Virtual Selling

19Pick Up the Damn Phone

During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the New York Times ran an article about how people were suddenly rediscovering the “humble phone.”¹ In one article, the Guardian announced the “return of the phone,” going on to describe how people were rediscovering that “a call can offer real closeness.²

On LinkedIn, there was an endless stream of social media posts extolling salespeople to “make the telephone your new best friend.” Even the “phone-is-dead” evangelists seemed to have a change of heart and were encouraging salespeople to “phone a customer.”

What was most disappointing about these admonitions to “rediscover the humble telephone” is that it illustrated just how far we had fallen as a profession. Rather than picking up the phone and talking to people, sales professionals everywhere—even inside sales reps—had replaced this beautiful, synchronous sales communication tool with asynchronous communication channels.

The sales profession's aversion to talking with people had become so dire that over the past five years, at least half of Sales Gravy's training and consulting engagements have been focused on one thing: teaching and compelling salespeople to pick up the damn phone.

The problem with getting salespeople to use the phone is so prevalent that powerful and sophisticated, omnichannel sales engagement engines, including VanillaSoft, HubSpot Sales Pro, Outreach, and SalesLoft, have become little more than expensive ways for salespeople ...