Less than a fifth of marketers think that cold calls still get leads (Hubspot research). Why is this happening and what should small businesses be doing instead?

Generational Preference

By 2025, three quarters of the work force are going to be Millennials. Yes, those people who were born using technology who hate to actually speak to humans. In fact, 75% of them own smartphones and a whopping quarter of them never use it to call. This is why the great majority of these buyers never respond to unsolicited calls. Cold calling seems to be dead.

Spam

Most young people don’t know that Spam is the brand of a sandwich meat in a can. For them, it refers to unsolicited calls, texts and email. Most of phone calls from unknown numbers are filtered by users and never picked up. In fact, less than 2% of cold calls result in a meeting. That’s because most buyers think you’re spam when you call.

Privacy Please

10-15% of the population has anxiety or fear of using the phone. This is an actual thing that’s called telephobia. So is it any wonder that we’ve become crazed with protecting our rights to privacy. Scammer and spammers alike have made sure to kill cold calling dead in its tracks.

Not There

Most buyers are harder to reach now by phone because they no longer have one office. 1/3 are still working hybrid and 12% of full time workers are working from home. So when a marketing method like cold calling doesn’t work, it dies.

What Instead?

Social Media is where 66% of businesses get leads from only 6 hours of work per week. Another key element of replacing cold calling is to develop a targeting and messaging strategy to create content. In fact, effective content leads to 3x the conversions vs. calling and costs 62% less. Also, don’t forget to engage where the buyers are in person-at conferences, trade shows, meetings and through referral partner events. Lastly, take a look at how AI and automation helps you convert leads faster. For example, when you can follow up with a lead within 5 minutes of their enquiry, you’re 9x more likely to convert them.

So the conclusion is that, cold calling might be dead for lead generation. However, with so many more creative and effective tools to get leads, I can’t be that upset about it.

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