Last week, Frank Belzer wrote an article in which he questioned Brian Halligan's intent when he said that cold calling was unethical. The next morning, John McTique (That's John on the right.) was trying to "ruffle feathers" with his 5 Minute Sales Call Fantasy. Let's talk about John first. I commented on his post and following the advice of Pete Caputa, I copied my comment before I hit submit because sometimes web pages time out, the comment doesn't get submitted and you have to start from scratch. Then I hit submit and saw my comment under John's post. I also selected "Receive email when somebody replies." I went back to the article awhile later because I wanted to link to it and noticed that my comment had been deleted. So, John and I had this email exchange.
Rick: John, did somebody not like my comment and delete it?
John: Rick, I never saw it. Maybe one of my cohorts did. Did you skewer me on an open flame?
Rick: Nope. Mostly agreed with you. Who did?
John: Nobody. I'm wondering if there was a glitch in Hubspot at the time you posted your comment. Nobody here would delete a comment unless it was blatant spam, and certainly not if it was one of yours. (Notice how well thought out this reply was. It's one of the reasons that I like John.)
Rick: Interesting because after I submitted it, I refreshed the screen and it was there. (Then I waited to see if they put the comment back.)
Both Brian and John are guilty of the same sin. Polarization. Polarization is a sales lie that you tell because it helps your case. Brian has said that all you need is inbound marketing. Your business might need more than inbound marketing. Hubspot makes outbound calls, does press releases and holds some great events. Come on! This is the 4 P's that you all learned in Marketing 101.
And, isn't Kuno telling you what you want to hear?
"start reaching out to them as soon as they express some interest"
"But haven't we done away with the conversation part? No, not at all"
Isn't John suggesting that we should intermingle the sales process throughout the marketing process? It's not a 5 minute sales call. It's a 5 minute closing call, that some will view as the final step in a multi-step sales & marketing process. (It's not final if you continue to market/sell while you deliver.)
Here's the problem: If you use an outbound sales approach on inbound prospects, you will struggle. They won't like it. The 4Q11 Sales Development Program that we announced at HUGS has been designed for Hubspot Partners and Marketing Agencies as well as their clients to learn 21st Century Smarketing. i.e - How to help an inbound customer buy and how you and your process have to change.
Details here or in the ad below.