Cold Calling, Sales, and Marketing | Frank Rumbauskas Blog

Announcing: The Never Cold Call Again Podcast

This is long, long overdue: The Never Cold Call Again podcast is live on iTunes! The inaugural episide is live, and look for many more in the days and weeks to come. Here's the link:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/never-cold-call-again/id529305785

Enjoy!

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Are You Confusing Your Sales Prospects?

A few weeks ago, I was traveling to meet with a fellow sales author to work on some new projects. I had a message waiting for me at my hotel, instructing me to meet him at 7:15 am the following morning at a new coffee & pastry shop he'd recently discovered, and that had become his new favorite.

I arrived at the designated time, he was 15 minutes late (you know who you are), and we sat down and spent the next fifteen minutes getting caught up with each other.

Finally, at 7:45, we ordered our coffee and breakfast. But, it wasn't as easy as it seemed it would be. For starters, there were three cup sizes on display behind the counter, and I decided on a large. However, the cashier baffled me when he said they only offer coffee drinks in one size - medium. Why, then, did they have three cup sizes on display? Very confusing.

I became even more confused when we ordered our breakfast sandwiches on croissants. They told us that no croissants had been baked yet, and they'd have to make them from scratch.

Huh? A breakfast cafe with no croissants at 7:45 am - their peak hour? Why? Most of those places start baking around 5:00 am, to be fully stocked for the breakfast rush. 

I was confused even more, but on further thought, it wasn't any more confusing than what the average salesperson does to me on a regular basis.

For starters, most try to contact me via cold calling. This is a huge mistake. I simply don't take cold calls - nor do 4 out of 5 decision makers in the United States, according to a study conducted by the business school at the University of North Carolina. So why any salesperson would choose to make cold calling their primary sales prospecting method is beyond me.

When I do meet with a salesperson, it's because they were either recommended to me by a trusted colleague - referral selling at its finest - or because I did my own research and found the ideal provider for my needs.

In other words, I'm pretty much a pre-qualified prospect in either situation. Someone who is ready and prepared to buy.

Why, then, do salespeople try to mess up the entire process by wasting my time and boring me with company stories, stupid questions that have zero relevance to the issue at hand - nonsense such as, "What are your five year goals for your business?" - and needless bragging about their "great customer service" and rising stock prices.

I hate to break the news, but I only care to hear about stock prices from my financial advisor, and every salesperson I've ever met with talked about how great their company's service is. None of us believe it anymore. You all sound like the boy who cried wolf.

To make matters worse, if I need to make a purchase badly enough that I've tolerated all of this and am still in front of the sales rep, I usually get dragged through a tedious, boring proposal and presentation process.

Here's a word to the wise: When I finally became a superstar at selling, I was rarely giving written proposals to prospects. I'd learned that when working with a prime prospect who clearly has a need and is ready and wanting to buy from you, a proposal is just another filter that you're putting up, making the buying process more difficult for your prospect. Before I became aware of this, I'd frequently annoyed prospects who simply wanted to buy, by wasting their time with a proposal presentation. So, if you have someone with an immediate need and they've made it clear that they want to buy, skip the proposal, and simply let them buy.

Finally, most salespeople aren't very good at follow-up and after-the-sale service. That's why so few salespeople are able to work by referral only - they've done nothing to earn referrals. But, what do they do anyway? You've guessed it: They ask for referrals when they haven't earned any! Or they'll send you an online survey to complete, asking you to rate them with 10s across the board, when they're really only worth a 4 or 5.

So do me, yourself, and every other prospect and customer out there a favor: Be a straight shooter, and stop confusing us with cold calling, boring proposals and presentations, waste-of-time company stories and promises of great service. Instead, use modern, effective prospecting strategies to find those of us who are ready and willing to buy, and simply let us buy!

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Cold Calling Scripts: A Horrible Idea

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Video: How To Cold Call Effectively (If You Must)

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Can Cold Calling be Fun?

Yes, that's the question I'm asking today: Is cold calling fun?

I ask because there was a time - many years ago - when I was new to sales, had no idea what to do to prospect for leads, and so I went out cold calling. My sales manager, along with the various training companies they brought in from time to time, all said it would work.

Day after day, week after week, month after month, I really went out and hit it hard. Depending on the day I'd either make over 100 phone calls, or on nice days I went out and canvassed office buildings door-to-door. I'd finish up each day with a really fantastic feeling that I'd accomplished something, just knowing that all the seeds I'd been planting would pay off with big sales numbers.

Unfortunately, those big numbers never came. 

I reached the point where my attitude and my morale started to suffer, and in order to keep myself motivated to continue prospecting each day, I started to delude myself into believing that cold calling was actually fun.

I made a game of it, and made a point to enjoy the social aspect of it - the fact that I met so many new people each day as a result of all my cold calls.

I actually did reach the point where I brainwashed myself into believing that cold calling was fun - and I made more calls as a result - but unfortunately, the sales still didn't come. 

I'm writing about this today because over the last several years as a sales author and trainer, I've encountered many salespeople who try to use the "cold calling is fun" delusion to keep themselves motivated, but they too fail to obtain any real results from it.

