Just 34% of UK salespeople still use cold calling as a tactic, Tim Hughes

Often we see opinions on social media that "cold calling is dead" or whatever point the person is trying to make. The response you should always leave on social media when people post this is "where is the data to back up that opinion?"

Well cold calling isn't dead, but Linkedin research data shows that

"Just 34% of UK sales people still use cold calling as a tactic"

It was a friend of mine, Jaz Greer who sent me this report with the comment "Looks like you are winning the Battle!" and we are.

Let's drill down some more into the report

The introduction to this Linkedin research is written by Jack McKeon Sales Director, Linkedin Sales Solutions, EMEA and he says

"Einstein said ‘’in the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity”, and through the pandemic, we have seen top performing salespeople adapt and become more efficient in their prospect targeting."

And that's the point, cold calling and email marketing is highly inefficient, where as social selling, with the right methodology of course, can be highly targeted and therefore is highly efficient. And as a business that needs to make its number from prospecting, what we need is to use or (limited) resources in the best way possible.

Or as Jack McKeon says

"Rather than knocking on more doors, they have knocked on the right doors .."

The report, also sums up the current sales situation up nicely by saying

"Less spam. Less white space burn. More efficiency in understanding buyer intent, mapping buying committees, critical stakeholders and warm introduction paths."

This is working smarter. This is social selling, as I said before, with the right methodology, of course.

Let me pick out some of the sales trends in this report....

Sales has changed, permanently and positively - 50% of buyers say working remotely has made buying easier. Only 11% say it’s made it more difficult

How do salespeople spend their day?

"Sales professionals are also reporting they increasingly use social media as part of their business. Over half (51%) of salespeople now describe themselves as very active on LinkedIn for business purposes, up from 44% a year ago. Similarly, 70% say they’ve placed more emphasis on expanding their LinkedIn network."

Buyers want to sellers to change their way of thinking

"Among UK buyers, 87% say they are more likely to consider a product or service if the salesperson changes how they think. However, only half of buyers say this happens often. Challenging buyers’ perspectives remains one of the biggest missed opportunities in sales. It’s telling that only 1/3rd of salespeople choose it as one of their top three factors for helping close a deal."

With buyers now being on social media, the best and most efficient way to achieve this is by salespeople creating and posting their own content. Let's not forget that if a salesperson is NOT creating and posting their own content they are invisible to their clients. Plus, regardless of what marketing tell you, in fact people come to social not to read brochures (see research here) but to be social.

Cold calling should not be part of your prospecting mix

Linkedin report goes onto say

"Earning a place in the remote buying process starts with choosing the right form of outreach — a tactic that aligns with how buyers want to be approached. That no longer includes cold calls. Of all the outreach methods ranked by buyers, taking a call from a salesperson they don’t know ranks lowest, preferred by only 14%."

Buyers do their due diligence on LinkedIn

"The UK’s buyers don’t just have higher expectations of salespeople. They also have more opportunities to check their expectations are being met. The first port of call is the company website or a Google search. Then they head for LinkedIn: 40% check the LinkedIn Page of a salesperson’s company, 39% check the salesperson’s LinkedIn profile, 31% check for common connections and 29% review content the salesperson has posted or shared on the platform."

This is why as part of the DLA Ignite, social selling and influence course, we teach and coach sales people how to have a buyer centric profile, we teach and coach sales people how to prospect and connect without spamming. We also teach and coach why you need to be connected to the people you want to influence.

You need to be connected to more than 1 person in an account. Linkedin call it multithreading.

"In the last year, 79% of salespeople have had deals lost or stalled due to a key client leaving."

"LinkedIn data shows sellers who are connected on LinkedIn to at least four people at an account are 16% more likely to close a deal with that company, compared to sellers who have fewer than four connections."

Buying committees are more complex and more dynamic

"The great talent reshuffle has super-sized the complexity of the buying process and the risks involved. Not only do salespeople have to navigate more decision-makers, but those decision makers are each more likely to move on. Almost three quarters (74%) of salespeople say that more customers have changed company in the past year than previously."

