Frank Rumbauskas | Sales, Marketing, and Cold Calling

"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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International versions continuing!

Recently I received the Bahasa Indonesia version of Never Cold Call Again. Shortly thereafter, a deal was signed to translate and publish Selling Sucks in South Korea, and just this week I've learned that a Romanian translation of Selling Sucks in in the works! Thank you for your support and readership because that's what's made this all possible!

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He needs your shipping address

Dave Woodward and his film crew came out to my home, my office, my gym, and did a killer interview of me "MTV Cribs" style ... along with a ton of other successful entrepreneurs.

Today he opened the series to the public and to create buzz and get the word out, he's giving away two DVDs FREE ... all you need to do is sign up and have your copies shipped immediately:

Legendary Marketers 2 Free DVDs

Here's to your success!
Frank

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Learning about people on YouTube

Even though I've been using YouTube to market for over a year, I just learned now that the public can see my favorites list!

So, those who go to my channel looking for sales advice also see the videos I've favorited - the Laphroaig whisky distillery tour, lots of George W. Bush humor, Rush concert clips, and more.

Think about that and think about how you can use this to learn about a prospect's personal preferences. For example, lots of people try to get my attention by sending me gift cards to various restaurants, Starbucks, etc., but if they'd just looked at my YouTube favorites, they'd know that sending a bottle of Laphroaig would get a response from me. Do the same with your prospects, whether they be sales prospects, relationship prospects, what have you.

It's easy to find people online nowadays, and just as easy to find their MySpace, Facebook, YouTube pages, and so on. It's really so easy to find a person's hot buttons in today's Information Age that there's no excuse not to in advance!

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Greatest Real Estate Agent In The World

Greatest Real Estate Agent In The World

Don't even ask - it's an inside joke on an unsuspecting mark :)

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Selling Sucks wins Best Business Book of 2007!

A great big Thank You to everyone who voted - I learned this week that my latest book, Selling Sucks, has won the 800-CEO-READ Reader's Choice award for Best Business Book of 2007!

It's one thing to win the award for a single category, but the votes and this award are across all categories. I was up against hundreds of other books and some really big-name authors, so THANK YOU!

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Amazing New Presentation Tool

Joel Therien, owner of Kiosk.ws, the web hosting company I use, released a powerful new tool today that I think would be very helpful to salespeople.

It allows you to take any PowerPoint presentation and make it live on the Web in just seconds:

Click Here to Learn More

With the sheer number of salespeople using PowerPoint these days, I think this tool will really help, especially with my recommendations for using the Web. The possibilities are endless - for example, if you can't get all decision makers together at once for a presentation, you can just use this tool to put your PowerPoint on the Web, and send the link to all of them. Good stuff!

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Small gestures can add up to a lot

Those of you who've read "Selling Sucks" know that I'm a big Rush fan - in the beginning of the book, when I explain the differences between buying and selling, I mention that when Rush tickets go on sale, nobody has to sell them to because I'm rabid to buy them!!

At one of the shows I brought a copy along and asked "Gump," the band's drum technician, to pass it along to drummer Neil Peart for me, as I thought they'd get a kick out of seeing them mentioned in the book.

Well, yesterday I checked my mail and found a hand-written thank you note from Neil Peart himself!!

I was so excited and happy to receive that - and still am - and it made me realize how far small gestures can go. It only took him a minute to write that and drop it in the mail but it made my day. It's even got me ordering thank you cards because I realized I can make someone's day when I return a reader's gesture with a note from me.

Don't forget that the little things go a long way. It's something you come to realize when you stop chasing the immediate sale, and start thinking about what you can do for people instead, whether it's solving problems in their business or just putting a smile on someone's face!

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I need your vote!

I've just learned that my latest book, "Selling Sucks: How to Stop Selling and Start Getting Prospects to Buy," has been nominated for Business Book of the Year! I'd hugely appreciate your vote -

Click Here to Vote

You'll find "Selling Sucks" in the right-hand column about halfway down.

Thank you!

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Pre-Paid Legal and Market Dilution

Once in a while, a great idea comes along. And, sometimes, a great idea becomes so well-accepted and even overused that it becomes totally ineffective.

Take Pre-Paid Legal for example. It is a fantastic idea - a low monthly fee to cover basic legal expenses, including the writing of attorney letters in the event of disputes or other issues with another party.

The problem, though, is how overused and abused the letter-writing service has become.

I used to get an attorney letter maybe once a year, if that. Now it's become a weekly event and sometimes even more frequent than that. And guess what I do the instant I receive an attorney letter? You guessed it - I Google the law firm, and if Pre-Paid Legal comes up, I ignore the letter and throw it in the trash.

I know full well that those letters come from people who pay the $25/month membership fee and who do not have the resources or the intent to pursue a lawsuit against me (Pre-Paid Legal does not cover the filing of lawsuits, only defense in the event you are sued).

And, to make matters worse, people are firing off those letters over anything and everything. I've even had customers who had a problem downloading an e-book, just as an example, who, instead of contacting my helpdesk to get the issue resolved in a matter of minutes, instead had a threatening Pre-Paid Legal letter sent to me.

