Every day, door-to-door salespeople are ridiculed on social media. You have seen the videos. Someone trying to sell window cleaning or lawn services is recorded from a Ring camera and mocked in the comments. The tone is always the same. Look at this desperate person. Look at how out of place they are in today’s world.
There are signs on the door that say “No Soliciting.” There are prospects sighing as they watch a figure in a vest and clipboard approach the house. There are YouTube thumbnails promising “Sales Encounters Gone Wrong.” This is the image the public sees.
And yet, the only people who seem to have positive experiences are influencers. They film themselves walking up to doors. They try to sell something. If it goes well, they turn to the camera with a smile. “If you want more tips on how to close clients just like this one, like, subscribe, and check out my webinar where I teach you how to multiply your revenue.”
This is the world we're increasingly in: performative selling, where sales becomes content, a spectacle.
But let me ask a more serious question.
How is the professional salesperson doing in all this? The person who sells to support a family. The one who has been doing this for years and does not have time to film themselves knocking on a stranger’s door.
What about phone sales? Even Google Voice already limits outreach for cold calls. Carriers flag unknown numbers. And within a few years, almost every mobile phone will come equipped with AI tools that screen cold calls before they even ring.
So what are we supposed to do?
Should we invest more in digital marketing and wait for better leads to come to us? Should we all become creators with audiences on LinkedIn and Instagram just to justify making a pitch?
Or should we step back and ask a deeper question: What does it mean to build an honest living in sales today?
This profession has always required thick skin. But now it also requires adaptation. The tactics are shifting. The playing field is changing. But the core of the job remains unchanged: to listen, to solve, and to serve.
The ones who will thrive in the years ahead are not the loudest. They are the ones who learn how to build trust in a world that no longer wants to be sold to.
So no, cold outreach is not dead. But it is no longer what it used to be.
It's time to stop chasing attention and start earning belief.
What's your take? If this sparked a thought, don't keep it to yourself.
What's your experience with cold outreach today? Has cold outreach truly changed, or are we just evolving?
Share your insights in the comments below, or send this to a colleague who needs to hear it.
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