Seth Godin wrote a while back a blog post that suggested the “death of the sales call.” In the age of social media and with a much more sophisticated consumer market, I would agree that the idea of cold calling has seen its time.
John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing and best-selling author of “The Referral Engine” talks this past week on the idea of “The Abusive Math of Cold Calling.” I love it! In fact, John suggests that the only way to make a sales call is to do so with an introduction by a former customer or strategic partner:
“You should never leave the office or get on the phone to call on a prospect without some form of a referral,” writes John.
As Donny and I take the rest of July off for personal vacation, rest and renewal, I wanted you to know how thankful we are are for our readers and clients. Hope your summer is a time to renew your commitment to strong relationships of know-like-trust with customers. In August, we are going to drill down deeper on this idea of referral marketing. We will have blog posts, free webinars, live workshops in the DFW area, and as well, we launch on 8/25 our “Referral Engine Pro Virtual Power Group” – click here for more information.
-Randy
Image source: vizuarna.si