The fact of the matter is that cold calling - in this day and age - is an old, antiquated relic of a time when it really did work, because prospects didn't have access to the tools and information they have today. Likewise, salespeople didn't have access to the Internet, social media, and other Information Age tools that enable them to not only thoroughly target and research prospects before calling them, but even to make direct contact via social media, without the annoying cold call.

For the most part, qualified prospects today - particularly B2B prospects - will go out and find an appropriate provider when they have a need to make a purchase or change vendors. According to a study done by the business school at the University of North Carolina, this is the case with over 80% of B2B prospects. That means less than 1 in 5 will even entertain a cold call, let alone buy from it.

And therein lies the problem - since 1 in 5 are still accessible via cold calling, salespeople continue to get an occasional sale from cold calling, which continues the delusion that it works.

Sure, a bicycle will get you from point A to point B - it "works" - but a car or an airplane will do the job much faster and with far greater efficiency.

Likewise, while cold calling will generate a sale here and there, the return on investment of your time is downright horrible when compared with more up-to-date strategies, like the ones I mentioned above.

So, stop deluding yourself into believing that "cold calling is fun" just to keep yourself doing it. Use more efficient strategies and techniques to generate sales leads, and your numbers will skyrocket.

Frank Rumbauskas is the author of the New York Times best-seller 'Never Cold Call Again' and several other books. To learn more and download a free 37-page PDF preview of his lead-generation system, visit http://www.nevercoldcall.com

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VIDEO: Why Sales Forecasts = Sales Failure

 

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VIDEO: Sales Advice - from Dating Tips

 

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VIDEO: Referral Selling by Bernie Madoff

 

Referral Selling by Bernie Madoff

 

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Sales Advice from a Dating Tips Article?

I get a ton of magazines in the mail, and while most of them only get a quick scan for interesting articles, Men's Health is one of the few I read cover-to-cover, which is exactly what I did this past weekend.

While I'm mostly interested in the fitness & nutrition articles, I read one about how women have become so empowered in today's world that it's now actually more common for a woman to approach a man and ask him out on a date, than it is for a man to approach a woman.

But, that's not the big news. The real eye-opener was this: Women report that they are far more attracted to a man they approach and ask out, than they are to a man who approaches them!

This is an astounding statement, especially so because the common belief is exactly the opposite. But what's even more interesting is how this applies to sales, and particularly to cold calling.

At a recent presentation, I taught a group of salespeople how to use a "by referral only" method of selling to attract new prospects. And it works. When someone looks at your business card, or website, or marketing collateral, and see the words "Appointments by Referral Only," you instantly appear to be highly desirable and of higher value than your competitors.

Likewise, when a woman must approach a man, he seems more desirable, even if he really isn't - it's the perception that matters. For all she knows, he may have been about to get up and approach her, but the fact that she made the approach is what counts. It sets up a dynamic where he has the higher social status in the situation, and will therefore appear more desirable.

As a salesperson, it's imperative that you keep this dynamic always in mind. You need to think of ways and means to create the perception that the prospect is actually approaching you, or requesting that you work with them, instead of the other way around.

Cold calling is the perfect example of how not to go about this. When you make a cold call, it is an overt approach, and one that makes this dynamic work against you - it immediately puts the prospect on the plus side of the value equation, and you on the negative.

But what if you have to cold call? What if you don't have a referral network yet, or worse, your boss requires cold calling?

Don't despair. There are ways to go about this intelligently. For example, even if you must cold approach prospects, you can do it in a way that doesn't seem like a typical cold call.

One good method is with social media. Create a list of target prospects, something you should do regardless of whether you're cold calling or not, since calling at random is never a good strategy.

Once you've got your target list, do your homework and find out who the decision makers are.

Once that's done, now you can look them up on LinkedIn and Facebook. Look for common interests, or areas of common ground you can use to initiate a contact. Connect online. Once the communication flow is open, you can move right into "Give me a call," or "Shoot me an email." In other words, you actually made the initial contact, but you create the perception that the prospect is starting the sales process. 

Forget about traditional cold calling, which doesn't put any value on you, and instead begin looking for ways to begin the communication process with prospects in a more indirect way. You'll find that they put more value on what you have to say, and your closing rate will go up dramatically.

 

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VIDEO: Cold Calling from a Business Owner's Perspective

 

Cold Calling from a Business Owner's Perspective

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Driving, Flying, and Cold Calling

Yesterday I was participating in a discussion in LinkedIn Groups, explaining all the reasons why small business owners like me won't take cold calls. Like clockwork, someone replied with that old time-worn objection: "Cold calling works for me."

I went into my explanation of how cold calling never really works, even if you think it does. Results from cold calling can be very deceiving, because they distract salespeople from the simple fact that cold calling is extremely time-consuming, and therefore limits your sales production by time.

To be brutally honest, I'm tired of explaining this to people, because it comes up almost every day, and in thinking of how to get the point across a bit more effectively, I thought of an analogy between driving a car, flying in an airplane, and cold calling, along with the investment required for each.

When someone says that cold calls "work," what they're really saying is that they're making sales from cold calls. The argument is that they don't need to learn alternatives to cold calling, because it's already getting sales.

Likewise, someone who spends several days driving from New York to Los Angeles will get there just as reliably as someone who gets on a flight and arrives in about five hours. The only difference is that they chose a far less efficient method.

