July 18, 2024 | Read online
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Greetings from Spain!
I’m writing this right before I jump on my flight home after doing an onsite training this week in Barcelona.
If you’ve never been to this city, I HIGHLY recommend it. The weather is almost always perfect, the people are super friendly, the food is incredible, the art is breathtaking and the night life is off the charts.
I remember the last time I was here I asked the team I was working with if anyone wanted to go out for dinner and show me the nightlife. A few reps met me out for dinner around 11pm and then took me to the clubs. At 4:00am I had to leave for my flight and the reps were still with me at the club. It was a Tuesday night….
This time, at 48 years old, I opted for a nice dinner and drinks at a tapas restaurant on the water near my hotel and was in bed by 11.
The onsite training reminded me that we’re all dealing with the same challenges in Sales, no matter what country you’re from.
One of the topics that continues to come up is the value of phone and cold calling so I thought I would share my thoughts and some tips in this week’s newsletter along with a reminder of why I think humans will ultimately win out over AI.
TACTICAL TIPS: How to Justify Cold Calling
SALES RESOURCES: Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands
SALES FROM THE STREETS: Reminder of Why The Human Factor Still Matters in a World of AI
TACTICAL TIPS:
How to Justify Making Cold Calls
Let’s be honest, no one likes making or taking cold calls.
I used to make 400 dials a week for over 5 years of my career and although I found ways of making them interesting, I hated almost every aspect of it.
That was back when the phone was the main form of communication for sales reps. Yes, I’m old. I graduated college in 1998 when the internet and email were barely a thing. For those of you who are too young to remember, don’t worry, you’ll be saying the same thing about AI in a few years.
Now, we have multiple forms of communication and almost no one picks up the phone from an unknown number which makes it really hard to justify spending time making cold calls any more.
Not to mention how demoralizing it is to spend hours making calls and IF someone happens to pick up, the likelihood of them yelling at you and calling you names is much higher than them spending time listening to what you have to say.
So why should we even make calls at this point?
It’s a completely valid question.
If we look at cold calling as a traditional Sales function, I don’t have a great answer for you.
I mean think about it. First, you have to A) have the right contact information, B) get someone live on the phone and then C) get to talk to someone other than a gatekeeper.
After you get through that gauntlet you think that you’re going to say something magical that gets the person to drop all their other priorities and jump into a sales cycle with you?
You’re out of your mind if you think that’s going to happen these days.
However, if we think of cold calling as more of a Marketing function I think we can still justify it.
I’ve said it before that I think Sales reps need to become mini-marketers. Every impression point matters these days.
The cold call and voicemail could remind them to look at your email which brings them to your LinkedIn profile which could then lead them to your website and to potentially fill out a form for an inbound lead.
This is why your LinkedIn profile, what you post, and the comments you make matter.
The copy of your emails matters.
What you send in the mail matters.
And how you leverage phone matters.
I can prove phone matters when you look at it this way because we test it with clients.
We’ll come up with a multi-touch “persona driven” cadence where we create relevant messaging we send to multiple people who fit the same profile/persona (i.e. CIOs in Healthcare).
We’ll then break up into two groups. One group will run 100+ accounts that fit the profile through a cadence that’s only email.
The other group will run 100+ accounts through the same cadence, to the same persona, with the same messaging but we’ll make touches 2, 5 and 9 phone calls.
We won’t get a ton of connects or call backs but inevitably the cadence that includes phone gets a 5-10% higher overall conversion rate.
So, here’s my tactical tip for you if you’re going to make calls.
DON’T sprinkle phone calls throughout the day. It’s a drastic waste of time. You can’t gain any momentum with your calls or learn anything that way.
DO “power hours” BUT make sure you don’t just bring your list of accounts to call. If you have a general list of names with different titles in different industries, you’re forced to be generic with your pitch and your approach.
Instead, choose one persona (CIOs in Healthcare), develop a multi-touch cadence with relevant messaging to them, and ensure at least 2-3 of the “touches” are calls.
