“Which gets better results? Cold calls or Cold emails?”

Sales is all about one thing at the end of the day… are you hitting your numbers?

Yes, I’m 100% on board with the only way to be successful is to help others get what they want. You need that mindset to be successful in sales.

Mindset, however, without the needed results, means payroll isn’t met, lights get turned off and people lose their jobs.

Most new outbound business development reps prefer to send cold emails over making cold calls for two reasons…

• It’s easier to just hit “send” and…
• They do not feel the pain of rejection when a prospect hits the DELETE button.

As a business owner and having 20+ years of experience as a straight-commission sales rep, I’m all for trying different strategies to get better results.

And the outbound sales formula that has always gotten me the BEST results hands down is this…

CALL, VOICEMAIL, EMAIL

Calling a prospect (and knowing exactly what to say if the gatekeeper or prospect picks up), leaving the right message on voicemail, and sending a strategic email designed to get a response, has been my winning formula since email was invented. I’ve been using this combo for that long and it has delivered impeccable results for me.

“calls and emails are by far the most effective pairing. Email alone, with no call, lowered the effectiveness of the sales effort almost 98%.” Inc. Magazine

Keys to Success

The keys to success for this formula are simple, but it isn’t necessarily easy…

1. The hardest part is discipline. You have to be committed to not taking shortcuts. Sure, experiment with other solutions, but not at the expense of knowing what already works.
2. Your Expectations. Anything 10% or greater for a response rate is where you want to be. I have a 72-hour campaign that I use and it averages a 22% response rate. That is high. Consistently getting double-digit responses (callbacks from VM and or Responses from the emails you sent after leaving a voicemail) means it is working! Advertisers would spend every last dime they had in their budget for a double-digit response rate.
3. Your message. If you aren’t getting a double-digit response rate, look your message over. Chances are you are not hitting a pain point / hot button.
4. Your “tone” on voicemail. Voice inflection is key. You want to sound natural while hitting key points in your message. Remember, every Oscar-winning actor had a script. They just didn’t sound like they were reading from a script.

– Michael Pedone

Michael Pedone is the CEO/FOUNDER of SalesBuzz.com. An online sales training company that shows inside sales teams how to: avoid being rejected by gatekeepers, leave voicemail messages that get callbacks, and overcome tough pricing objections.