The person who drives from NY to LA may have chosen to do so due to the lower perceived investment. On the surface, it's cheaper to hop in the car and get on the highway, than it is to spend several hundred dollars on an airline ticket, in addition to airport parking, rental car fees, and other costs.

But, once that person arrives at the final destination, they realize it isn't so cheap after all. The cost of fuel and tolls alone will equal or exceed that of the airline ticket, and they'll have to do it all over again to get back home!

This reminds me of salespeople who stick with cold calls, because they think it "works," without realizing how terribly inefficient it is. It all comes down to time management. Cold calling is exceptionally time consuming, and if you crunch the numbers, you'll find that it's practically impossible to earn a very high income - well in excess of six figures - if you are spending hours each day cold calling, rather than face-to-face with qualified prospects who are ready to buy right now.

Furthermore, my interpretation of the "cold calling works" crowd, after conversing with hundreds of them, is that they're not willing to make the initial investment in time and learning to begin getting away from cold calling.

Nowadays we have the Internet and social media, which gives us practically unlimited information on target prospects, along with virtually unlimited ways to connect with them in ways that are far more effective than cold calls.

However, there is a learning curve involved. This one fact alone would explain why those who are dedicated to cold calling tend to be veterans, or "old timers" if you will, while younger salespeople in their twenties and early thirties are quickly becoming masters of selling with social media.

It's been said that capitalism is an ongoing process of creative destruction, where old methods of doing business are continually replaced by newer and more efficient methods. Cold calling is going the way of creative destruction right now, as modern technology and especially the Internet and social media give us a much better way to connect with targeted, qualified prospects, without the excessive time requirements of cold calling.

 

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Is Cold Calling an Addiction?

That's the question I'm asking today: Is cold calling an addiction?

First, a bit of background, because there are three varieties of cold calling addicts - the first two are related because one eventually morphs into the other, and the third is another story altogether.

The first variety is the "tradition" type. If you ask why they cold call, they'll tell you, "Because that's the way we've always done it." They were taught cold calling by their bosses, who learned it from their bosses, and so on down the line. They don't know anything different and, to make matters worse, don't care to. They're convinced that cold calling is the only way, and their minds are so closed to the possibility of alternatives that they won't even hear you out. 

The second variety is the "addict." This type of salesperson frequently starts out as the "tradition" type, who has been taught by sales managers that there is absolutely, positively no other way to prospect other than by making cold calls.

But, eventually, something happens. These sales reps spend many years of their sales careers cold calling. They fall into a comfort zone, they get complacent and become satisfied with barely meeting their quotas - and the income that comes with only making quota - and they begin to fear the very thought of trying something different. "What if it doesn't work," they'll say, pointing out that cold calling has enabled them to stay employed (barely).

Here's the problem: Making cold calls is very much becoming a zero-sum game. As an example, the Kenan-Flagler Business School (University of North Carolina) did a study on the topic, and concluded that 80% of American business decision makers won't buy from a cold call.

That leaves the remaining 20%. Who will buy from a cold call. 

The result? The addicts are all fighting each other for that measly 20% - only 1 out of 5 prospective buyers! 

To make matters worse, they manage to get a sale from cold calling just often enough to convince themselves that it's "working," and so they continue the addiction.

In reality, what they're doing is fighting a zero-sum game with their peers, while those who have opened their minds to alternative methods of lead generation are having an easy time picking up sale after sale after sale from the 80% who reject cold calls.

And each time they do make a sale, they feel that rush, just like any other kind of addict, and they fall right back into the pattern of making cold calls to find the next sale.

The third category of cold callers is unrelated to the first two: It's the macho-man type who thinks "real men" cold call and if you make sales without cold calling, which most of us are doing nowadays, it somehow doesn't really count, much like a ridiculous old employer of mine who only counted sales generated from cold calling toward quota (?) as though any other kind of sale wasn't bringing in real money!

In summary, if you're suffering from the cold calling addiction, you need to break it and move on toward other, more modern, more effective methods of finding prospects - things like social media and LinkedIn, online lead generation, publicity, effective networking, and the myriad of other lead generation strategies that blow the doors off of old, antiquated cold calling any day of the week.

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Cold Calling: A Business Owner's Perspective

Nine years after starting my sales training business, where I teach salespeople how to prospect without cold calling, I'm surprised that cold calling still exists. Even worse, that I'm still receiving hate mail on a daily basis from people who have a bizarre emotional connection to cold calling. People react as though I'm bad-mouthing their children.

To make matters worse, sales organizations across the board are still teaching their teams to cold call.

Why? Well, I have no idea, but that's beyond the scope of this article. I'm writing this today because, having made the transition from cold calling salesperson to business owner, I can tell you that it's a very eye-opening experience, and, furthermore, that cold calling is especially ridiculous from this vantage point.

For starters, cold calls never reach me. Why? Because I've set up my office and phone system so I'm never bothered by them. If a cold call comes in, and the receptionist can't easily get rid of the caller, they're transferred to a special mailbox specifically designated for cold calls. And guess what - it's never checked!

And I'll let you in on another little secret: This is becoming a common practice among small business owners, executives, and other desirable prospects!

That's right: If you've been cold calling, leaving endless voicemails and wondering why no one ever calls you back, you now have your answer. It's because they're never getting your messages in the first place.

