While I greatly respect Daniel Disney, his recent article is dangerous: flat out flabbergasted! https://thedailysales.net/millennials-will-end-cold-calling-by-2025/
The phone has never been more important and only grows more so every day. Catalyst predicts that by 2025, 75% of the workforce will be populated by Millennials so naturally, they'll all boycott the cell phone? And wait, less people answer than ever?!!
Wait... The average American has 2 phones. I sat next to a Millennial businessman in a suit on the train into Sydney and he had no less than 2 smartphones and tablet - all lighting up the whole ride. WTF? (Wow Two Fones)
While both these statistics are probably true something really bizarre is happening... So don't let the hype mislead you. Stop the insanity people!
The lack of humanization of sales is the cancer.
Everything has moved to social and nobody is dialing the phone anymore because no one answers and it upbraids the younger generation?
Wrong.
I have empirically proven out that the power of the human voice on a voicemail to the cell phone plus an email, text or social outreach blended in a COMBO in under 2 minutes is more powerful than ever. It increases response rate by 3-5X.
Ask Batman, aka Chris Beall, about live contact rates. It can be done with ConnectAndSell. But COMBO prospecting works if you dial 100 numbers and only use Voicemail as the linchpin. You NEVER have to reach someone live. Just triple: call, vmail, email as fast as possible.
Why? The call rings the cell - alert missed call. The VMail makes it buzz again. The text buzzes the cell in pocket. Like a swarm of bees, you've got the CXO's attention. Sting them with insight and quantified value hypothesis.
Millennials are human and that brain took eons to evolve. NOTHING has changed. They respond to the exact same laws of Persuasion and Neuroscience per Dr. Robert Cialdini (pictured above). It literally releases chemicals like dopamine.
'Social selling' cannot trump chemical reactions in the brain caused by the sound of the human voice. Never will. Scientifically impossible. Granted Facebook use causes chemical release too... but nowhere near F2F or Phone interaction.
They will respond to a rep that took the time to care enough and lead with insight on a voicemail humanizing the sale with a powerful, live interaction. Show you care with empathy and insight! Now some would argue that's a warm call but let me tell you - a non-researched voicemail compared to a fully researched email is going to win 100X. The human voice is just too powerful, especially the sound of the prospect's own name (per Dale Carnegie).
You just can't compete aginst eons of human brain evolution by going nuts in Twitter!
In 2025, 'A players' will crush quota - the elite 5% - by interrupting dream prospects via phone. They'll also be Jedi Knights of LinkedIn Sales Navigator targeting. Even if they seldom connect live, they can use the human voice as the biggest differentiator to get that challenger template verbally to a buyer persona within a target vertical. The trend is moving the opposite of what Catalyst and Daniel Disney espouse in this hilarious article, already.
If you wake up and get jacked up on outbound calling like jolt cola, your pipeline will explode.
10X outbound cold calling is only 30 triples a day because your competitors are so passive and they're using social selling as a crutch. Most sellers are only working 2 hours a day. Most sellers never cold call for outbound, just on the inbound or farming the same accounts already talking with them that came inbound. Zookeepers abound... per Mike Weinberg!
If you prospect every single day especially, through the holidays, you will shred your competition and unlock so many rich buying cycles net new upstream, it will blow your mind!
Here's the kicker - use Lusha, use DiscoverOrg, ZoomInfo, to directly call their cell phone. Call the number in the auto-responder email that holds the golden key to their personal cell. If they give a cell in their Vmail message, call the cell then.
Go full bottle.. passionate and proud... get to the target! You'll thank me later.
Send a Facebook friend request, ping them on Messenger. Use Skype, use WhatsApp. You can't lose with the belief in the value and ROI you can provide. Prospects reward persistence and will commit to giving you their time. If you interrupt someone with value, you're creating upside. The temporary irritation gives way to gratitude.
Show me how I can make give me time or even 5% more money this year and I'd love for you to interrupt me anytime!
40% of any market's buyers are open to looking at an alternative solution. 3% are actively looking to change. Steve Richards already proved this!
This is about the law of divergence. Technologies and methods don't converge. Everybody has a TV, iPad, mobile phone, and iWatch. We're not watching TV on the fridge. Cord Cutters still have 5 mobile devices in the family.
Social selling didn't supplant the phone, it just put it on steroids.
You've gotta use a powerful combination of new school and old school methods to stand a snowball's chance in Hades to break through. Become a master at smart calling and social selling and then blend them like Bo Jackson cross-trained and excelled in 3 sports.
But if you don't make 30 to 50 outbound calls every business day of your life, your career will atrophy like a flabby muscle. Does anything awesome and excellent ever come easy? All the reward is outside of your comfort zone.
Do you guys agree? I think this article is as dangerous as smoking for your health, sungazing, or eating one Krispy Kreme doughnut per day to keep calories low in lieu of actual daily exercise.
I'm blown away by the empty promises of the so-called social selling revolution. It's so much snake oil like a get rich quick scheme, I want to vomit.
Daniel, love your blogs and insights - not personal. I'd challenge you to touch the results of a rep with a ZoomInfo, Phone, Pen and Pad, gmail against your results with just digital methods (only) in one quarter.
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Tony Hughes is ranked as the #1 influencer on professional selling in Asia-Pacific and is a keynote speaker and best selling author. This article was originally published on LinkedIn where you can also follow Tony's award-winning blog. Also, visit Tony's keynote speaker website at www.TonyHughes.com.au or his sales methodology website at http://www.rsvpselling.com/.