Caveat – I believe in relationship- based sales. If that’s not how you work, this post may not be helpful to you.
Something extraordinary happened the other day. Someone cold-called me! It was such a shock that I had to think hard about the last time it happened and I realized it had been months.
Why You Don’t Need to Cold Call Me
Through social media, you can discover my interests, where I’m speaking, which associations I belong to and which non-profits I support. And I’m not alone. There is information about your prospects all over the web.
1. LinkedIn:
This is a rich resource for information about your prospects. You’ll learn about their work history, read about the associations they belong to (which if you’re local, you can visit) and if they are updating their profile, find out their recent activities. LinkedIn has groups where online conversations are happening. Join a group your prospect is in and start conversations there.
2. Blogs:
A crucial part of sales is being able to get in the mind of your prospect. If one of your prospects has a blog, read it diligently. You’ll get valuable information about their philosophies and their pain points – all of which will help you understand how to approach them. Most blogs allow for comments. Leaving a comment is another great way to start a relationship with a prospect. Finally, there are four words every blogger wants to hear: “I read your blog.” Here’s the thing, even if you’re lying (which you shouldn’t) you have told your prospect that you know enough about them to know that they have a blog in the first place.
3. FourSquare
The reason that people are fearful about using FourSquare is the very thing that will help you connect with prospects. FourSquare is like an electronic Dora The Explorer tool that helps you find great places to eat, drink, get your clothes dry-cleaned, etc. It also allows you to see where your friends or other people you’re linked to frequent the most. Many of the participating businesses have discounts or specials only available to FourSquare users. The most popular aspect of FourSquare is it’s badge promotion. Think of Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts badges – every time you accomplish a specific task, the Scouts are rewarded with a new badge. FourSquare has a ton of badges you can collect based on how many times you visit a place, if you’re there with lots of friends and you can even become the “Mayor” of a venue. There is a how-to video on their home page if you’d like to learn more.
My point about Foursquare is this – it can help you discover the things your prospects like and the places they frequent. Let me be very clear. I’m not suggesting you stalk a prospect. However, knowing this information can warm up a call.
4. Twitter
Twitter is another fantastic place to start conversations with your prospects. (Please note I said “starting conversations” versus sending spam notes like “Buy my new great ABC.” That will get you unfollowed very quickly.) If you’re using TweetDeck or Seesmic, you might consider having a column set up just for your prospects. Read what they are saying. If there is a conversation happening and you have input, join the conversation! Send the person a tweet or suggest a website that is a good resource on that topic. Twitter is a powerful relationship building tool.
5. Relationships, Relationships, Relationships
People want to do business with people, not spammers and definitely not obnoxious salespeople. If you want to increase your close ratio with prospects, start the conversations online, but don’t stop there. Take the conversations to the IRL (in real life) world. And it works! In 2009, 80% of my business came as a direct result of relationships built in Twitter.
These are just four of the hundreds of social networking sites. If you have another method (or site) for building relationships with prospects, let us know in the comments.
Is cold-calling dead? Probably not. Is it necessary? That’s an entirely different question that is up to you answer…
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Yay! Someone out there thinks the same way I do! Of course that means you are wise beyond your years.
Like you, I’m continually puzzled when I’m cold called (or “cold emailed) by someone who hasn’t taken any initiative to find out anything about me. There’s enough info about me on the web in all of the places that you’ve mentioned to determine whether or not I’d be interested in hearing about someone’s product or service, connecting with them or finding them a job (which I don’t do). It’s a bit disappointing – ok alot disappointing – when it’s clear that the amount of time invested in contacting me was scraping my email address or finding my phone number.
Building relationships where it makes sense is not that hard to do and yields much higher results. If it were up to me, I’d do away with cold calling all together!
Jennifer, I look at cold calling (vs warm calling) as a form of laziness. It takes time, a lot of time to use these techniques and the results, although strong, take longer. Not everyone is willing to invest their time in building relationships and IMHO, that’s what makes for long-term success. But, there are a lot of people who disagree with us. I’m hoping they will post their thoughts too.
Thank you for your comment Jennifer and welcome to the Sanera family!
Interesting take on things. Are you saying, in effect, you only do business with people who are online?
Perhaps your business is comprised solely of helping people who have some interaction with and interest in the Social Media community. If that’s the case then you may be right.
