Management » Sales & Marketing

 

Why Social Media Will NOT Replace Conventional Prospecting

By Troy Harrison
Jan. 27, 2011

Ever since the cold call was invented, salespeople have been trying to invent the “magic button” that would allow them to quit cold calling and have prospects simply beat a path to their door.  Over the years, many different methodologies including customer reselling, networking and other methods have claimed to be the magic button. The latest is Online Social Networking (OSN). Just Tweet enough, so say experts including Jeff Gitomer, and you won’t ever need to smile and dial again.

Nonsense.  That may work if you’re already established and as noteworthy as Gitomer, but if you’re like 99 percent of America’s salespeople, you’ve got cold calls in your future. Let’s back up a minute.

The basic appeal of selling as a career for most people is that, unlike other business disciplines, salespeople can control their income through increased commissions for better results.  It’s this controllability that mitigates against OSN as a primary strategy.

The basic equation of sales achievement is: (quantity of activity) x (quantity of activity) = Results. In other words, the more you do of it and the better you are at it, the better results you will get. Over the years, salespeople have been able to break down their activity into ratios, or numeric roadmaps that help them achieve what they want to achieve. For instance, if your closing ratio is one sale for every two proposals, you need double the number of proposals as you need sales. These ratios work all the way back to calculating the number of phone calls you need for a prospect appointment. For reference’s sake, most B2B salespeople can do 20 dials per hour; they will get five to six contacts in 20 dials; they will set an appointment about one of every four contacts.

Here lies the problem with OSN as a primary prospect generation strategy. There are no valid and viable ratios. No one – including those people who are training or evangelizing for OSN – can tell you how many Tweets yield an initial appointment, or how many “likes” on Facebook produce a proposal. The very foundation of a selling career – controllability – has gone out the window.
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Recent Comments

I couldn't disagree with you more. I've done both--cold calling and "OSN"--and I would take OSN any day of the week. Here's an example: I was trying to reach the decision maker at a large life science company. I called and left at least half a dozen phone messages. None of those calls were returned. I sent several email messages. None of those messages received a response. I sent an InMail message through LinkedIn and had a voice message on my phone the very next morning at 8:15 AM. As a result I had a meeting in the decision makers office two weeks later. Two weeks after that I had a signed agreement that resulted in thousands of dollars of business. I think you have seriously underestimated the value of OSN. Here's another example. I had the cell phone number and the office number of a decision maker at a an international, multi billion dollar company. I called both numbers multiple times with out a response. I tried emailing the decision maker on several occasions with no response. Again, it was through OSN that I was able to get this decision maker's attention and eventually ended up being included in an RFP for which my company was selected as a preferred provider. So, I don't think we need to throw away the telephone, but if you want to compete in the 21st century, you better be using OSN. As for as Jeffrey Gitomer is concerned, I'll put my bet on him. As he says, "All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends." This includes CEO's and decision makers. OSN is all about relationships and connections. It's about conversation and the sharing of information and ideas. By participating in OSN you are giving yourself the opportunity to join the conversation and connect with people who are interested in the things you are interested in. You can make your cold calls all day long to people that don't want to talk to you. I'll stick with building relationships with people who are interested in what I have to say, or know people who are interested and will recommend me.

Posted By: Michael Yoder on Jan 2011

I agree - there is no magic button with OSN in B2B selling! Cold calls, referrals, and even knocking on doors are still necessary to get business. LinkedIn is great for finding who to cold call, great for finding referrals and great for finding which door to knock on - but you have to actively become involved in doing those things to get the business. Good salespeople are always looking for new business for their “pipeline” so they are always actively involved in cold calling, asking for referrals and even knocking on doors. Good face-to-face or voice-to-voice networking is not going away soon!

Posted By: Cora Mae Lengeman on Jan 2011
OSN is not meant to replace any of the traditional marketing mediums -- face-to-face, cold calling, print, mail, etc. It's another marketing medium that must be included in the 21st Century Marketing Mix.
Posted By: Kim Kelley on Feb 2011