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The Demise of the Cold Call
(From Hi-Value Capital Equipment Selling)
In life, everything changes. From
processes to organisms, there is nothing absolute. It is a fortunate fact that
most of these changes take place very slowly, as otherwise, we would not have had
our laws of academic fields (collectively called philosophy, here after) by which we try to understand, the things which happen
all around us.
Some wits are of the opinion that science breeds ignorance. Their logic is that for every question science answers, two
questions prop up. Therefore, science can never answer all questions because at
any one time the number of questions is bound to be double or exponentially
more then the number of answers. The thinking is I admit, original but the
conclusions are in error. I ‘ll dispute this statement with a single sentence
which is “do automobile designers start their design from the wheel?” No
indeed! They do not.
Similarly,
capital equipment selling has also changed, in the sense that “cold calling”
has become old and died. Let me define it still further, the cold call hasoutlived its usefulness just as the steam engine had given way to more modern
locomotives. Cold calling was indispensable at one point of time for all selling, like the steam powered train.
But in high value machinery and capital equipment selling, we do not design cars from the wheel. However in volumetric selling, it’s still very
much there-sales of hardware, valves, electrodes, machine oil mainly consumables etc. all depend upon cold calling.
What is a high value sale? I’ll define it Anything from twenty grand and up.
Earlier we did not have access to all that is happening in the world instantly.
Hence, there were good chances that unless you shared the same watering hole
with your competitors, you wouldn’t know who required your product. As competition
grew more and more intense, watering holes became redundant and cold calling
started. You dropped on potential customers and got introduced, got leads, got
inquiries too if you were lucky. This is cold calling.
But
today with the modern technology you have at their disposal, that same
information can be obtained from the internet in more details. Now let us suppose
you are an entrepreneur and you are purchasing filtration machines, of whatever
type suits your purpose best, which is to filter and recover the mined coal particles and recover them. Say a salesperson from a company comes along and makes a request to meet you.
You meet him and he says they make filtration machines and he thought he would
enquire if they have any requirement. You have plenty of things to do then to recite your requirement (you had met the man for the solution) so you
direct him to an engineer, who tells him what he wants to know. Say, if
the proposal develops then the person will want to meet you, but will you want to meet him?
On the other hand,the person calls you up and makes an appointment. He knows everything about your requirement. He has talked to the client, has
seen the coal that your machine will be required to handle, and he has two
proposals of which he wants to make a presentation. Who will impress you more?
Who has the better chance to get the job or order? Guy no#1…Naaaaah! And, that is precisely
why cold calling has died out in high value selling. I don’t know why this
simple logic is not understood by so many managers today. Therefore ladies and
gentleman, the reports of the death of cold-calls are not exaggerated at all.(with apologies to Mr. S.L.Clemens).
Old indeed, is gold, but not everywhere.
From
our next post onwards, we will also concentrate about marketing because from
this point onwards, marketing will always loom in the corner. We will invite
him too and when we require, we will either call upon sales or marketing, as we
proceed further in our journey of knowledge acquisition .....of the ultimate
philosophical truth? Yes, either that or a stinking dead rat.
With love
Bilbo
Your-friendly-neighbourhood- hobbitt
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