy what you sell simply because they exist.
I call this the “spurious presumption of need” rationale.
For example:
- Businesses have copiers and printers. Therefore they need paper, ink and toner from you.
- Businesses need a bank. Therefore they need your bank.
- Businesses have offices that get messy over time and require cleaning. Therefore they need your commercial cleaning service.
- Businesses with employees need to administer their payroll. Therefore they need your payroll service.
- Businesses use telephones and make long distance calls. Therefore they need your equipment and service.
Guess what? When most businesses have an urgent need for something, they find a vendor and buy it!
This is especially true when that need is for a perceived commodity, such as paper, ink, toner or banking services. Unless they have a problem with their current supplier or bank, it’s unlikely they will want to change unless they have a compelling reason to do so.
If they need their office cleaned, businesses don’t wait until a cleaning service calls them, they go online, find a service and hire them. If that service does even an average job, they aren’t likely to consider changing unless they have a compelling reason to do so.
Depending on their size most businesses either have an in-house payroll department or they’re already using an outside service. They’re not likely to consider changing unless they have a compelling reason to do so.
Every business has some kind of existing telephone equipment and long distance program. They’re not likely to consider changing unless they have a compelling reason to do so.
When they don’t have an urgent need; when their needs are being met – even marginally – or worse, when they are not even aware they have a need, then they are not in a buying frame of mind.
Traditional cold calling doesn’t work because it presumes a need based on the spurious assumption that if a business exists, it must have a need for a host of products and services.
Companies that sell to B2B that use this kind of traditional cold calling are guilty of the following “7 Reasons Traditional B2B Cold Calling is a Losing Strategy”:
- COLD CALLING IS NEEDY. It automatically puts you in a position of weakness. Neediness kills deals.
- COLD CALLING IS INEFFICIENT. It’s a rarely-hit-and-mostly-miss numbers game with very low odds of success.
- COLD CALLING IS INTRUSIVE. It interrupts people and wastes their time. It’s counterproductive for both parties.
- COLD CALLING IS DEMEANING. It lowers your status and creates instant inequality. Celebrities don’t cold call.
- COLD CALLING IS MENIAL. It’s repetitive and monotonous and casts you in a subservient light.
- COLD CALLING IS DETRIMENTAL. It tarnishes your brand, dilutes your credibility and casts you in a bad light.
- COLD CALLING IS DEMORALIZING. It lowers your self-esteem and saps your emotional strength.
My book, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Crushing the Competition: How to Be Seen As the Best and Obvious Choice to Attract More Pre-Qualified Buyers show you how to stop cold calling and start making more sales.
This book is for you if you’re an entrepreneur, business owner, consultant, coach, trainer or big-ticket sales professional who is frustrated because other, less qualified, less experienced people in your field are getting the fame and fortune that should be going to you. Whether you are just starting in business, a seasoned pro, or somewhere in between, this book will give you the knowledge and power to soar past your competitors before they realize what happened. It’s all about perception.
This book will show you how to be perceived as a subject matter expert and industry thought leader so pre-qualified buyers will seek you out. If you’re tired of seeing other people get the money that should be flowing to you, buy this book, read it, absorb the ideas and then implement the strategies and tactics.
*A compiled list is data that is scraped from publicly available sources, such as new business filings, using internet search tools or is data from sources like Dunn & Bradstreet or InfoUSA. Such sources provide no indication as to a genuine need, want and ability to pay for any particular product or service. As such, this data has little value for purposes of effective B2B prospecting.
