Cold calling is dead. I’m sure you’ve heard it before. People just don’t enjoy talking on the phone anymore. Everyone is too busy, and texting and emails give you the ability to multitask better than ever. People don’t even want to use the phone to buy something they actually want, let alone take an unsolicited phone call. Even pizza places are making it easy to order online or via text so we don’t have to face the dreadful, horrifying voice on the other end of the phone.
So why do we continue to attempt to reach the busiest people in each company by calling them up from a random number and expecting them to stay on the phone and hear us out? As soon as they hear “Hello my name is…” they immediately regret picking up the phone and move as fast as they can to the “I’m actually headed into a meeting right now so it’s not a good time” excuse. But how else can we get their attention?
This is where marketing automation swoops in and saves the day! The modern buyer is an educated buyer. The chances of you introducing the buyer to something completely new and getting them to buy is slim. He or she will research what they need and gather as much information to justify their purchase. It’s all about reaching them at the right time, with the right message. Marketing automation can help you overcome this challenge. It allows the prospect to be tracked, so you know exactly what they’re looking at, gaining that inside knowledge to know what specific message they need to hear at that particular time. The beauty behind that is, the message can be sent to them automatically, helping to warm leads before you begin working them and converting the leads to opportunities. For example, if you sell cars and a potential buyer visits your site, you can receive a notification that your lead is active. At the same time, the lead is then automatically put into an email campaign that will send him or her emails about that specific car consistently for however long you see fit.
I’m not campaigning for us to disable phone calls altogether (although I have wished for that on a few occasions), because we still do need calls to keep the sales cycle moving. What I am suggesting is, why not allow technology to do what it can do to warm the leads, so when you finally do pick up the phone, you can have a meaningful conversation with a lead who is educated on what you have to offer?
