Does cold calling still work, even in these crazy times? Or not?

That was the question I was trying to answer. After all, you hear many contradicting views from sales leaders, consultants and trainers on this subject.

So I launched a poll on LinkedIn to get some answers of my own.

But I didn't want answers to come from all and sundry.

You would have noticed that in the poll I specifically asked for sales leaders and executives to answer how many cold calls they take each day. I deliberately wanted to poll the very people who are usually responsible for cold calls being made on behalf of their business in the first place.

Why?

Because I wanted to see whether these same people do themselves what they expect their prospects to do every day: To take these calls.

It must have hit a nerve, as the poll had more than 12,000 views and well over 200 responses. To my surprise, the poll results weren't even the most interesting part of the exercise. To me, the real surprise was in some of the comments.

But, first things first: Let's talk about the overall results.

1. The Poll Results

There were three answers, plus comments:

1. "I Don't Accept Any Cold Calls" = 59%

As you can see in the image below, most respondents said that they don't take ANY cold calls at all. At just under 60% I thought that figure is pretty reasonable. Actually, I expected it to be a little higher than that. So that result is within expectations.

2. "I Accept 2-3 Cold Calls A Day" = 14%

Just under 15% of respondents said that they take 2-3 cold calls per day.

3. "I Accept all Cold Calls" = 19%

Almost 20% (!) of respondents said that they take ALL cold calls. This really astounded me. I had guessed that figure to come in much lower. Did you, too?

The explanation may be in the next section.

2. The Real Story Behind The Figures

As you can see in the image, I had added a fourth answer option.

Why did I add this "Other" choice?

Because I wanted some context to the raw figures, dig a bit deeper and uncover the WHY?

At first, the comments were about the poll itself, along these lines:

"I assume it will be interesting to see - if possible - how many people say they don’t accept cold calls (or accept them, but really have no intention whatsoever of listening to them or buying what they are selling) but make them themselves, or advise others to make them." (thank you Mark McPherson)

So it seems people were looking for the irony of sales leaders asking SDRs to make cold calls on behalf of their business, yet they themselves are not taking any.

Others were offering advice on what makes a cold call more likely to be accepted:

"Success or failure of a cold call to me depends on the person’s relevance… established fast, or call is over." (thank you Tony Hughes)

and

"I do not have time to be nice. So the call is accepted if I feel it may be of value." (thank you Matt Cowan)

In my opinion, comments like the above is what can reasonably be expected from a poll of this nature. So no surprises there.

However...

Here is what I think is the really interesting part:

I wrote back to some of the commentators, asking WHY they had responded the way they did.

Here is what came back to me:

"Every now and again, I'll take a cold call. These reps are doing what I spent years doing and what I ask my team to do every day. Not accepting them just doesn't seem right. Sometimes I'll get a call from someone really good and I'll earn something new." (thank you Tom Whalen)

and

"I accept cold calls because I could see myself in their shoes, or I see possibilities of mutual benefit." (thank you Robert Malit)

and

"I never know what good thing or vendor I missed if I don’t take the call. A good buyer always looks." (thank you Norman Roth)

3. The Conclusion

It seems there are three main groups emerging from this poll:

1. People who NEVER take cold calls (even if they are in a position where they have SDRs making outbound calls on behalf of their business. Oh the irony!)

2. People who take the occasional cold call out of sympathy for the callers (perhaps because it reminds them of when they started out in sales themselves)

3. People who take cold calls because they want to learn either what NOT to do, or to pick up a NEW technique from the caller. It transpires that quite a few people take cold calls because they want to pick up tricks from others.

This last point of course then begs an important question:

Are cold calls still effective these days?

I mean, how effective are cold calls, really, if 60% of people NEVER take cold calls, while others take them either out of sympathy / empathy, or because they want to pick up a new trick or two?

You make up your own mind, but I think Alice Heiman sums it up for me:

"The problem is it takes 1,000s of dials to reach 10 people. And of those 10, how many are interested, even if you get their attention? There are so many better ways. Cold calling is inefficient and in most cases ineffective as well. Cold email is possibly even worse in terms of results by volume. Why would you continue?"

I would sum it up this way:

“The hardest part of the sales cycle today is no longer to close a deal, but to gain ENGAGEMENT with a prospect in the first place.

Or:

While technology has made it easy to REACH your ideal customers, it has made it even more difficult to draw them into a meaningful sales conversation."

Let's talk if you are in that situation.

Here is to your success.

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