I hate to say it but sending donuts (or any other baked goods) in the post is dead.

We often look for "creative" ways to break through the noise. We want to avoid the phone so we convince ourselves that sending a gift is a better strategy.

Last week I did not feel like prospecting over the phone. I fell into the trap we discuss in The 'Warm Call' Delusion. I wanted to warm them up first.

So I sent over donuts to a few prospects who had not been replying to my 28-step sequence.

I thought it was a genius move.

Then I got a reply from Debbie in HR at one of the companies.

The Krispy Kreme Disaster

Here is what she said.

"Thank you for the random 6-pack of Krispy Kremes you sent over. Unfortunately Steve, our CEO, is a coeliac and could not enjoy the treats. Upon opening the box the flour from the donuts became airborne causing Steve to have an upset tummy for the rest of Wednesday."

It gets worse.

"The note on the donuts was clearly personalised by AI talking about his football team and where he went to school. It is a shame your new fancy AI tool could not pick up that Steve donates monthly to Coeliac Australia, the largest Coeliac charity in Australia."

I tried to be clever and I ended up poisoning the CEO.

The Failure of Automated Research

This story highlights a massive problem in modern sales.

We rely too heavily on tools to do our thinking for us. We trust the AI to write the note. We trust the "warm up" sequence to do the selling.

But as Debbie pointed out my fancy tool missed a critical piece of information that a human would have found.

In our SDR Sales Training, we teach reps that personalization requires actual effort. If you are just copy-pasting data from a tool you are going to get caught out.

You might not physically harm your prospect like I did but you will damage your reputation.

The Safer Option

Debbie actually gave me some fantastic sales advice in her email.

"I know you did not mean to do any harm but maybe think twice about who you send flour-based goods to. A better way to get his attention is to buy data off a data provider such as Apollo and cold call him."

She is right.

We spend so much time and money on gimmicks because we are afraid of the phone. We are afraid of rejection. We try to buy their affection with sugar.

But as we proved in our Cold Calling Case Study, the direct approach is always the most respectful.

Cold Calling is Safe

There is a simple truth here.

As we know no one ever died or got an allergic reaction from a cold call.

The worst thing that happens on a cold call is they hang up. They do not get an upset tummy. You do not have to apologize to HR.

If you are scared of the phone you are overthinking it. We break down these fears in Overcome Call Reluctance.

Stop hiding behind gifts. Stop hiding behind AI notes. Stop hiding behind 28-step email sequences.

Just pick up the phone.

It is safer for everyone.

Ready to ditch gimmicks and get confident on the phone? Our SDR training program shows your team how to prospect without bribery, build real business acumen, and book meetings the safe way.