Is this rude? I don't think so. Rude is when you're buried under a pile of work and hectic schedule, as I frequently am, and you're interupted by a cold call. To make matters worse, 98% of salespeople, by my estimate, aren't calling because they can give you any real value. They're calling because they desperately need to make a sale, and you can give it to them!

In other words, they're interrupting your busy day in order to take something from you, rather than to give you value.

Are all salespeople takers? No. Absoutely not. Many, many salespeople give tremendous value, far beyond the cost of their products or services. But, they're in such high demand and so flooded with referrals that they don't have to bother with cold calling. I know that when I reached that stage of maturity as a salesperson where I began to focus on what I could give to prospects, rather than how many sales I could get, I found myself literally overwhelmed with referral business.

Here's another tidbit: A few years back, the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina conducted a study on cold calling, and concluded that over 80% of business executives absolutely, positively will not buy as the result of a cold call.

That's interesting, because it means that 20% will. It also means that the "cold calling works" crowd is all fighting for the same 20% of the market, and deluding themselves into believing that cold calling works all because they get a sale now and then from that 20%. 

If only the 20% would stop responding to cold calls, it would finally go away forever. But I'm not complaining - while the cold callers are fighting amongst each other for the 20%, the rest of us who are using intelligent self-marketing and prospecting techniques are happily getting checks and signed contracts from the 80%. And building long-lasting relationships in the process. Which means lots of referral business, for a long time.

And that brings me to the perception aspect of cold calling. My thoughts upon receiving a cold call, along with most others in my position, are of wondering why the salesperson must cold call and doesn't have enough referrals. Why aren't they giving better service to their customers? 

Take it a step further: Another thought that runs through my mind is, why isn't the company running a marketing campaign to generate leads for the sales force? Are they really that broke? Will they still be in business in one year - or five - to service my needs?

But, I'm not going to argue with the "cold calling works" crowd because most won't engage in a logical discussion. They'll just call you lazy for not cold calling; meanwhile, you're laughing your way to the bank while they go out and make some more calls, hoping to hang on to a job for another month, while stopping at some point to send me an email calling me an idiot.

In fairness, there are some people out their making their numbers by cold calling. However, they're severely limiting themselves by time. Cold calling is very time-consuming. If they stopped to think about how much more income they'd receive by spending that time face-to-face with qualified prospects, rather than looking for new prospects, they might change their ways.

But, as Napoleon Hill said many times throughout his lifetime, 98 out of every 100 people are not willing to go the extra mile, and will be satisfied with the status quo and with whatever life hands them.

Well, that's enough of my rant for now. I have to get back to work, secure in in the knowledge that I will be completely uninterrupted in my office and that not a single cold caller will be able to reach me!

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How to Sell Like Bernie Madoff (but ethically)

Last month I got to faciliate a roundtable meeting of salespeople, one of my favorite activities - I enjoy the intimate setting and personal interaction far more than being on a seminar stage in front of a large group.

One of the most frequently asked questions came up: "Frank, how can I get more referrals?"

I gave the same answer as always, but what came after is what really surprised me. I told him that the best way to get referrals is to create a 'referral-only' alter-ego. Create a complete image of a salesperson who only works by referral, complete with a separate set of business cards with the words "by referral only" below your name.

After explaining this to the group, someone chimed in that this is exactly how Bernie Madoff reeled in his victims!

Surprised, I went back to my office after and read up on Madoff, since I know little about him and his scam. And, sure enough, it's true: Madoff used the "by referral only" method to persuade people to hand over millions of dollars to a complete stranger!

This was very revealing to me, for the fact that I'm a fan of American Greed on CNBC, particularly the programs on Ponzi schemes. I'm not fascinated by the schemers themselves, but rather on how anyone in their right mind could possibly give a total stranger a check for their entire life savings. As a sales expert, I figured if I could find the answer to this, I'd have the most powerful sales technique in the world in my hands.

And, sure enough, the technique that Madoff - and many other Ponzi schemers - use is the "by referral only" method. 

Why is it so powerful?

Simple: Because people want what they can't have. People crave exclusivity.

Nobody wants something that is readily avaiable. That's why anything free is generally not appreciated. I know from experience that I can send out a free e-book or MP3 to my email subscriber list and I receive almost zero feedback on it, because people don't bother with them - because they're free.

But if I take the same e-book or MP3 and put a price on it - even a low price like $20 - suddenly everyone who downloads it dives in and actually reads or listens to it. 

The "by referral only" selling method takes this to an extreme and creates the perception that you are in extremely high demand, and people will start clamoring to get an appointment with you.

By contrast, cold calling is the "free" version in this example. Cold calling has the lowest percentage of sales call success for many reasons; one of those reasons is because it shows that you have zero demand.

If you're cold calling people at random, you have no exclusivity. Anyone can get an appointment with you, and YOU will take an appointment with anyone!

And that's only where the negative perceptions begin. I know that when I'm on the receiving end of a cold call, some of the thoughts that run through my mind are, "What kind of horrible service is this salesperson giving his customers that he has to cold call? Why doesn't he have any referrals?"

Or, "What's wrong with that company? If they're so broke that they can't afford decent marketing and have to force their reps to cold call, they probably won't be in business long enough to stand behind their products."

And this is just the beginning.