For the 99% of us who remain “stuck” working with people who may or (most likely) may not have any interest in any of this – we have to look outside this very tiny fishbowl and introduce ourselves to people who don’t yet know how absolutely fantastic we are. We have to roll up our sleeves and introduce ourselves to new people each day.
Jerry, it’s great to hear from you. I do business with lots of people. It just so happens that last year, the majority of my business was traceable to relationships on Twitter that didn’t exist before. I too roll up my sleeves and meet new people at non-social media networking events. But my point is this. If someone wants to do business with me and they have researched who I am and they know something about me, the chances of my listening to them and saying yes increase versus someone who got my number from a list and did no research. Thanks for the comment and welcome to Sanera. PS – You are absolutely fantastic!
Thanks Alicia. A question though – if someone I’ve never met connects with me in some fashion with a product I DO have a need for – what’s the problem? I realize one might know more about me and my interests by checking me out online – but if they offer a service I can use – why should I mind?
Thanks for the reply. I always enjoy a good conversation.
Alicia,
Nice post. For me, a cold call means the first time you pick up the phone and have a verbal conversation. You might well know the prospect from social media channels, but the first time you tak it’s a cold call. Certainly it helps to research your prospects, but you can over do it, and approach your target as if you already know all about them. The fact finding stage of a call is what builds rapport, asking the prospect questions they can answer to direct the call.
Where I believe social channels come in to there own is identifying and finding prospects to call. The connection may help you to get answered and taken seriously, but your objective with any potential business contact should be to talk in person and start a “real” conversation.
Bill
Bill, that’s an interesting way to look at what cold calling is and I understand your point. I especially liked what you said about overdoing it with the information you’ve gathered about the prospect. There is a fine balance between warming up the call and again, sounding like a stalker.
Since you use questions to drive the course of the call, would you mind sharing what some of your key questions are? Thanks for your perspective from “across the pond!”
Good question Jerry. I think it comes down to individual preferences. As a business owner, the cold calls I receive are largely not something I want, but your experience may be different. When I was in corporate America, receiving 10 cold calls a day (mostly from recruiters because of my position) was tremendously annoying. Most of them did not take an interest in me or the issues I was facing. The ones who put themselves in my shoes and understood my pain points were the ones who got the business. I wrote a post about that on The Red Recruiter’s site: http://www.redrecruiting.com/?p=562. Keep the questions coming – it’s an important issue.
Thanks for adding Foursquare into this mix.
For me, I don’t really care about where you eat, or badges, or even what others think of those venues.
For me, it is money BECAUSE, it is an obvious conversation starter with someone you want to get to know.
I mean, seriously, it can’t get any easier. Did they check in at a bookstore? Ask them what book they are reading. Boom! Conversation started – and relationship begun.
Easy.
Alicia – this is a great post! Although I am not an early adopter of any of the 4 great tools you list, I do have an aptitude for social media and for making my life easier/better/more profitable with technology.
All that said, even though I agree with your post, some of my best clients, mentors and supporters have come to me more traditionally and one of the ways that I have strengthened my relationship with them is to lead them to have more of an online presence and awareness. So, I will still take a cold call, BUT the elevator pitch better be REALLY good!
Thanks for the great conversation!
Alicia,
80% of your business came as a direct result of relationships built in Twitter? I’d love to hear more on this. Was this from you reaching out to new prospects on Twitter? Or from people finding you on Twitter? Neither? Both?
I’m active on Twitter, and it’s been a great way to build relationships with existing contacts and expand my network. But I can’t say that I’ve seen many sales as a direct result of Twitter activity.
I’d love to hear any more insights you have on this.
Thanks,
Ben
P.S. Great post, btw!
Todd, thank you for your comment. Foursquare is important to business marketing and by the way, I am thoroughly enjoying your Foursquare case study on your blog: http://intrepid-llc.com/social-media/35th-check-in-the-publix-foursquare-watch/
Joe, you bring up a good point about more traditional marketing methods. And good for you for investing time in your clients to teach them the new tools. That definitely makes you a valued resource.
Ben, thank you for your questions. You inspired me to write my newest post on Twitter: http://www.sanerapdc.com/2010/06/5-ways-i-won-with-twitter/. Thanks for the compliment and welcome to the Sanera family!