Can you rely on cold calling as your one and only prospecting method for driving leads? Yes, you absolutely can. The challenge with that, though, is that whenever you employ just one method of reaching prospects, you are constrained to that method. A salesperson can only make so many phone calls. And, you can only talk to a prospect so often before the contact feels stalked, or worse yet, like the sales rep didn’t listen when told “we aren’t going to make any changes for nine months.”
I like cold calling as an approach. In fact, we require it of any clients for whom we’re running lead generation campaigns. We teach their sales teams how to do effective cold calling in today’s market.
But, I don’t like cold calling as a singular new business development strategy. It’s too limiting.
Multipronged Ubiquity
What I do like is a multipronged, integrated new business development approach that incorporates a number of different lead generation strategies like I’ve written about in my book The Sales Magnet. By using several different strategies, you open up the possibility of your target market seeing you in multiple places – even before they are ready for your services.
You begin to create a sense of ubiquity. You are everywhere.
With a multipronged new business development strategy, prospects can read your blog posts, receive your email campaigns, see press coverage of you in a business journal, get invitations to events that you’re hosting, see flashy marketing emails from you and get your phone calls. They’re not just hearing from you when the CRM reminds your sales rep to call. They see you in different places, at different times, putting you top-of-mind.
You become ubiquitous. And prospects notice you.
Being ubiquitous helps cold calling results, too. It makes it easier for you to gain access to prospects. When prospects have a need, they will think of you first because they keep seeing you.
You now have Recognition ROI because of your ubiquity.
That’s why you should use nurturing and educating as part of your overall new business development strategy and not just rely solely on cold calling. It builds your ubiquity. Calling is simply another aspect of that.
The Engine
Let’s imagine for a moment that you suddenly discover that you need to purchase a new car.
Up until that point your current car was satisfactory. It was running well. You had no problems with it, and you enjoyed it. Then, suddenly you begin to experience engine trouble. Your mechanic delivers the sad news that you need to rebuild the engine – and it’s going to cost you $5,000.
Now, you’re in the market for a new car.
Everywhere you look all you see are commercials and advertisements for new cars and car dealerships. You notice all the people who are driving new cars. You can’t help but open a magazine and soak up every advertisement for a new car.
What’s happening here is not that there is a sudden increase in marketing for new cars. You’re just noticing the ads because now you’re in the market. You aren’t going to wait around for a car dealer to call you because it popped up in their CRM. You’re going to take action.
How Ubiquity Works
That’s how ubiquity works. When prospects realize they have a need for your services, they start paying attention.
Suddenly they’re seeing you everywhere because you’ve been pushing out different types of content, reaching out to them in multiple ways.
They start reading emails that you’re sending. They see your blog posts. They are watching your LinkedIn comments. They notice your Facebook ad. They realize that you’ve invited them to an event.
And when you call, these prospects take the meeting. That is, if the issue isn’t so bad that they haven’t already called you.
Because your target market is bound to have unexpected “engine trouble,” your approach to new business development needs to focus on building your Recognition ROI through ubiquity. Relying on cold calling, or any singular strategy, limits your reach to your prospects and their ability to see you “everywhere.”
You don’t want to limit yourself to just one lead generation strategy. Think about your ubiquity. Start building your Recognition ROI by using multiple approaches to create visibility. And when your prospects’ engines break down, you’ll be top-of-mind.
