Did everyone see the announcement about the new iOS starting to screen calls not in your contact list? Seems like it's going to kill cold calling.
Per TechRadar, "your iPhone will ask for a name and reason for calling before sending the call through." Text will pop up on your phone to ask if you want to take the call from X about Y.
What's interesting to me is that this call screening feature will ask the caller to provide some context on why they are calling which will be presented to the recipient. In other words it's almost like a text message sort of medium. I am of the camp that this will further erode the call connect rates, while creating yet another cottage industry and set of talking points for influencers on how to optimize your 'screened call' message.
I'd be curious to hear why you think it would erode call connect rates further? Disclaimer, I have been influenced by said influencers that its just another chance to optimize messaging, lol.
well yeah you can optimize for that specific message type but less people will actually answer your call - think of it really as cold calling turning into cold emailing.
Touché!
Don't know if it's going to "kill" cold calling, but it'll definitely require a change in approach. Just don't get caught offguard when you're prompted to give your name and reason for calling to a machine. Just a new gatekeeper, honestly.
Right but many many prospects didn't have a gatekeeper - they had direct lines.
“Hey Jim it’s Crystal” and just stay silent for the “why are you calling” part. Works like a champ.
The tech isn't new...several years ago I'd called on accounts and if I was dialing a cell, every once in awhile (relatively rare, admittedly), I'd get a prompt to "enter your name and a short message", and that would be shown to the end recipient who would then decide whether to answer or let it go to VM. That said, the integration into iOS is obviously scaling that platform. As Ryan noted below, it's just going to change the approach.
You can already silence calls from unknown numbers in iOS. How is this different?