Email or cold call? Rise of permission marketing

Should you cold call prospects, or should you send them an email first?

Granted, the email does not replace the call. The email only antecedes the call. Proponents of the classic approach say that a good old cold call is what really matters. They give you a set of numbers to reach out to. You start your day. By noon, you have already received more rejections than most people get in a year. But you are in sales. You have thick skin. You bravely continue your rejection journey until you find some willing buyers who give you the attention you need.

Is the cold-call model better?

No. Evidence shows that email prenotification increases the likelihood of prospects responding more favorably once you call them and, thereby, increases conversion rates. Traditional cold calling used to be effective in the past, but now times have changed.

As Seth Godin put it in his book, there are two types of marketing: interruption marketing and permission marketing. With interruption marketing, you get exposed to the communication message while you are doing something else. You get distracted by the message. With permission marketing, you choose a less invasive communication approach. The prospect controls exposure to the message. The prospect chooses whether he or she wants to continue the conversation. The prospect invites you to the conversation.

Which one is better?

For years, interruption marketing has been the norm. We are bothered when we get interrupted, but as long as interruptions are not continuous, it’s fine. Why add an additional step in the sales funnel? The old cold-calling tactic was used to yield good conversions. Not anymore. Nowadays, we are bombarded by communication messages. We get continuously interrupted. It's not fun anymore. Prospects respond negatively to any interruption. This is true for the B2C world when you are interrupting people watching a movie. This is much worse in the B2B world when you are interrupting managers while they are working.

Permission marketing in today’s context signals you care not to interrupt buyers while they work, is cost-efficient, and can allow effective personalization. Furthermore, it lowers rejection rates, which is good for saving your time, and, most importantly, it psychologically eases the work on you, lessening the mental burden or a myriad of rebuffs.

Emails can be effective forms of permission marketing in the context of sales. Critics of permission marketing claim that it does not really exist. To ask for permission, you still need to interrupt people. True. However, prospects have control over whether and when they wish to open the email. You only see the subject. The subject must be extremely clear and direct to the point. Don't use sketchy tactics to lure prospects into opening the email. Make it easy and straightforward. That way, you will minimize interruption.

Now, canonical permission marketing requires that you call only if prospects respond to your email. If they don’t, you shouldn’t call. This is where there are different opinions. Indeed, you call all those who reply that they are interested and don't call those who reply that they are not. But if they don't reply, should you still call, assuming they haven’t read the email? Or should you not call, assuming they have read it and are not interested? It would be a waste to lose good leads only because they haven’t read your email. At the same time, will prospects respond negatively if you call them after you already sent the email? Not if you write the email well. The multichannel approach works. You send the email first, giving prospects time to review the information before your call, and then you call after when they already know about the product and have time to think of questions. Even if they might not like it, they’d still like it less if you call unannounced.

A good idea could be to anticipate in the email that you are planning to call unless they reply they are not interested. This will solicit the negative reply, giving them a chance to opt out and saving your time. This will also make it less uncomfortable for you to call them since they anticipate your call.

Another good idea could be to leave a brief and professional voicemail following the email whenever they don't reply to the email. The voicemail also does not interrupt prospects and is consistent with the permission marketing approach. It’s not uncommon for sales professionals to call after work hours to leave a voicemail. You signal you care not to disrupt your prospects’ workday. Some even mention it upfront: I called you after work hours to leave a voicemail because I don’t want to disrupt your workday. They'll appreciate your consideration and reward you with attention to your voice message. Voicemails and emails combine perfectly. The weakness of a voicemail is that your call to action is a request to call back, which is effortful and yields a low return. Yet, it’s a better call for action in the voicemail to suggest replying to the email you previously sent. Replying to an email is much easier than calling someone back, so you will get a higher response.

So, here’s the recommendation: emails are a great first contact point!

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