I am so tired of whining and excuses.

Related: 5 quick practice managementreminders

• “Selling is SO hard.”

• “I can't get anybody to take a meeting.”

• “They don't open emails.”

• “Nobody answers their phone.”

• “Do they listen to voicemail?”

Salespeople hate to cold call. And, with “cold calling is dead”proclamations, they feel they have an excuse to stop dialing.

Their pipeline is empty, but there they stand, self-righteouslyrefusing to dial.

Let your competition believe the headlines and giveup

Pundits say the only successful prospecting method is referrals.I see where they're coming from, but, this message is mostlypromoted by those looking for an excuse to not cold call or bysales leaders who don't know how to train.

Cold calling can still work

I would never argue that cold calling is ideal, but I see coldcall success every day.

• Is cold calling ideal? Hell no!

• Is it more difficult than ever? Hell yes!

This column isn't really about cold calling; nor is it about theproducer. It's about the organization behind that producer.

Related: Why the typical insurance sales presentation is allwrong

Organizations struggle with prospecting because they fail torecognize how drastically the sales process has changed. Theinternet has gutted salespeople of their value. Often, theirprospects understand their product better than they do.

Sales is less about sales and more about the buyer's journey.Buyers reign supreme.

If you want to grow, you better become a part of that journeyway before your salespeople contact prospects.

Marketing is the new orange

The marketing department is a more significant contributor togrowth than the sales team.

Your marketing team/firm must know and understand:

• Your ideal client profile and the individual buyer personas

• hallenges for which they need answers

• The phases through which they travel to make purchasedecisions

• Where they do their research

• How to craft and promote content to address each concern at eachstep

Back to “cold calling is dead”

The type of organization I described will have prospects liningup at their door, but if their salesperson did cold calland can point back to this type of marketing support forvalidation, they will set appointments and write business.

Related: Shifting your focus

All of the whining about cold calling is distracting you fromthe real issue. The question of networking versus cold calling istoo far down the funnel to be the relevant question. The realquestion is, “How will you ensure you will be discovered asprospects look for help?”

Your value proposition, educational marketing, buyer awareness,and social engagement will have the largest impact on whether yourprospecting efforts are productive.

Start obsessing

Everything you think about, write about, talk about, and do hasto be focused on your buyer's needs. If this is how you presentyourself, prospects will want to meet with you.

So, put on your big boy (or girl) pants. Stop whining, stophiding behind lame excuses, own up to the work you need to do, andgo-get-it-done.

Game on!