The Winner's Sales Strategy Blog

September 28, 2017

Get Easy Sales from Facebook With This Simple Trick

Most of my sales tips are about lead-generation, but generating leads is only the first part of making a sale.

One of the more common challenges I'm asked about is what to do with a lead once you have it. In other words, how to "work" the lead?

This is especially true when it comes to selling to a large or mid-sized company where you have to work your way through a "middle man" before reaching the real decision maker, if you even get to reach him at all. Or even in the case of a small business, like a doctor's office, where you're pretty much stuck meeting with an office manager.

In my experiences sitting on the other side of the table, as a business owner and therefore a prospect, my biggest gripe about most salespeople is this: They're too stiff. Too business-like. Unable to loosen up and just be a normal person.

For some reason, when I'm approached by a salesperson to buy a particular business product or service and I say, "I'm with a friend on that one," they're flabbergasted.

They know that if a prospect is getting a service from a friend, it's just about impossible to break that relationship and get the business.

And that's exactly why you need to become the friend.

It's no surprise that the most successful people I know also happen to be the most well-connected. They have lots of friends, and especially in the business community.

Then there's also the challenge of the situation where you're stuck dealing with a go-between who will present the various proposals to the ultimate decision maker, who is off-limits to sales reps.

Whenever you make an initial contact, whether that contact is a receptionist, an office manager, or even the decision maker, befriend that person. And the best way to make that happen is to friend them on Facebook.

Most people will accept. And once you're Facebook friends, "like" the person's posts now and then. Leave nice comments on photos, especially of things close to their heart like kids and pets.

Before you know it, you'll be friends both online and off. And by doing that, you will defeat all of your competitors by this method of coming in under the radar.

(Whatever you do, DO NOT send a stiff message like, "It was great meeting, I look forward to...." blah blah blah. Friends don't talk like that.)

When you befriend someone, you're no longer seen as a salesperson. You're now a friend - someone who is liked. And then you automatically win.

People buy from those they like. That's why so many of us do business with our friends, whenever that is possible. And by making friends and expanding your social network, you're also going to grow your book of business by leaps and bounds.

(And your personal life too, an added bonus!)

If your new friend is the go-between, you'll get the favorable nod when that person presents to the decision maker. And if you've befriended the decision maker him or herself, you'll not only up your chances of getting the sale, but will enjoy lots of referrals with it.

In summary, don't be the stiff, inhuman sales rep. Be the friend. Befriend your business contacts on Facebook and begin interacting, and you'll not only get tons of sales, but will build real, genuine friendships in the process, something far more rewarding than just sales.

I mentioned in the beginning of this article that lead-generation is only part of a sale.

However, it is the critical first step, and without a lead or a first contact, a sale can never happen.

So do this right now: Begin looking up your prospects and contacts on Facebook and friending them. Doing so will bring you closer to your prime prospects, thereby generating an endless supply of hot leads, and when you accomplish that, you'll become unstoppable.

If you're not up to speed on modern, Information Age lead-generation methods, learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System here.

New York Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas is the creator of the Never Cold Call Again® System and has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Influential People. To learn more, and to download a free 37-page PDF preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system, visit NeverColdCall.com

Posted at 02:09 PM in Sales Skills | Permalink

Cold Calling: Does It Still Work?

"Goes to show that cold calling does work!"

I saw Wall Street, one of my two all-time favorite movies, this past weekend again for the first time in a long time! (If you're wondering, the other is No Country For Old Men.)

Naturally, considering what I do for a living, I had to laugh when Bud Fox gets promoted to his new corner office and the sales manager says over the loudspeaker, "Goes to show that cold calling does work."

Of course the irony of the scene is that Bud wasn't cold calling at all. (What he was doing is illegal, but that's another story altogether! Then again cold calling is illegal without a license in many places, including here in Dallas, Texas!) And just before that announcement, one of the cold calling reps was fired. Go figure.

This nonsense goes on in just about all sales offices. Ask any sales manager what their top performers are doing and they'll tell you they're cold calling.

Of course they're not. If they were, they wouldn't be top performers - they'd probably be on probation, or out of a job completely!

It happened to me all the time when I was new to sales and trying to find my way. It goes without saying that all sales managers - except for one - told me to cold call, but it was even more frustrating when I'd approach top sales reps who told me the same thing.

It drove me nuts because I'd watch them and observe them and clearly see that they were not cold calling.

