The other day, one of our prospects asked me to explain the difference between demand creation and a standard cold call. “Honestly Errol, I don’t get the difference” he said. “Why is demand creation any more effective than one of our people just calling in, giving our value proposition, and asking for a meeting?” I told him this.
Imagine you’re at a party. You’re talking with several of your friends, when, suddenly, another partygoer approaches, interrupts you, and proceeds to change the conversation to what they want to talk about. What would you think?
“It would make me pretty angry, I suppose,” he replied.
Fair enough, but why?
“Well, it would be rude for one thing—and it would be annoying as well. Assuming I was already in a conversation, it would be socially awkward and would cause us to stop what we were doing to focus on something we didn’t want to talk about.”
OK, I replied. Now, let’s take that same situation, but this time, the same partygoer steps into the conversation and, instead of changing the conversation, he adds a new dimension to it.
“Such as?” he asked.
Suppose you’re talking about how you’d love to find tickets to a sold-out event you wanted to go to, but you’d had no luck and were going to end up missing it. Suddenly, this same person overhears your conversation, interjects himself, and says, ‘Hey, I just heard you needed tickets. I have a friend in my office that can help you out—she always has spares that she’s looking to sell. Give me your name and contact information and I’ll hook you up with her.’ How would you feel now, I asked?
“Well come on… that’s clearly very different,” he replied. “This was someone enhancing the conversation instead of changing it, plus it offered help with something I was focused on already. So obviously, it would be fine and completely different from the first scenario.”
Don’t Change the Conversation–Enhance It
That’s the difference, I told him. Instead of changing the conversation to what the salesperson wanted it to be, the salesperson joined the conversation in progress, looking for a way to help. People get upset at a cold-call because it interrupts their day and attempts to refocus them on the salesperson’s “topic” (product) and on getting them to spend money. It’s rude and unwelcome—and that’s why cold calls don’t work for the most part. Demand creation however, seeks to determine what the prospect’s conversation currently is, and then to help the caller join in. Itchallenges salespeople to enhance the conversation in progress so that they are perceived not as an intrusion, but as a welcome addition to the discussion. I asked my prospect if that made sense.
There was a brief moment of silence followed by a smiling agreement that could be perceived— even over the phone. “Yes, you definitely made your point- no comparison between the two,” he concluded.
The message to salespeople and marketers is this: It’s rude to interrupt someone in the middle of their conversation—being uninvited no less—to ask them to stop what they’re doing and do what we would like them to do. Why do we continue to do it? Yet, this is the primary and accepted method of cold-calling that salespeople use every day. Wouldn’t it be better first to understand what your prospects are talking about—what matters to them—and to then join the conversation?
If you were the prospect, which would you prefer?
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