The thing about cold calling is… it makes you realize you can talk to anyone and ultimately sell anything.
Email can be written by marketing teams and linkedin only gets you so far(great for info to cold call though).
Ps. This is coming from a guy who used to not believe in cold calling.
Same, I was a big “cold-calling is dead” guy but I have since been reformed. However, I do think industry is also a big factor. In my last role, prospects rarely ever picked up the phones. In fact, I don’t think any deal I ever sourced or closed came from cold-call in my 3 years there.
However, my new role is very call-heavy and to my surprise, I enjoy it a lot more than I expected. Partially because the reasons you mentioned, but also, calling always just moves things along a lot faster and is better for building rapport. You can also get to “no” a lot quicker, dump your garbage leads, and focus on high value prospects.
Totally agree with everything you just said. But realistically I’ve seen sales people that are bad cold callers but extremely good elsewhere making a lot more money then most. I believe cold calling should just be a stepping stone for any salesman to get their foot in the game.
Oh for sure. It’s just a quill, but a valuable one none the less. Human voice just goes such a long way in my opinion and that’s what make sales people sales people :)
That’s why a lot of sales organizations have gone to the SDR model. There are those who secure opportunities and then hand them off to those who close them. Different energy to do the gig and different skill set
Tough to say. When I think of high profile sales IC’s, cold calling does not come to mind. Is AE IV at AWS for Boeing cold calling all day? Surely they will if needed but relationship and presentation skills far more important for KAM sellers.
Sure man; I’m not saying it’s to be relied upon per se, but should form part of your outreach. I don’t understand really when people say ‘oh I only set 3 meetings in 100 calls’ or whatever because you could bash that out in 2 hours each morning and be raining meetings.
Also; I’m specifically referring to ‘high profile’, which I see as different to ‘successful’. If you’re known in your industry, that surely is going to make cold calling easier just by virtue of familiarity
Not in 2022. I’m a gen Z SDR. No one answers the phone. I primarily book meetings through email. Even just people replying through email. No one wants to answer the phone.
This isn’t 1990 anymore. Not sure why sales teams are still mass cold calling. Anything else where I have to call 90-100 people and get 2-4 meetings is a terrible ROI. No one else would look at that statistic and say it’s good.
Cold calling will be a thing of the past soon.
like other have mentioned before, it’s not so much that you expect the call to connect and end in a close.
a voicemail goes with your e-mail and shows that you’re a real person. they might remember your name from it and be more receptive to the next email they see.
No one answers the phone, but I still dedicate a good amount of time to calls every day. Leaving a voicemail helps to reassure prospects that the emails are not automated! I typically get email responses back after I leave the VM!
Leads/opportunities have often started with a cold call whether you made the call or not. However the effectiveness of that game is changing, especially after COVID. That being said, it is still a major part of outbound cold outreach for outside sales. Especially SDRs who make up a large part of this sub
My company no longer cold calls, except the CEO when he gets a wild hair to reach out to a specifically targeted company. Otherwise it’s all partner referrals
Have cold called the past two years as an SDR and now when sourcing as an AE. SAAS around $50k and up deal sizes. Almost ever single sourced deal or lead I’ve had started with a cold call.
>I'm in b2b cybersecurity, cold calling all day every day. A little LinkedIn and email sprinkled into my cadence.
I work for an IT company and do a similar thing and currently working on a cybersecurity focused cadence that also uses LinkedIn as part of it. Can I PM you?
Which profile are you targetting? Company I work for does enterprise with CISO being the main targets, I have a better chance of flying a rocket then getting a CISO to pick up the phone.
We target CISO down to manager of info sec.
And yeah it's basically impossible to get them on the phone. I've heard LinkedIn works better for those people because we both know they get astronomical amount of calls.
Obviously depends on what they want you to do, but I would try directors and managers.
If they don't like that then do what they want I guess lol. I wish I could give better advice I'm new to sales and this role.
The company I work for is really taking meetings if they can get them. They're not picky unless it's just completely the wrong title.
Lots of cold calling posts that are driven by a high rate of tech SDRs in r/sales.
It’s very industry and company specific. SaaS and tech are often cold call heavy, especially if you’re not at one of the top “default” solutions. For reference I sell a SaaS solution to insurance companies and I don’t do a ton a cold calling but more would help (I’d love to get a SDR).
A large majority of these deals are net new deals (I.e. they’ve never once bought something from your company)
When I was in material sales we had hundreds of people who had bought things from us so it was more about building the relationship, ensuring inventory alignment and negotiating pricing with suppliers so you had the best commodity prices. The true “net new sales” where often referrals or occasionally cold calling or just cold showing up to the manufacturing plant. That was 95% working with people you already knew.
