Smart calling? Get real.

Social media provides terrific research, but it doesn’t warm your calls. In the end, cold is still cold.

More and more, sales professionals use social media as an indispensable sales and prospecting tool. It provides valuable insight into prospects and decision makers. The impact that social media has had on prospecting prompts some sales pros to wonder if cold calling is dead and whether it’s being replaced by “smart” calling.

Hence, the question on one top social community site: “What are the top three to five ways that inside sales reps can turn cold calling into smart calling, and what are the benefits of doing so?” And it continued, “High-quality answers may be included in an upcoming report on inside sales.”

My answer to this question is that some sales professionals refer to “smart calling” because they diligently research the sales prospect, identify trigger events, discover similar group or educational affiliations and believe that when they reach out they are smart calling.

Do not be deluded. There are only two kinds of calls: cold calls and hot calls. A rep makes a cold call to a prospect when the information he collects is a name, background and contact information.