"Buying committees are growing in size. After a small dip in 2021, the number of reported people involved in the average B2B purchasing decision has climbed to a record high of 13 people."

One of our clients tells us that there should be 100 people in one of their buying committees.

Now Imagine .....

How about if I said, I can take you to a place where all your prospects hang out, would you go?

I can pick you up in the car tomorrow and you can hang out there, having conversations with them.

When you arrived, what would you do?

Grab a coffee and go up to the first one and start a conversation? Of course you would.

Or would you walk in and say "buy my stuff, because we are great". Of course you wouldn't, as somebody would call security.

That's the difference. Selling on social is ...... social. You have conversations with people.

You don't go up to people and pitch to them as people will call security.

The great thing about social is that there is no "prime selling time (PST)", you can have as many conversations as you want. One of my customers, does his prospecting between putting the kids to bed and when he goes to bed.

It's time to bring your demand generation into the second decade of the 21st century and it's time to "start fishing where the fish are" ...... on social.

What is social selling?

Here at DLA Ignite, we define social selling as

"Using your presence and behavior on Social Media to build influence,
make connections, grow relationships and trust, which leads to
conversation and commercial interaction."

It's not witchcraft, it's enabling your salespeople to work from home, (or the office) and create conversations with prospects and customers. Conversations on social media and conversations that convert.

The problem with the name "social selling" is that people think that this is selling on social. All these pitches that you get on social are not social selling, they are spam.

The other thing you need to know about social selling is that this isn't about "putting out some videos" or "putting flowers on your profile" or "going viral". Here at DLA Ignite, engagement is important but we are about driving revenue, EBITDA, for your business using social media. This is about you winning business from the competition and having a competitive advantage.

Social is about having a strategy and there are two key drivers

With anything you do on social there are two questions you need to ask

1. How many leads / meetings / conversations will I get from this post / blog / activity?

2. How much revenue / EBITDA am I getting as a business?

Posting and hoping or posting random stuff is not a strategy, in fact I doubt it's driving anything for your business.

So who's social selling?

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"

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.

Andrew Ferrier who is the CEO of Display Technology Ltd and in this article it talks about why Display Technology have adopted social selling. His team have also created a social media strategy with help from our partner, Crux.

Their social media mission statement is

“We want to position ourselves as a forward-thinking, knowledgeable team of individuals who are all experts in our own right, therefore, collectively awesome!”

Andrew also says in that post

"Adopting this (social selling) strategy has taken all of us well outside of our comfort zones but the rewards we have seen in a short period of time have created an excitement within the business development team (new term for sales team).

Because of the nature of social media, quite often you can get instant results. Even if that is just a comment left on your post, or a like, or someone taking the time to want to connect with you.

The excitement around the sales team is infectious, it’s no longer a chore to reach out to the market place because the results can be instant and are there, right in front of you."

What sort of results can you expect?

If you check out this video of Chris Mason CEO at Oracle reseller Namos, and DLA Ignite customer, fast forward to 19 minutes 55 seconds. Chris talks about a $2.6 million win from being on social, after completing the DLA Ignite social selling and influence course.

What happened? They buyer was on social media looking for a solution to their problem, spotted one of the Namos salespeople, who had a buyer-centric profile and asked if the salesperson could help them. That turned into a $2.6 million deal.

Contact any of the DLA Ignite team, Eric, Adam, Vanessa, Lorena, Priscilla, Lenwood, Alex and they will be more than happy to help.

Go and look at their LinkedIn profiles .... look how they can have digital conversations, create insightful content. This could be your company!

We are the only social selling and influence company in the world to offer a certificate in social selling sponsored by the Institute of Sales Professionals (ISP).

Other articles you might be interested in ....

Would you buy social selling training course from somebody that doesn't use social selling?

How to create budget and build a business case for your social selling project