Then, run about 50 accounts through the cadence and block an hour to make calls when the phone touches are scheduled.
When you get to the calls, make sure all your numbers are accurate, have your message ready, develop some relevant questions for that persona, and ideally have a relevant case study that you know how to tell the story about.
Then go to work and say the same damn thing every single time.
The first few calls are always going to be rough, so don’t waste them on the good accounts; make sure you have a list of 5-10 shitty accounts to get started with.
After the first few, you should be able to gain some momentum and confidence, so each call should get better. If someone actually does pick up the phone, you’ll be prepared to have a relevant, value-oriented conversation.
Test this against a cadence with only email and see what happens. I’ll be shocked if you don’t see better results with the one that includes the phone, even if you don’t get to talk to anyone.
SALES RESOURCES:
Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands
If you’re ever going to travel internationally for business you need to grab this book:
Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands.
It’s a 5-page summary of every country’s history, religion, government structure, culture, food, and most importantly the do’s and don’ts.
This version takes a Sales and Marketing spin to it and helps you navigate the business norms of each country as well.
SALES FROM THE STREETS:
A Reminder Of Humanity over AI
One of my favorite aspects of Barcelona is the art scene and all the art history, specifically when it comes to my favorite artist - Picasso.
When I landed in Barcelona around 3:30 pm on Wednesday I had a few hours to kill before I needed to prep for my training the next day so I decided to see what suggestions ChatGPT had for me.
One of its recommendations was to check out a few neighborhoods on my way to the Picasso Museum which was only about a 30-minute walk from my hotel so off I went.
On the way there, I stopped by a few other galleries, one of which was filled with digital NFT artwork, which was absolutely mesmerizing.
When NFTs first hit, I was convinced they were the future of currency, digital art, and much more. I still do, but not anytime soon. Thankfully, I never bought any of those stupid monkey heads for thousands of dollars that are now worthless.
Nonetheless, I still think digital art is fascinating.
However, when I got to the Picasso museum I was reminded of the power of humanity and why I believe we’re always going to have the edge over technology.
The walls of the Picasso museum were not only covered with his physical paintings from different eras of his work but also told a story, including where he was physically and mentally at the time he painted them.
I can’t explain it other than you could tell the physical paintings had a soul to them. You could literally feel the emotions in the painting with every brush stroke and imagine where he was when he was painting them.
Their back stories brought them to life even more.
As fascinating as the digital art was in the other gallery, I didn’t feel anything while looking at them (other than maybe some flashbacks).
This is the same way I feel about emails and content written by AI.
I’m sure it will evolve to the point where eventually I won’t be able to tell but right now I can guarantee you I can pick out an AI-generated email, post or comment no matter how “personalized” it is.
The only way I can describe it is how I described the digital artwork as not having a soul.
I go back to the “give-a-shit” factor as the one thing that AI can’t do.
It can pretend to give-a-shit but fundamentally it can’t.
That’s how I know we’ll survive in this evolving world of AI….well, at least some of us.
The reps who care enough to put in the work and learn about the psychology and fundamentals of Sales, the ones who truly believe in what they sell and want to make a real difference for the right customers, the ones who use tools like ChatGPT to feed their curiosity and not for automation, these are the reps who will survive and thrive moving forward.
Which one are you going to be?
ADDITIONAL WAYS YOU CAN LEVEL UP YOUR SALES GAME
- The JB Sales Membership is where you’ll get access to my live training, workshops, AMAs and OnDemand catalog so you can level up your sales skills every day! 3000+ Sales pros have already joined. Are you next?
- The industry-leading Make it Happen Monday Podcast where you’ll get insights and inspiration from some of the most interesting and influential people in the world of Sales and business. (this is where you’ll hear the Guy Kawasaki episode on May XYZ)
- The JB Sales YouTube channel with practical tips that you can apply immediately to drive results along with interviews and content that is guaranteed to get you to think differently.
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