Finally I started at a new job where the sales manager had a brain, and when he saw me start cold calling, because I didn't know what else to do, he pulled me aside and said, "Frank, I didn't spend thousands to hire and train you to have you doing the job of a minimum-wage telemarketer."

That's when he let me in on the dirty little secret:

Cold calling is a sham and a waste of time!

He teamed me up with the top sales rep in that office. We went to our first appointment together where I could watch him work his magic.

On the way over, he explained, "Calling people at random is a complete waste of time. There is a certain percentage of the market who is pre-disposed to buy

from you. Your job is to get those people to know about you so they call you and you become their order taker."

That's when the light bulb went off for me.

He told me that 20% of the market absolutely will never buy from me, 20% will buy if they know about me, and the other 60% are up in the air and need to be "sold."

The failure of most salespeople comes about because they waste their time calling on the 20% who will say 'no' and the 60% who will say 'maybe' instead of spending all of their time in front of that 20% who will definitely say 'yes' and BUY.

By the way, that 60% 'maybe' crowd is the worst of all because most of them will string you along and waste your time without buying! At least the 'no' people

will say no and not waste your time. (I bring this up because most sales managers will instruct salespeople to go after that 60%, which makes no sense to me.

Under my sales philosophy, you work with them only after they move into the 20% 'yes' crowd.)

In any case, that day was a HUGE eye-opener for me.

From that point forward I only spent my time with top sales pros. I asked lots of questions, observed, took them to lunch, whatever I needed to do to gain their knowledge.

Over time I learned all of their lead-generation tactics, worked them into a system, and began using that system to the point where I had more leads than I could handle, and since most of those leads were in the 20%, pre-disposed 'yes' crowd, my closing rate was an astonishing 80%, compared with the 20% average in my company!

Eventually others wanted to learn from me, and that's how my system came about. It's the complete storehouse of all that knowledge and 'inside information' that I used to become a top success in sales, and that thousands of others have used to do the same.

Posted at 02:08 PM in Cold Calling | Permalink

The Reality of Time Management in Sales

The end of 2017 is rapidly approaching, believe it or not, so let’s talk about two very important words that, if understood together, will REALLY boost your sales in 2018. (Or tomorrow, if you are a person of action.)

Time management. Cold calling. These are two of the most familiar terms in the day of any salesperson or small business owner. Many continue their cold calling efforts day in and day out, trying to squeeze in as much cold calling as possible to maximize their sales prospecting efforts. The more time spent cold calling, the more you will sell, right? But cold calling takes up a big chunk of your day. Especially if you plan to become a top producer by cold calling.

And therein lies the other problem: Time management. Salespeople are in a unique situation because most are forced to do the majority of their work during business hours, when people are available to meet and take sales calls. Cold calling must be done during business hours (or during limited evening hours in the case of B2C sales, such as life insurance). Appointments must be held during business hours. Presentations and proposals must also be conducted then. And to make time management issues even worse, mandatory sales meetings, company training, and other required activities manage to eat up every spare minute you might have left over.

Time management is a real problem for most any salesperson. When you consider all of the work involved in making enough sales to be successful – prospecting, follow-ups, appointments, creating proposals – not to mention sales meetings and time with your sales manager and other company activities – it can seem insurmountable at times. This is especially true after a really good month, when customer service issues can easily steal most of your free time.

What is an overworked salesperson to do?

Well, if you take a step back and look at the big picture, the one activity that takes up most time is obvious. Prospecting. And what does prospecting generally mean? Yes – cold calling!

Here’s my simple solution to solving the time management dilemma: Stop cold calling!

Now, that answer isn’t going to be popular with most sales managers along with the ‘old timers’ out there, but it works. That one lone change to my sales activity exploded my sales career and made me a top producer almost instantly, so much so that word of my success spread fast and before I knew it I had all of my co-workers wanting to learn from me, all of my competitors wanting to hire from me, and just about everyone wanting to network with me.

I know it may sound unrealistic for me to tell you that I became a huge success almost instantly once I stopped cold calling, so let’s revisit one of my favorite paragraphs from Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich to back up my statement:

“When riches come, they come so quickly and in such great abundance that one wonders where they have been hiding during all those lean years.”

There are three main reasons for this. First, if you’re exceeding your quota by cold calling, then chances are that cold calling takes up a tremendous amount of your selling time. What would happen if you could free up that time and spend it face-to-face with highly qualified prospects who are ready, willing, and able to buy from you right now?

