The word "laggard" comes from 1702 it means "slow, sluggish," from lag (v.) + -ard. From 1757 as a noun, "one who lags, a shirker, loiterer."

Nostalgia Selling

Somebody sent me this article, I'm guessing that this article supports their belief system and cognitive bias, that cold calling is suddenly back in vogue.  Can you imagine, the sales tactic from the 1980s suddenly raises itself from the dead?

There are lots of things that were around in the 1980s, VCR, Sony Walkman, Cassettes and faxes.  Many of these are now in museums and so is cold calling, but people love a bit of nostalgia. 

 Nobody Gets up in the Morning and Says

The fact of the matter is that nobody, I'll say that again, nobody, get up in the morning and says

"I'm really looking forward to be interrupted today, by some manipulative salesperson, who will try and sell me something, that I don't want and don't need".

Of course, if you are a cold calling trainer, you want this to be so.

Of course, we have an overwhelming set of research and data that shows the modern buyer, yes, the modern buyer has moved on and hates getting cold calls.

Why was it that the European GDPR legislation helped to start the process of killing it off and Apple's IOS 13, did help to kill it off?  I never get a cold call.

Let's see what today's research actually says.

Shifting Buyer Preferences 

We have seen shifting buyer work as everybody is online, in this October (2020) report by Simon Kemp outlines the extent that social media has become part of our lives.  

Worldwide social media users: 4.14 billion - 53% of the world's population use social media in other words, more people use social media than don't use it.

Simon says that "two thirds of the working population in the world is now active on social media."  This obviously now has to impact on the way that sales people work as their territory is online.  But I guess, this is just one report, what does everybody else say?

Research From All These Companies Back This up

Mckinsey say so, Gartner say so, Hootsuite and We Are Social say so, Hubspot say so, Google say so, MIT say so, Trustradius say so Twilio say so .... 

This is also driving Gartner's third point in their recent CSO research for Q4 2020 which is "increased customer expectations of digital learning and buying channels."

The Research is Overwhelming That Buyers are Online

So What About This Research?

It's a mistake that sales people often make.  They justify their existence by thinking that people are like them or think like them.

A prospect said to me the other day "I don't believe that CEOs are spending time on social media".  This was after I had showed them overwhelming evidence on how we were getting C-Level meetings by using social.  Why did he say that, because of cognitive bias.

But let's look at this research that states that cold calling is back in vogue.

If you read the research it states. 

"New research from telephone answering service provider Moneypenny suggests not, as more than half (56%) of business owners they surveyed said the most popular way for their customers to contact them was by telephone, with call volumes increasing across all industry sectors."

This is customers calling up for customer service advice, it is not sales people calling customers.  Big difference, a school person error, I guess.

"The telephone is the main enquiry route for customers at U.K. fencing business Jacksons Fencing. Founded in 1947 company has a team of experienced sales staff, whose combined experience spans over 300 years."

Again this is customers calling companies, not sales people calling customers. Not the cold callers lucky day, me thinks. 

“Calls are becoming more valuable to business as many customers choose to do easy transactions over the website or use live chat for more casual enquiries,” adds Swash. “When they’re ready to buy they are more likely to pick up the phone to get an answer straight away or schedule an appointment.”

I don't think we will argue with this paragraph either.  All of us see the need in picking up the phone to get a service does for us.  Again, this is customers calling companies, not a sign of cold calling justification in here. 

Once again, we have people taking research and bending it to just their own bias, but of course it says nothing of the sorts. 

A CEO Just Said to Me

 "there is a race on.  First we need to shock people into understanding that the world has changed.  Second, we need to give them the skills to work in the changing world."  

He went onto say "By giving my team(s) “new world” skills will gives us a competitive advantage."

Interesting that he finished by saying

"The thing is there is a “burning bridge” and we need to make sure we are over that bridge."  

Where Do We Go From Here?

Here at DLA Ignite we don't use advertising, you won't be added to any email list, we deleted ours in 2018 to comply with GDPR and we won't cold call you.  In fact we have never placed an advert, made a cold call or sent spam emails in the whole existence of our business.  Not once.

Just give me, or one of the DLA Ignite team and hour of your time and we can walk you through what we are doing for other companies.  No hard sell, just take you through what other companies are doing to transform.

Please contact me here or one of the DLA Ignite team here, so please pick one of our industry experts or one of our experts in your geographical locality.  Our website is here.