Always remember that people want exclusivity. Create the perception that someone cannot have something, and they will fight tooth & nail to get it. Avoid sales activities like cold calling that lower your perceived value, and stick with strategies like the "by referral method" that create an aura of high value around you. Do that, and watch how quickly your success rate increases.

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"Cold Calling Is Fun!"

"Cold Calling Is Fun!"

I read this today in a news article - I receive daily Google Alerts on my favorite - or most hated - topic, that of cold calling.

It's not the first time I've heard this. I've come across salespeople, albeit very few of them, who are able to delude themselves into believing that they like cold calling. They figure that since they have to do it (they're wrong - they don't) that they'll make the most of it, and learn to enjoy it.

When it comes to real selling, that's never the case, simply because the results aren't there. You can make cold calls all day long, and even have a real feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day, but the fun comes to a screeching halt at the end of the month, when the sales and the commissions aren't there.

The particular article I saw wasn't about someone at a regular sales job, but rather someone who works for a group doing non-profit festivals and fairs. Not that it's easier than a regular sales job - not at all - in fact it may be more difficult doing non-profit work; however, the difference lies in the fact that someone who isn't working on commission doesn't have to worry about paying the bills at the end of the month. The same salary comes in whether or not the cold calling works.

My experiences with the "cold calling is fun mentality" are as follows: 

1. The person secretly hates cold calling and keeps telling himself that it's fun in order to make it more bearable.

2. The person is in total denial of the fact that cold calling doesn't work and goes into a nearly drug-induced state of artificial euphoria in order to stay positive and forget about paying the bills.

3. Finally, the salesperson is new and hasn't cold called long enough to have experienced its true misery.

No matter which way you look at it, the fact remains that there's nothing "fun" about cold calling, and that it doesn't work. Wake up to that reality and don't delude yourself - begin implementing new and better ways to generate leads and watch your sales go up.

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Are You Forecasting Your Way To Sales Failure?

If there's one thing salespeople can't seem to escape, it's the drudgery of forecasting. Sales organizations almost universally forecast sales, at the request of upper management, or to satisfy their own curiosity about next month's numbers.

In my experience, forecasting is not only useless - because it's rarely accurate - but it's detrimental to sales results.

The reason is simple: Any time that is taken away from actual selling, and devoted to non-productive activities instead, is going to cost sales.

Salespeople have enough burdens on their time as it is. The job of selling, alone, is very time-consuming and demanding for most. When you add in all of the extraneous activities that go with it - meetings, mandatory training, commute time, driving time, and more - time management becomes a crucial factor in success. Throwing a useless activity like forecasting into the mix only serves to waste even more time.

Sales forecasting is a masturbatory practice - it causes one to sit around trying to predict what he or she will sell, instead of simply going out and selling something! How the hell is that supposed to be beneficial to anyone?

I know the management types reading this are objecting right now, stating that they need forecasts in order to tell their superiors what next month's numbers will be.

And I can tell you right now that forecasts will never give you an accurate picture of that. Here's why:

No salesperson wants to submit a forecast that falls short. So what do they do? They leave accounts on the forecast that have already said "no" or have stopped returning their calls. They add accounts that have shown the tiniest amount of interest, but are nowhere near being truly qualified prospects. 

In my own experience, I used to leave good accounts off the forecast because I got sick and tired of sales managers, who had nothing better to do, asking me five times a day when those accounts were going to close.

Regardless of whether forecasts are artificially inflated, or left unrealistically low to avoid managerial pressure to "close more," the bottom line is that they're never correct. And then you as a manager have to answer as to why your forecasts are way off the mark.

Here's a great way to forecast future sales: Base it on your historical sales data. Barring any unforeseen economic disasters or huge changes to your products or pricing, it's a pretty safe bet to say that next month's sales will equal last month's, plus your average monthly growth. 

This is a lot more reliable and accurate than asking sales reps, who already have enough pressure and stress, to predict what they're going to sell next month.

And here's where it gets even better: If you stop asking them to magically predict their sales, they'll suddenly start selling more! There are two reasons for this:

1. Recovering the lost time that was previously wasted on forecasting opens up more free time for your reps to actually do their real jobs: Selling.

2. Removing the burden of forecasting and the pressure and stress associated with it will brighten their attitudes and their disposition. This enables them to be more favorable with prospects, and we all know that a positive mental attitude in selling, alone, can spell the difference between success and failure.

So give up the sales forecast addiction, and begin focusing on sales results - because results are the one and only thing we're paid for. 

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My Biggest Sales Training Pet Peeve

Salespeople, as a whole, are an ambitious crowd - that's why we get into sales in the first place! Sales is a fantastic opportunity to have an unlimited income in most cases, and to virtually be our own bosses and run our own businesses.

However, the one thing that holds most sales people back happens to be their managers, and the backwards training that most managers usually go for. 

Here's the problem: Most management today has either been out of the field for so long that they're totally and completely out of touch, or worse, they've never actually sold in the first place.

And guess what happens when a sales manager is either totally out of touch, or has no real-world selling experience? You guessed it: They tell you to make cold calls!

We all know that in this day and age, cold calling is becoming largely ineffective. It's simply not the best choice anymore for someone who wants to really succeed in sales, or for that matter, as a sales organization.