Second, cold calling is a non-leveraged activity. (If you have my system you already know how big of a role leverage plays in it.) In other words, when you’re cold calling you can only contact one person at a time. This is a slow and inefficient process. What would happen if you could put system in place that would generate leads for you – more than just one at a time – while you are out signing contracts and picking up checks?

Third, statistics show that cold calling generates the absolute poorest quality of leads. In fact a recent university study concluded that over 80% of decision makers in business absolutely, positively will not respond to a cold call. To make matters worse, the close rate for leads generated from cold calling are among the lowest of all. When you consider all of this, it becomes obvious that cold calling is not only the worst choice for generating leads, but it creates a time management nightmare.

The solution I’m proposing here satisfies the two greatest desires of all salespeople:

1. More leads and more sales

2. More free time

If you want to become one of the elite top producers in sales, cold calling will never get you there. It’s time to stop cold calling and begin implementing systems and techniques that will generate hot leads from people who are ready to buy right now without any cold calling. You’ll not only increase your sales numbers dramatically, but will solve your time management issues as well – so take this advice and start your New Year with a bang!

Posted at 02:07 PM in Time Management | Permalink

Why You Can't Have Any More Sales

"STOP! You can't have any more!"

Parents say that to their children all the time.

It's also what Joe said to Bill. (Bill and Joe are two very real salespeople I used to work with, but I've changed their names for privacy reasons.)

You see, Bill was a cold calling addict. I've talked about the phenomenon of cold calling addiction in previous newsletters - how people get so caught up in the belief that doing huge amounts of cold calling activity will ultimately pay off in huge amounts of sales, and how they go home each day with this feeling of accomplishment and feeling so productive.

The problem is that those huge sales numbers never come in.

I used to be a cold calling addict myself. I know, it's hard to believe, but it's true! At one point my co-workers even called me the "cold calling monster."

I'd spend day after day cold calling. When I got tired of making phone calls, or if it happened to be really nice out, I'd go from building to building, hitting every single door and making my pitch. I'd frequently go at it well past 6 pm, and go home exhausted, with a big stack of business cards to follow up on, and the feeling that I'd really done something productive that day.

Bill did the same thing. Day after day he ran himself ragged making well over 100 cold calls, and yet he drove around in the intense summer heat with no air conditioning in his car, because he didn't earn enough in commissions to get it repaired.

Meanwhile, Joe made zero cold calls. In fact he did almost no prospecting activity whatsoever. After spending enough time generating leads intelligently, he built up such a large customer base that all of his sales came by referral - and we all know that referrals are practically pre-sold by the time you meet with them.

They're the easiest sale in the world.

The problem is that you have to have either a large networking base, or a large customer base before you can expect to get any.

And if you're spending day after day cold calling, that's not going to happen. I'm sorry, but it just isn't. That's the hard truth. That's also why I titled this email, "STOP! You can't have any more!" Because breaking someone of their cold calling addiction usually takes just as much firm resolve as telling a stubborn child "no"!!!

That's why you can't be like Bill if you want to succeed. And it's why you need to...

STOP!

There's no sense in continuing to cold call when it generates the lowest percentage of sales call success - even a university study dismissed it as useless in today's economy.

Posted at 02:07 PM in sales | Permalink

The Sales Secret of The Rich

I just finished a GREAT book by the late Felix Dennis, of Dennis Publishing fame (Maxim magazine, Computer Shopper, MacWorld, and many others.)

HIs book is a brutal take on what it takes to become hugely successful in business. It runs the gamut from people skills to sales & negotiating skills, to hiring the right talent, to knowing when to stay in and when to get out, to the getting of capital.

It's the getting of capital I'm writing to you about today, because if you read that chapter with an open mind and not just a mind toward getting capital, there is a very powerful lesson all salespeople need to learn.

The Hidden Lesson

In the chapter, he talks about elephants and fleas. Elephants are the providers of capital. Potential providers, that is. They're the bankers, the venture capitalists, and others with money to invest and who are always on the lookout for great places to invest it.

The flea is, you guessed it, the budding entrepreneur, trying to find funding for his start-up company. The trouble is that the flea has little or no power when dealing with elephants. He pretty much has to take what he can get.

To make matters worse, he really cannot approach elephants and ask for capital. This puts him in a position of weakness, and since the elephants know this, it reduces him to groveling for money.

But there's a loophole....