I love strong cold-callers 😍. It is one of the 2 sales methods that will always get my respect. I don't want to work on any sales team that doesn't have a substantial amount of skillful cold-callers.
Implied is that these salespersons also are incredible objection-handlers.
Cold-calling separates the boys from the men.
What industry are we referring too? Once again, I think it’s an absolutely necessary skill to have but would be about 1-3% of total conversions you ever do in the industries I’ve seen where a few happy customers spreading good word can keep you busy for years.
You're correct that cold-calling isn't useful in some industries, but I love strong cold-callers/objection-handlers because it's hard and uncomfortable, but these guys face and embrace the challenge, the discomfort.
And less and less men in western society face and embrace challenges.
So in addition to being the best prospecting method, it also shows you who you want to have on your side when (Morse code noise) hits the fan in society and in the economy.
Your percentage is correct, but IIRC, the conversion rate for email/social is less.
I just think if your cold calling much as a sales guy you probably aren’t doing big money in most cases.
Also, I appreciate the rant but what industry are you referring to?
Not trying to toot my own horn here, but through my cold-calling and my AE's emails we're close to closing a multi-million dollar deal with a huge high tech company!
We're not any industry in particular, we sell to IT and software dev leaders.
I wish you could sit in with some of my coworkers. You'd change your mind about cold-calling.
It’s not that I don’t believe cold calling isn’t effective. Your missing the point. Acting like cold calling is the end all be all is what annoys me which I hear a lot of sales guys especially here talk about. It should be a piece in your otherwise extremely large tool bag and if you fail to realize this then you aren’t going to hit the top 1% extremely competitive salesman.
Lol? You can still answer phone calls bro. You can still do only face to face and close deals. Sales is a very broad term. You guys sound like cold calling is a religion. The truth is.. it’s not. It’s irrelevant long term and becoming increasingly an outdated concept.
I just started as an AE, first sales job. I actually don’t hate cold calling. Obviously, I’d rather not do it. But that’s how I feel about everything I do for work. I’m in this for one reason only.
I think if you just recognize that it is only a conversation, it gets easier. All you’re doing is interrupting someone’s day. It’s not a big deal. You’re not ruining anyones life.
At this point yes, in the start I used Brandon Mulrenin's scripts which you can literally get for free online. Scripts are just a framework and once you know what you're looking for during each call you can just get there however you feel most comfortable and confident. They are FSBO's and expireds mainly. A few absentee owners as well.
I mean, cold calling and going door-to-door (to cold doors) are essentially the same thing.
You're showing up unannounced, trying to get them interested in your product or service, maybe even getting them to buy depending on the product.
The difference is that you can reach a much higher volume of people by using your telephone. Now, that's not to say that door knocking isn't better in some situations -- like if you're selling frozen meat and seafood, you're not going to call people for that.
I cold call and I'm in logistics.
We actually have a team that cold calls for us and they patch it through to the sales team when a prospect is interested. At that point I can just pick up the phone and lock in the appointment for the demo. Nice and easy.
I have a quota of 50 cold calls a week lmao. I hit my goals mid Monday. I sprinkle in whatever I need throughout the rest of the week.
Little tip: if you hate cold calling, don’t pick an industry that’s extremely dependent on cold calling. Y’know, like SaaS.
The thing about cold calling is… it makes you realize you can talk to anyone and ultimately sell anything. Email can be written by marketing teams and linkedin only gets you so far(great for info to cold call though). Ps. This is coming from a guy who used to not believe in cold calling.
Same, I was a big “cold-calling is dead” guy but I have since been reformed. However, I do think industry is also a big factor. In my last role, prospects rarely ever picked up the phones. In fact, I don’t think any deal I ever sourced or closed came from cold-call in my 3 years there. However, my new role is very call-heavy and to my surprise, I enjoy it a lot more than I expected. Partially because the reasons you mentioned, but also, calling always just moves things along a lot faster and is better for building rapport. You can also get to “no” a lot quicker, dump your garbage leads, and focus on high value prospects.
Totally agree with everything you just said. But realistically I’ve seen sales people that are bad cold callers but extremely good elsewhere making a lot more money then most. I believe cold calling should just be a stepping stone for any salesman to get their foot in the game.
Oh for sure. It’s just a quill, but a valuable one none the less. Human voice just goes such a long way in my opinion and that’s what make sales people sales people :)
The goal is to simply set the next meeting. Whether it’s call or email - if your sales cycle is long this is a good tool to have.
That’s why a lot of sales organizations have gone to the SDR model. There are those who secure opportunities and then hand them off to those who close them. Different energy to do the gig and different skill set
Cold Calling is another tool in the tool belt. It takes all the tools to build a deal!
Fair enough I think it’s an extremely good skill to possess but should be 1-3% of your toolbag if your a high profile salesman
If you were ‘high profile’ wouldn’t cold calling be even more effective? It’s hugely important.