Despite this, foolish and inexperienced managers find it easy and inexpensive to bark orders at the sales staff to cold call, go out and scrape up some business, and hope that something sticks.

This problem is exacerbated when the time comes for the company to bring in outside sales trainers. The best sales advice today is about 21st Century lead generation and networking methods: Effective use of internet marketing, social media, LinkedIn, and other strong tools.

But guess what? Out-of-touch management doesn't want to hear any of this. They want a rah-rah cheerleader type to come in and "motivate" the sales team to make more calls.

So they bring in a cookie-cutter sales trainer, who spends a day with the staff, pummelling them with the idea of high activity levels and the necessity of making lots of cold calls.

Fast forward a few weeks: There are no increases in sales. Management is disappointed and calls the training company to activate their money-back guarantee. But, there's a big, big catch: When the manager can't document that the sales team actually did the impossibly high sales activity numbers that the trainer told them to do, the refund is denied!

And so the cycle continues. Sales aren't high enough? "Make more calls." That isn't working? Bring in a training company to tell everyone to "make more calls." Training didn't work? They'll tell you the sales reps "didn't make enough calls." 

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, so stop the insanity already. If you want your sales organization to excel, stop ordering them to do the same activity that isn't working, and instead teach them to change their activity to something that does work!

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Cold Calling vs. Google AdWords for Lead Generation

For some reason, and seemingly out of the blue, I'm starting to see debates on internet forums on the topic of Cold Calling vs. Google AdWords for generating sales leads.

I was intrigued at first, because I've been using AdWords for nearly nine years and even own a separate company managing others' accounts. However, after giving it a few seconds of thought, this is just the old "sales vs. marketing" debate but in another form.

And marketing & sales are two different disciplines. One should never replace the other; to the contrary, a smart organization has them complementing each other.

Here's the difference:

Cold calling is not effective marketing. It is an antiquated form of interruption selling. It not only interrupts and bothers people, but consists of callling people at random (or going door-to-door at random), hoping to make a sale on the very slim chance that the person you're contacting might happen to be in a buying cycle for your particular product or service.

Which is rarely ever the case. And if it is, you show up late to the game, and usually with less credibility than your competitors who were found via marketing.

And on to marketing... marketing is intelligently positioning yourself so that potential, qualified buyers will see you and will recognize that you have something that they need or want. 

Google AdWords is a form of marketing, and a very good one at that. Cold calling is not marketing - it is the last resort of the rookie salesperson who simply doesn't know better and is merely obeying orders to cold call from the boss, it's the choice of salespeople who are too lazy or too indifferent to learn more effective methods of sales prospecting, and finally, it's the choce - the "last stand" - for many old timers who are too stubborn to admit that what worked for them twenty years ago just doesn't work anymore.

So, if cold calling is out, and marketing is in, how can marketing and selling complement each other?

Simple:

What smart - and successful - organizations are doing is employing marketing to generate leads, and then forwarding those leads to sales reps to close them.

In some cases there is a call center - a "middle man" if you will - that will screen and pre-qualify the leads and even go so far as to set a firm day and time for an appointment for the salesperson!

This, my friends, is smart selling. When you front-end your sales efforts with solid marketing, employ low-cost telemarketers to qualify the incoming leads, and then have them set appointments for your most talented salespeople to show up for, you've unlocked the selling game.

And here's what happens next:

1. Your sales turnover goes down. WAY down. Did you know that the requirement to cold call, along with the dismal results and high stress that it generates, is the number one cause for sales turnover? And that sales organizations waste $25,000, on average, for each sales rep who leaves due to the cold calling nightmare? Not to mention the more successful reps who take their book of business and repeat customers with them. (Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but non-compete clauses are being shot down all over the place and will soon be totally invalid everywhere.)

2. Your sales numbers go up. WAY up. This is an extremely efficient system. Not only is there a far higher volume of leads coming in, but on top of that, the leads close at a much higher rate because:

 - They've already shown interest by responding to your marketing

 - They've (hopefully) been pre-screened and qualified by your phone room before a rep goes out

I learned the dirty little cold calling secret back in 1996, when I had the pleasure of working for my first - and to this day, only - sales manager with a brain. After I'd returned from new-hire sales training he saw me start dialing the phone, pulled me aside, and chewed me out about how he didn't spend a small fortune to recruit, hire, and train me just to do the job of a minimum-wage telemarketer.

So why do you do it with your talented sales staff?

Employ smart marketing, whether it's AdWords or not. Have someone qualify the leads, and have that same person set the appointment for your reps.

When word gets out that your organization not only provides leads and doesn't require cold calling, but on top of all that, hands a list of scheduled appointments for your reps to attend every day, you'll not only explode your profitability but will have the very best of the best elite salespeople in your city lined up wanting to work for you.

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What If Cold Calling Is Your Only Option?

Very few people return the Never Cold Call Again system despite the fact that I sell it on a very generous "try before you buy" offer. However, the people who do return it all have the same reason:

"I want to use your system, but my boss makes me cold call!"

If you're in that dilemma, I feel your pain - I've been there too. Many times. 

If you absolutely, positively have to make cold calls, then there's good news: Social media is your friend.

Social media, once you get past the hype and the useless ways in which most people try to employ it for cold call selling, can be a very powerful tool in "getting in the door" with a desired prospect.

