I’m putting my trend reports together, and I am so happy to see the return of the phone call ranking as one of the 12 Easy New Year’s Resolutions.
There’s an inside sales hiring trend of recent college grads — Millennials, the expanding generation that now includes those born from 1980 – 2000. They have grown up with technology, so the phone is not their primary tool. They opt for texting or IMing instead of picking up the phone — mostly because they are just not wired that way, but also because they also see it as pointless. After all, they point out, “No one answers their phones.” So why should they call?
When I ask one of my favorite inside sales managers, Chad Burmeister, what his inside sales predictions were, he wrote back with these words that underscore the importance of the phone call: Metrics matter. They always have for acquisition teams. One rep on my team did 5x as many emails as any others, and half the phone calls. This person delivered the least amount of meetings. 1+1 = 3 when it comes to emails + phone. That still hasn’t changed.
As we start a new year, it is essential that the phone still be included in your tool arsenal. Perhaps it can no longer stand alone but it must still enhance the other tools you use.
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