Have you noticed that the cold calling gurus have stopped talking about cold calling?
The subject matter has shifted.
It's empathy, or discovery questions but it's not cold calling.
Now there will be one or two die hard dinosaurs that will not have spotted the advent of digital.
I love the irony of cold callers talking on social about cold calling.
There is a famous cold calling guru whose book said that social selling was shit. He presented no data of why this was the case, just just his opinion and he ended the book saying; "if you liked this book and want to get hold of me, here are my social profiles where you can hold of me". He said that without realising the irony.
So what happened to cold calling?
In case you missed it, the Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch have banned cold calling and have moved all their people to social selling. This isn't some trendy tech company that might have decided to do this on a whim, this is a very conservative financial services company that has made a decision based on data.
But surely cold calling has a better ROI than social selling? Not according to Merrill Lynch.
"They will also be encouraged to contact prospects over LinkedIn, which has a higher hit rate than cold calling"
Do you remember when you turn the fax off?
One of the team here at DLA Ignite, Thomas Ross said this to a customer the other day.
Many of us remember the introduction of the fax and how it sped up communication.
But we also remember the day when the fax was switched off as people stopped using them.
(I do know that some industries still use them, but it's not the mainstay of business and in fact if a business published a fax number we would think what an old, dinosaur related company you are.)
So who's social selling?
The CRO (chief revenue officer), Richard Eltham of Namos Solutions, of one of clients posted a comment on LinkedIn about social selling. See here.
“Social selling is not an option now it is the way of the world and you either learn and execute it or fear getting left behind”
Kevin Murray who is the Head of Sales at MacArtney Underwater Technology recently posted about his success with social selling here and wrote an article about the transformation that has happened in sales here.
Here at DLA Ignite we don't do "hints and tips sessions" we don't want you to waste your money. Our social selling and influence methodology will provide your sales team with the stable platform for growth. It is also the only social selling program based on 70:20:10 change management principles which gives your business the mindset change and habit change they need in this digital world.