Death Cold Calling

On May 5th, 2003, a company called LinkedIn launched. In 2006, they reported 20 million viewers, and in 2013 Linked in reported 259 million users. Between December 2010 and February 2011 (the exact date is up to debate, and has not been able to be determined) cold calling was finally put to death by the wicked blade of LinkedIn. Sales reps and marketing consultants everywhere panicked- the reckoning was upon the sales world.

You see, these fools were not prepared for the rapture- they were too concentrated on smiling and dialing, and did not recognize that LinkedIn was able to convert their COLD call into a WARM call. They were too busy to recognize that they had 259 (yes, two hundred and fifty nine) MILLION business profiles in front of them to call. And not only did they have their name, but they had information on where these individuals worked, their title, time spent at the company, names of their co-workers, education, e-mail, phone extension, and on and on and on.

It is not enough to call a company blindly in 2014 without doing any prior research. In our industry of Digital Marketing, there are plenty of tools to warm up a conversation. Great applications like SEM rush that allow one to view, in detail, where the prospects web traffic is coming from, and where they can improve. It is a good idea (actually a great idea-actually you have to do this if you ever want to get any clients) to do your research about the company you are calling on in this day and age.

Remember, you are going to build a relationship with these individuals – shouldn’t you at least know who you are talking to?