As intimidating and powerful as the elephant may be, he must still face his master, the mahout. The mahout is the institutional investor - the people who invest their money in banks and venture capital firms. The trouble for the elephant starts if there's a successful start-up out there, making waves and garnering attention, but the elephant misses it.

If the mahout hears about the successful start-up before the elephant does, and learns that the firm is not invested there, the elephant is in big trouble. And this creates an opportunity for the flea to attract money to him.

By positioning himself in such a way that he becomes visible to the elephants, the elephants begins to fear that the mahout will find the start-up first, and before you know it, the budding entrepreneur is receiving offers for the capital he needs.

He doesn't lose power by approaching any elephants, but actually gains power because he knows that every elephant who approaches him is in need of a good place to invest his boss's capital.

How Does This Apply to Sales?

The answer to that is simple: You are a flea, and your potential prospects are elephants. And the same situation appiles - if you want to have any chance of success, you must get the elephants to come to you, rather than going to them groveling for sales.

The trouble is that most salespeople do just that: They approach elephants directly, and then wonder why they don't sell as much as they could.

If they were able to attract the attention of elephants, they'd be closing sales and picking up checks all day long. And guess what? The salespeople in the world who know how to attract the elephants to them do just that!

Posted at 02:06 PM in sales | Permalink

True Sales Story: Mimi's Pooping Prospects

Every morning between 5:30 and 6:30, our Great Dane, Mimi, wakes us up like clockwork.

Now I'm the biggest anti-morning person in the world, so when I volunteer to get up with her, my singular goal is to get back to bed as quickly as possible.

That means getting her to pee and poop outside, feeding her breakfast, then running back to the comfort of my bed for a couple more hours of sleep.

The problem is that Mimi doesn't always cooperate with me....

See, she always pees as soon as I let her outside, but she doesn't always poop. And if she doesn't, she always wants to go back outside to do it after breakfast, meaning she wakes me up again and I don't get my precious sleep.

The other morning as I was standing out there waiting for her to go, it occurred to me that I had no power over the process. If she didn't want to poop, there wasn't much I could do about it.

And then it hit me - that's exactly how most salespeople sell!

They're at the mercy of their prospects, and most sales reps have about as much control over whether or not a prospect will buy as I do over Mimi in the morning.

But it doesn't have to be this way!

There are a few ways that you can avoid this trap, and only spend time with prospects who are ready to buy right now:

1. Qualify Prospects Out: Don't make the rookie mistake of running out to meet with anyone who will meet with you. This will guarantee that you'll spend lots of time with non-serious buyers and will have a miserably low close rate.

2. Be Powerful: When you have a powerful presence and take charge of the appointment (and entire sales process) from the get-go, you'll control it to the end, to a very favorable outcome: A sale!

3. Don't Cold Call: Cold calling gets you appointments with people who aren't serious about buying, and who aren't serious about their time either... or yours. If you want to meet with prospects who are ready to buy right now, you need to position yourself so they can proverbially "see" you when they decide to buy that new copier, or insurance policy, or whatever.

Posted at 02:05 PM in Sales Prospecting | Permalink

Use This Dating Tip to Get Fast Sales

How to Get Easy Sales – from a Dating Tip?

This past Saturday I was reading an old issue of Men’s Health I found laying around the house.

One article was about how empowered women have become, and in particular, how it’s now just as common for a woman to approach a man and ask him out as it is for a man to approach a woman.

This wasn’t the big news, though….

What really stood out in the article was this little tidbit:

Not only are women asking men out nowadays, but more importantly, women report that they’re far more attracted to a man they approach, versus a man who approaches them!

This flies in the face of traditional opinion on the subject of dating, but nevertheless, it’s true.

And that begs the question: WHY is it true?

The answer is simple: People want what is difficult to get.

More importantly, the thing in question doesn’t actually have to be hard to get. It only has to seem that way.

The reality is that when a woman goes up to a man and asks for his phone number, he may have been just as ready to approach her – but because she approached him, he seems hard to get even if he’s not.

In other words, it’s all about perception. The reality of the situation doesn’t really matter.

How To Use This Principle To Get Easy Sales

Now to the point of this email: How you can use this dynamic to get easy sales – and perhaps more importantly, how you’ve unknowingly let this dynamic workagainst you, and why it’s cost you sales.

We’ve established the fact that the person who must make the initial approach ends up wanting the desired object more than if things had happened the other way around.

This means you must take a serious look at how you’re initiating your sales processes.

If you are approaching your prospects to begin the sales interaction, whether it’s through cold calling or some other method of contact, you set into motion a dynamic where you become less desirable than if the prospect was forced to approach you.