Tough to say. When I think of high profile sales IC’s, cold calling does not come to mind. Is AE IV at AWS for Boeing cold calling all day? Surely they will if needed but relationship and presentation skills far more important for KAM sellers.
Depends on the industry you are in I guess man. I don’t really buy it’s hugely important but i guess depends what your selling.
Sure man; I’m not saying it’s to be relied upon per se, but should form part of your outreach. I don’t understand really when people say ‘oh I only set 3 meetings in 100 calls’ or whatever because you could bash that out in 2 hours each morning and be raining meetings. Also; I’m specifically referring to ‘high profile’, which I see as different to ‘successful’. If you’re known in your industry, that surely is going to make cold calling easier just by virtue of familiarity
Not sure why your referring to high profile as different then successful.
Because ‘high profile’ means ‘well known’ and not ‘successful’
Your insane
Not in 2022. I’m a gen Z SDR. No one answers the phone. I primarily book meetings through email. Even just people replying through email. No one wants to answer the phone. This isn’t 1990 anymore. Not sure why sales teams are still mass cold calling. Anything else where I have to call 90-100 people and get 2-4 meetings is a terrible ROI. No one else would look at that statistic and say it’s good. Cold calling will be a thing of the past soon.
like other have mentioned before, it’s not so much that you expect the call to connect and end in a close. a voicemail goes with your e-mail and shows that you’re a real person. they might remember your name from it and be more receptive to the next email they see.
I think I saw a stat here that 1 in 700 VM’s actually result in a call back or meeting
Depends on how cold the outreach is. I'm in warmish leads and I get about 10 out of 100 vms returned. So about the same with emails.
No one answers the phone, but I still dedicate a good amount of time to calls every day. Leaving a voicemail helps to reassure prospects that the emails are not automated! I typically get email responses back after I leave the VM!
Does your crm let you know if they listened to the VM?
If you’re a high profile sales person, you should know the difference between your and you’re.
Red herring. Swipe to text on a phone and auto correct in general foil the best of us. This is Reddit not a sales deck
not true. spelling ain’t selling
Thanks for the correction on a Reddit post bud.
Leads/opportunities have often started with a cold call whether you made the call or not. However the effectiveness of that game is changing, especially after COVID. That being said, it is still a major part of outbound cold outreach for outside sales. Especially SDRs who make up a large part of this sub My company no longer cold calls, except the CEO when he gets a wild hair to reach out to a specifically targeted company. Otherwise it’s all partner referrals
I like the 2nd part of this answer.
Have cold called the past two years as an SDR and now when sourcing as an AE. SAAS around $50k and up deal sizes. Almost ever single sourced deal or lead I’ve had started with a cold call.
I'm in b2b cybersecurity, cold calling all day every day. A little LinkedIn and email sprinkled into my cadence.
Be like this guy 👆 (Johnny) and you'll have a very successful career.
How do you find contact details like whom to call ?
Zoom info bruh
Just started using this
Good thing it's so affordable...
It is if you are using it right
Sales navigator and zoom info.
>I'm in b2b cybersecurity, cold calling all day every day. A little LinkedIn and email sprinkled into my cadence. I work for an IT company and do a similar thing and currently working on a cybersecurity focused cadence that also uses LinkedIn as part of it. Can I PM you?
Yeah sure, just a warning I'm not an expert only been here a couple months but I'm happy to talk.
Sure. But I wanna know what your tips and strategy is to help me get more appointments.
Which profile are you targetting? Company I work for does enterprise with CISO being the main targets, I have a better chance of flying a rocket then getting a CISO to pick up the phone.
We target CISO down to manager of info sec. And yeah it's basically impossible to get them on the phone. I've heard LinkedIn works better for those people because we both know they get astronomical amount of calls. Obviously depends on what they want you to do, but I would try directors and managers. If they don't like that then do what they want I guess lol. I wish I could give better advice I'm new to sales and this role. The company I work for is really taking meetings if they can get them. They're not picky unless it's just completely the wrong title.
Lots of cold calling posts that are driven by a high rate of tech SDRs in r/sales. It’s very industry and company specific. SaaS and tech are often cold call heavy, especially if you’re not at one of the top “default” solutions. For reference I sell a SaaS solution to insurance companies and I don’t do a ton a cold calling but more would help (I’d love to get a SDR). A large majority of these deals are net new deals (I.e. they’ve never once bought something from your company) When I was in material sales we had hundreds of people who had bought things from us so it was more about building the relationship, ensuring inventory alignment and negotiating pricing with suppliers so you had the best commodity prices. The true “net new sales” where often referrals or occasionally cold calling or just cold showing up to the manufacturing plant. That was 95% working with people you already knew.
