I received an email last week from a real estate representative asking me if cold calling was dead. If you are wondering the same thing, ask yourself this question:

Think of all the times you reach for your phone to reach new buyers: those people you see on social media who you think would be a good fit, all the leads your business generates who ask for more information, all your customers you call to raise sales, “qualified” leads that you or your business are paying for that call, etc.

Then ask yourself: if your phone were taken away, would it affect your sales? Would you be as successful if you couldn’t reach these prospects and introduce yourself and your company?

If your answer is Yes, guess what? Cold calling is not dead. Oh, you can call it warm calling or prospecting, but the fact is, you still have to reach out to people you don’t know in order to connect with them, introduce yourself and your company, and qualify them for a fit for your product or Service.

The real question should be: how can you “cold call” more effectively?

In terms of this real estate agent, one suggestion I had was to do what others in your industry are doing. And that’s calling local homeowners and offering them something of value first, and if they want to take advantage of it, then gently qualifying to get them interested in a service you’re offering.

For example: Many real estate agents have put together an up-to-date free market analysis of comps for other houses in the area and call local owners to give them away. They call and ask the owner if they would like a current report on the values ​​of other homes in their area (including theirs).

Now who wouldn’t want that?

After the owner says yes, it collects your email address and promises to send you the report. They then go on to qualify the owner by asking any of the following questions to generate a lead:

“And would you be interested in a personalized, no-obligation valuation of the current value of your home?”

PRAYED

“Will you be on the market to sell your home in the next 6-12 months by any chance?”

PRAYED

“Are you looking to downsize anytime within the next 5 years?”

And so. If you’re in real estate, I’m sure you may have many other questions. The point is to discover a potential customer, and these questions help reveal who it might be.

Obviously, you can adapt this strategy to any other industry, that is, yours! The point is that you will find this information through cold calling prospects.

So are cold calling dead? Disconnect your phone for a month and see if your sales suffer. If they do, then it’s not dead; you may not be doing it right.