First of all, if you have a list of companies you want to target - and this is the first step if you're going to do effective cold calling - then you can use LinkedIn to find out who the key decision makers are.

Second, sites like LinkedIn and Facebook can give you a wealth of information about your new prospect, or as they're more positively known, your probable purchaser. (And using this strategy makes a sale all the more probable!)

Go beyond the corporate stuff. Where did he go to school? What are her hobbies? What is his hometown? Is he married? Does she have kids? What are their favorite foods? Where else has your prospect worked?

Can you see how using social media can really boost your cold calling potential?

Before picking up the phone, look for commonalities that you can talk about. In the old days, this was accomplished by asking a friendly receptionist lots of questions about the prospect, before going into the cold call. Now the Internet puts all that information right at your fingertips!

Let's take it a step further: Why try to make a phone cold call when you can use LinkedIn to send an "InMail" to the prospect instead?

Then after an initial contact is made, friend the person on Facebook. Follow them on Twitter and reply to interesting tweets now and then. Begin a dialogue. Become friends, if only virtually.

Remember that people don't buy on price, features, benefits, or any of that. They buy people, and any chance they get, they buy from friends.

So if your boss subjects you to cold calling, make the most of it - use social media to supercharge your cold calls and your sales!

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Cold Calling: Does Your Boss Make You?

Very few people return my Never Cold Call Again system, but of the ones who do, the reason is usually the same: 

"My boss makes me cold call!"

Now, we all know that cold calling is a waste of time - that's why people buy my books in the first place - so there's nothing more frustrating than hearing from a sales rep who knows full well that cold calling doesn't work, but is forced to do it anyway because his or her boss is an idiot.

The problem is so widespread that many sales reps change jobs, just because they cannot make enough money in a position where they're required to cold call. Far too many better ways to generate leads exist nowadays. 

So, what's your story? Does your boss require you to cold call? And if so, how do you overcome it? I want to hear from you!

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Cold Calling Scripts Are A Really Bad Idea

Two things always happen when a new sales rep is hired:

1. They're told to start making cold calls

2. They're advised to use cold calling scripts in doing so

The problems with using a script are pretty severe. For starters, you have no personal connection with the prospect. Using a call script removes the ability to connect on a personal level, and instead they are under the impression that they're listening to a commercial (which they actually are).

Second, a script is not only impersonal, but is not tailored to the needs and wants of the specific prospect. If you absolutely must do it - if your boss requires you to make cold calls - then before you begin, you need to research the people on your list. (If you have no list then start compiling a list of prospects who are likely to buy - calling people at random is never a good idea.)

By knowing something about the prospect, the company's challenges, and the individual personally, you can make that call a lot more effective. Few cold callers are going to ring up and know about the person's favorite sports team, or where they went to school, or a recent promotion - knowledge that is all readily available with social media like Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're saying the same thing to each and every prospect, then you're not cold calling effectively. Now don't get me wrong - I'm clearly against cold calling - but as time goes on, I meet more and more salespeople who can't use the information in my books because they work for an idiot who requires 25 or 50 cold calls a day, complete with a call log to prove it, or a stack of business cards picked up while out canvassing.

If you're stuck working for an idiot - if you are forced to make those calls - then don't use a script. Cold calling scripts create a barrier between the salesperson and the prospect, and really hurt your chances of getting an appointment and a sale. Be human instead, learn a bit about the prospect before picking up the phone (or sending an InMail on LinkedIn) and you'll be miles ahead of the game. 

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2 Free Books for only the $7.99 cost of shipping

My friend and mentor Mike Filsaime, who is responsible for teaching me just about everything I know about internet marketing, decided to do a huge promo to get the word out about his products, and it's such a great deal I want to share it with you. You can learn about it here - the video explains everything:

www-7figuresecrets.com

Mike held a high-end private seminar costing $5,000/person last year, and I was one of the people in attendance. He had it all videotaped and then sold 2,500 copies of the DVD set for $1,297 each - and they sold out in a week! Then he hired a top writer for $25,000 to watch the DVDs over and over, and condense all of the key information into one large manual that Mike planned to sell for $297.

However, instead of selling it, he's now giving it away for just the cost of shipping, and also throwing in his excellent Butterfly Marketing Manuscript (retail value $97 and it's the book that taught me so much about marketing), along with 18 full-color business process maps explaining, in flowcharts, the marketing systems of his very successful company (Mike was a nobody from nowhere 2-1/2 years ago and is on track to make over $10 million this year alone).

Here's the link again to get these great products shipped directly to your door -

www-7figuresecrets.com

Any salesperson, business owner or entrepreneur would be crazy not to get this $600 package for just the $7.99 shipping charge so do it now. Most of the 5,000 copies are already gone so hurry!

Here's to your success!
Frank

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The truth about 'The Secret'

I'm sending this out to my entire email list, and also wanted to post it here because I believe it's so important:

I own 'The Secret' DVD, and I think there's a lot of value in it. The process of focusing on the things you want in life goes all the way back to Napoleon Hill, and even earlier, in learning how to become successful. I used that exact same process to attract the successes I wanted into my life, and it worked.

How it works is a mystery. Napoleon Hill says you're activating your subconscious mind, 'The Secret' says you're sending a signal out into the universe ... I don't think anyone knows for sure, but like Dr. Hill said, "I don't have to know how it works. I just know that it works, and I use it."