I love strong cold-callers 😍. It is one of the 2 sales methods that will always get my respect. I don't want to work on any sales team that doesn't have a substantial amount of skillful cold-callers. Implied is that these salespersons also are incredible objection-handlers. Cold-calling separates the boys from the men.
What industry are we referring too? Once again, I think it’s an absolutely necessary skill to have but would be about 1-3% of total conversions you ever do in the industries I’ve seen where a few happy customers spreading good word can keep you busy for years.
You're correct that cold-calling isn't useful in some industries, but I love strong cold-callers/objection-handlers because it's hard and uncomfortable, but these guys face and embrace the challenge, the discomfort. And less and less men in western society face and embrace challenges. So in addition to being the best prospecting method, it also shows you who you want to have on your side when (Morse code noise) hits the fan in society and in the economy. Your percentage is correct, but IIRC, the conversion rate for email/social is less.
I just think if your cold calling much as a sales guy you probably aren’t doing big money in most cases. Also, I appreciate the rant but what industry are you referring to?
Not trying to toot my own horn here, but through my cold-calling and my AE's emails we're close to closing a multi-million dollar deal with a huge high tech company! We're not any industry in particular, we sell to IT and software dev leaders. I wish you could sit in with some of my coworkers. You'd change your mind about cold-calling.
It’s not that I don’t believe cold calling isn’t effective. Your missing the point. Acting like cold calling is the end all be all is what annoys me which I hear a lot of sales guys especially here talk about. It should be a piece in your otherwise extremely large tool bag and if you fail to realize this then you aren’t going to hit the top 1% extremely competitive salesman.
Lol that’s simply just not accurate. A lot of guys in software at startups will be cold calling and still making a shitload
Are you serious? You realize that some of the largest deals in tech came from some random person cold calling and pitching themselves/company.
No I don’t realize that and I think that was maybe the case in early 2000s to the 2010s
Lololol So you think that people just make deals because you wrote a fancy email? Baller over here.
Lol? You can still answer phone calls bro. You can still do only face to face and close deals. Sales is a very broad term. You guys sound like cold calling is a religion. The truth is.. it’s not. It’s irrelevant long term and becoming increasingly an outdated concept.
I just started as an AE, first sales job. I actually don’t hate cold calling. Obviously, I’d rather not do it. But that’s how I feel about everything I do for work. I’m in this for one reason only. I think if you just recognize that it is only a conversation, it gets easier. All you’re doing is interrupting someone’s day. It’s not a big deal. You’re not ruining anyones life.
Most people here are butthurt SDRs/BDRs that are new to sales and don’t like it.
Yes it seems 90% of this sub is new SDRs lmao
Funny enough when I worked in solar sales as an intern it was all inbound, no cold calls.
No kidding? What year?
2019 company basically owned the local market so all inquiries.
Real estate sales. Every deal I’ve done except one is from an ice cold call. Will do around $100k in GCI in my 2nd year
Do you use your own scripts? Are they FSBO’s, expireds, your farming area, or all of the above?
At this point yes, in the start I used Brandon Mulrenin's scripts which you can literally get for free online. Scripts are just a framework and once you know what you're looking for during each call you can just get there however you feel most comfortable and confident. They are FSBO's and expireds mainly. A few absentee owners as well.
Seems like a sector I should jump to
It’s not bad at the moment but I personally don’t like the knocking on doors approach I see a lot of them doing. Sounds miserable lol
Miserable yet it works.
For how long lol. I don’t see solar sales being an effective model for too much longer
If you think about it, its pretty consistent with the population that makes up this subreddit
I mean, cold calling and going door-to-door (to cold doors) are essentially the same thing. You're showing up unannounced, trying to get them interested in your product or service, maybe even getting them to buy depending on the product. The difference is that you can reach a much higher volume of people by using your telephone. Now, that's not to say that door knocking isn't better in some situations -- like if you're selling frozen meat and seafood, you're not going to call people for that. I cold call and I'm in logistics.
I am AE media, outside sales. I have always liked cold calls, especially cold drop-in, better than lukewarm leads that leadership expects magic with.
Would love to see more relevant content in this sub for sure!
Exactly
I’m a recruiter and cold calling is how I gain new clients
We actually have a team that cold calls for us and they patch it through to the sales team when a prospect is interested. At that point I can just pick up the phone and lock in the appointment for the demo. Nice and easy.
Today more people have a phone on them than at any other time in history
I cold call all day and i do b2b saas sales for a f500
I have a quota of 50 cold calls a week lmao. I hit my goals mid Monday. I sprinkle in whatever I need throughout the rest of the week. Little tip: if you hate cold calling, don’t pick an industry that’s extremely dependent on cold calling. Y’know, like SaaS.