How ridiculous.

This is what happens when a good idea becomes too accessible to the masses. Perhaps it's time for Pre-Paid Legal to raise their fees, or curb or even eliminate the letter-writing service, which has now become totally ineffective because it's become so overused and because people like me now ignore them entirely. It's an easy selling point because petty argumentative people salivate at the prospect of having an attorney threaten people on their behalf for $25/month, but come on, let's use the service for what it was originally intended for - coverage of legitimate legal expenses.

Remember, exclusivity is one of the most powerful marketing tactics in existence. Dilution and overuse destroy exclusivity. Having an attorney write a letter on your behalf used to be the private province of the affluent, but now that the common masses have access to it, it just doesn't work anymore.

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My members-only website is live!

You can find all the details here:

Double Your Numbers

Hurry, the introductory price of $19.97 - which gets you almost SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS in products - is only good for the first 1,000 people who sign up!

Double Your Numbers

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Do you suffer from the "looter" mentality?

When I worked in sales, the 80/20 rule was definitely in effect - less than 20% of the salespeople produced more than 80% of the sales. In many cases it was more like 90/10, or 95/5.

When I work with salespeople now, the #1 problem I see is the "Something for Nothing" mentality, or as I like to call it, the "looter" mentality (thanks to Ayn Rand for that one), holding them back. Over 80% of the salespeople I hear from want to get the easy sales, but they're not willing to do the work and get the education they need to make that happen. A good example is when I release a product for, say, $97, and small business owners and marketers will review it and tell me it's so great I'm crazy to sell it for less than $500. Most salespeople, on the other hand, will balk at spending even $97 and will demand the information for free.

To make matters worse, many let this looter mentality contaminate the rest of their lives.

Here's an example: Back in March, a customer bought our Insurance Selling Secrets product for $497. It was stated right on the web page, and it's also printed on our return policy web page, that all products priced over $100 carry a 60-day return policy. Well, this particular customer returned it after about 90 days. When we refused to give her a refund, she disputed the credit card charge. Her bank sided with us and agreed she didn't deserve a refund. Then she re-disputed, and again her bank agreed with us. Then she filed a BBB complaint against us, and had an attorney mail us a threatening letter (although it was from PrePaid Legal which, as a policy, we ignore).

Now, think about this: How much money and how many sales could this person have made if she'd spent all that time working, instead of wasting her time trying to get money from us that she wasn't entitled to in the first place?

Here's a person who is basically trying to steal from us, while at the same time failing to work at her job.

No wonder she's not selling enough insurance. In fact, she didn't need our course. What she needed was to learn to focus on getting results, and not on chasing negativity and trying to get things she's not entitled to.

If you haven't read it, Brian Tracy's book "Something For Nothing" is a fantastic read on this subject, and why people like this are destroying America.

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Prince is an idiot

Yesterday I posted about Radiohead's potential brilliance in giving away their new CD, free.

Prince, on the other hand, has just sued several fan sites (yes, his own fans!) for using his images and lyrics without permission and royalties.

You know, the very same fan sites that promote him and help sell his albums and concert tickets, at no cost to him.

What a genius.

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My thoughts on spam filters and customer service

When I email people, friends, colleagues, you name it, I increasingly get responses back from SpamAssasin and BoxTrapper and other anti-spam mechanisms, asking me to validate myself as a real person before my email will be delivered.

This is effective in theory, but it's causing major headaches on the customer service side of things.

For starters:

- Customers who buy e-book products never receive download links
- Customers never receive important announcements and updates
- Customers never receive our helpdesk contact info, return policies, and so on
- Customers complain that they no longer receive our newsletters
- Customers do not receive receipt emails

...and on, and on.

(In case you're wondering, these types of emails are automatically generated and no one is there to validate each and every one ... exactly the type of email the filters are intended to block.)

My advice: Don't use these spam filters. I don't. I stopped when I began missing important emails, such as requests for me to come out and speak, interview requests from media, and more.

It's nice to not receive unwanted junk mail, but not at the cost of missing far more important emails as a result. It's not that big of a deal for me to spend a minute or two each day deleting spam from my inbox.

If you're a customer of online products, don't use these filters - keep at least one mailbox open and use that for online ordering, or for important contacts, or both. If you're an online merchant, be sure to remind customers to use a non-protected email address when ordering from you. Otherwise your helpdesk will be overwhelmed and hijacked by people who accuse you of not contacting them, when in reality it was their spam filter causing the problems all along.

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Radiohead: Marketing Geniuses?

The band Radiohead shook up the recording industry by making their latest album available for free on their website, instead of selling it in stores.

Actually, they put it online for whatever donation people were willing to give to download it, but as expected, most people downloaded it for free.

This has really shaken up the recording industry which is already reeling from falling CD and other media sales.

There is a school of thought in marketing that says if you stop selling your product for money and start distributing it for free, you will make a killing on back-end sales and upsells, much more so than if you just tried to sell the entry-level product.

Interesting theory ... I think there may be some truth to it, and I'm waiting to see how this plays out in terms of other revenue streams for Radiohead like increased concert ticket sales.

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