However, 'The Secret' only gave half the picture. They left out a really important piece, and it's causing a lot of problems for a lot of people. Let me tell you a true story to explain what I mean:

Yesterday morning, one of my staff members, Ashley, had an extended conversation with a customer who called in to update her billing info (her 30-day trial billed and her card was declined and, being an honest person, she called to give us the new card number). Ashley thanked her, and mentioned that it's unusual for someone to be so honest and call us to pay before we needed to call them. Most non-paying customers need a collection letter or two to "motivate" them to pay.

Well, this customer started gushing about how glad she was to pay for the product. She said the $97 cost is an absolute joke compared to the value she received from it - she signed a six-figure contract with a major corporation only 10 days after receiving the program and applying the system, and signed another just a few weeks after that!

Ashley thanked her for her praise and told her she is the kind of customer we really appreciate - someone who actually puts the information into action, explaining that people who return the product under the 30-day trial seem to think that leads will magically appear on their desks the next morning (in other words, they need to go back to reading magic books instead of my book).

The customer went on to say, "I can see that. 'The Secret' has ruined everyone. Salespeople all now believe they can just sit back and wish for the things they want without having to do any work to get them."

She, on the other hand, applied the material and signed a six-figure contract (and got a fat commission check for it) only 10 days later. And then repeated the process. I'm sure she'll continue to do that over and over again.

This is what happens when you decide to get into ACTION and actually DO something to make your future happen for you, instead of sitting around, being lazy, only hoping and dreaming but not DOING.

Napoleon Hill addressed this issue as well, explaining that everyone has hopes and wishes, and that everyone dreams of becoming rich, but almost no one does anything about it.

I'm writing to you today because this idea that you can just wish for more sales is sabotaging the careers of far too many people. You CAN NOT believe that only by focusing on your goal and wishing or "attracting" it that you're going to get it.

Yes, you have to do that, but you also need to DO THE WORK to make it happen.

Believe me, if I just sat back thinking about and "attracting" best-selling author status and a life of luxury and freedom, but didn't put in the work and the effort to make it happen, I'd still be working at a job.

I see it every day in emails, in blogs, in forums, and from the customers who return my products because a big stack of leads didn't magically appear on their desks the next day.

Or because they read my system and see that they actually have to DO something to make it work, and choose laziness over doing (yes, amazingly, most of them actually complain that they have to do something). They choose the status quo and choose to go on being dissatisfied in life because they won't put in a few measly hours of effort, mistakenly believing that simply wishing for more sales will make them appear.

Whatever you do, DO NOT fall into this trap!!!!!

Like I said, 'The Secret' is valuable and it's worth having and worth watching. So is 'Think and Grow Rich' and all of the other success material that stresses the importance of focusing your mind on the things you want.

But as 'Think and Grow Rich' also says, as I'm saying right now, you must also DO and WORK if you want to have any hope at all of getting those things. Yes, you must work smart, but you still have to work, like it or not.

Whether you're on my newsletter list as a salesperson seeking more sales, or as an internet marketer studying my methods, or as an aspiring author or speaker who wants to know how I did it, always remember that thinking about, focusing on, and "attracting" your goals simply isn't enough. You must stay in CONSTANT ACTION to make things happen in the real world!!

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. I think you've gotten the point.

Remember to stay in action, always, and feel free to pass this along to friends and colleagues. Far too many people are falling into the trap, choosing to get lazy, and need to hear this before it really takes a toll on their lives and they get wiped out financially.

Don't be one of those people. Get into ACTION and stay there!!

Here's to your success!
Frank Rumbauskas
www.nevercoldcall.com

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The Truth about the BBB

After having some bad experiences myself, including being denied the opportunity to respond to a completely frivolous and malicious complaint recently, I came across this blog post describing one business owner's run-ins with the mafia-like Better Business Bureau. Here's an excerpt if you don't feel like reading the full article:

After talking to the BBB several times over the past ten years, they seem to care the most about the $350.00 they require you to send them. And if you don't send them the money, they might not have good things to say about you.

When I was a kid, I thought the Better Business Bureau was a non-profit, government agency that was like a nice friendly watch dog that looked out for people. The Better Business Bureau is not a government form of authority. In fact the Better Business Bureau has no authority other than the fact that they can pick up the phone and call the authorities just like you, me, or anybody else.

Most people don't realize that the Better Business Bureau is a company (trying to make a profit. Oh, yeah! They love money!)

I think the BBB likes to have the public believe they are a non profit, government agency. I think they know that most people just assume this is a fact.

But they are in fact a business that exists to make a profit just like Double Payment Systems.

The Better business bureau sends all business owners what I believe is a rather intimidating letter telling us that if we don't purchase a membership for about $350.00, then they might not have anything good to say about us if a person should ask them.

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Recession Crusher is Live!

My brand new free site, RecessionCrusher.com, is LIVE!

Recession Crusher is a huge package of over $6,000 in products, available to you free and for immediate download, to help you beat this recession. It also includes free blogs, photo albums, social networking, and lots of other cool features.

Here's a link you can use to gain full, immediate access to the site -

http://www.recessioncrusher.com/?xgi=HMrn2z

Enjoy!
Frank

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