Cold Calls, Warm Calls and Social Calls
Michael Pedone
Chief Sales Scientist at SalesBuzz.com | Dad of Two AWESOME Daughters | High-maintenance Husband | 80's Guitar Shredder
"What’s the Difference Between Cold Calls, Warm Calls and Social Calls?"
As a member of several sales related LinkedIn Groups, I’ve noticed a common misconception within the sales community with respect to cold calling, warm calls, social calls and even referrals.
For the record, the definition of “cold calling” isn’t blindly picking up the phone and dialing random numbers and pitching your product or service to whoever answers. That is a “method” of cold calling, (and the lowest ROI producing method known to sales at that)
Cold calling is contacting any suspect / prospect who currently isn’t “raising their hand” at the moment.
So even if you call your best client and ask for referrals… guess what… When you call that referral, it’s still a “cold call” because the prospect wasn’t raising their hand nor asked to be contacted nor was expecting your call. It’s still an interruption. And you know what? That’s OK!
A sales person shouldn’t base the prospects “temperature” on how much they know about the prospect but rather, how much the prospect knows and has interest in the product or service a sales person is selling.
A warm call is when for example a lead form gets filled out on a website. The prospect has some level of interest.
A hot lead is when an inbound call comes in and the prospect says “I spoke with so and so and they bought your system and I want one too!”
Or, your current clients come to you and say they need more or something else.
Social calls / Social selling is using social media tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook etc to brand you and or your company as as an industry expert as well as to lead capture a prospects contact data in order to utilize drip marketing campaign techniques in order to continue to brand and position oneself as the solution provider for a prospects problem.
To be successful in sales, you will need to fill your sales pipeline from all channels.
– Michael Pedone
Michael Pedone is a straight commissioned sales person with 20+ years experience selling by phone. He is the CEO/FOUNDER of SalesBuzz.com – an online sales training company that shows inside sales teams how to eliminate call reluctance and close more sales.
BusinessHead at Exicon Media Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
8yAgree with you Michael and also with Tom here. A call becomes a prospect only when they are approached after a cold call materialises into interest or if they call on you as an inquiry (via forms on website, telephony or referrals). Also referrals work both ways. And the reverse referral is an absolute hot lead when it comes through a serviced client to us.
President @ Parrish Security Group | Security Management Expert
8yI would add that any time you are speaking with a prospect is a cold call regardless of your social media connection. Professional sales people need to be effective in all phases including cold calling. This is an excellent post and great advice for young sales professionals.
*Starting Customer Conversations Specialist, *Keynote Speaker, *Promoting women's sense of self-worth, their ability to determine their own work choices. I help people build Self Confidence!
8yI agree 100% with everything you have said, except, I have had extraordinary success with cold calling and the ROI has been huge. It's a process, and it requires study and research so that you are relevant to the person you are speaking with for true success.
Fueling Revenue Excellence: Your Trusted Partner in Driving Growth, Optimizing Processes, and Elevating Sales Success
8yGood info.
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8yMichael - good distinction of what I like to call an "education" call.