When a prospect approaches you for a sale, regardless of how they find you, they immediately place a higher value on you and your product or service, than they would on a salesperson who cold called them.

I explained this dynamic last month when I wrote about why referrals are such good leads – it’s because the prospect is calling you, as the result of being given your name by a friend or colleague, rather than you having to call them.

The bottom line here is that if you’re cold calling, you’re putting yourself in a position where you’re instantly of less value than those who are getting prospects to call them.

Even though you’re selling the same product or service at the same exact price when cold calling, as you are when someone calls you, the hard truth is that those who call you are going to put a lot more value into what you’re selling and will be far more likely to buy right now.

You need to stop cold calling if you want to watch your sales and your closing rates go up dramatically!

Posted at 02:05 PM in Sales Tips | Permalink

September 20, 2017

Your Number One Sales Challenge

It's no surprise that there are literally thousands of books on selling - after all, there is a lot to learn in order to become a top salesperson.

In fact, I never stopped learning about sales, whether it was reading books, listening to CDs, going to seminars, or attending sales training from my employer.

When looking at everything we're taught in sales, the list of skills runs the gamut -

- Prospecting

- Qualifying

- Objection handling

- Presenting

- Profit justifying

- Solution development

- Referral selling

- Follow-up

…and so much more.

In fact, just one of those subsets can be drilled down and made into an entire category of its own. Take sales closing for example - there are entire books, programs, seminars, and even entire selling systems and methodologies that revolve around closing tactics.

After all, it makes sense, doesn't it? Closing is the culmination of all selling! As I like to point out, we're not paid to prospect, or show up for meetings, or go to networking events, or even meet with prospects. We're only paid to make sales.

That's it. That's the entire concept of commission payment.

There's something that's frequently overlooked, though, and it's this: All of the closing tricks, tactics, strategies, and even real-world skills and experience won't do you any good unless and until you have someone to close!

And therein lies the #1 fallacy and the basis of all the counter-intuitive thinking that powers the world of sales and sales training: Most salespeople spend 90% of their time learning how to develop and close leads, but once they get out in the real world, 90% of their time is spent simply looking for someone to sell to!

Does that really make any sense? I don't think so.

Let's take it a step further: Let's say we have two salespeople. One is a master closer, who can sell anything to anyone without objections.

The other can't "close the lid on a jar" as the saying goes. If he happens to make a sale, it's because he got lucky and the customer was going to buy anyway.

But there's a catch: The first salesperson, the master closer, has no leads, and no reliable way of getting them. The second, the one with no selling skills, has a pile of leads on his desk and more coming in every day.

Which one will be more successful?

The answer is easy, and I know it's true from real-life experience: The second salesperson, the one with little selling skill but piles of leads, is going to make more money than the master closer who has no one to sell to. The reason is that you can't close a sale unless and until you have someone to sell to. Or, as simple math tells us, 0 x 0 = 0.

On the other hand, a certain percentage of your market will buy from you no matter what - *IF* you can manage to uncover and find those people. Or, as I teach in my systems, how to get those people to find YOU.

When you're ready to stop spending day after day frustrated because YOU don't have enough people to sell to, it's time to stop "increasing your activity" and changing your activity to what really works in today's economy.

If you're not up to speed on modern, Information Age lead-generation methods, learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System here.

New York Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas is the creator of the Never Cold Call Again® System and has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Influential People. To learn more, and to download a free 37-page PDF preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system, visit NeverColdCall.com

Posted at 12:58 PM in Sales Skills, Sales Training | Permalink

How Sales Came So Quickly

"Sales came so quickly, in such great abundance..."

I borrowed that line from Think and Grow Rich. The original one says:

"When riches come, they come so quickly and in such great abundance that one wonders where they have been hiding during all those lean years."

There's a reason I adapted it to sales, because it's part of a true story...

For years I would have endless sales cycles of up and down, up and down. Good month, bad month.

What was most frustrating was that after those good months, and especially the huge sales months, I'd get so frustrated at not being able to continue the trend. Why couldn't I just sell that much every month?

This went on. And on. And on.

As it turns out, the key to beating this problem was to stop listening to sales managers (BIG surprise!).

BUT - I figured this out completely by accident. Here's how:

I had gotten to be good friends with Joe in my office, and we started working together on selling, even going to each other's appointments in order to help each other close more sales. While this was more time consuming for each of us individually, what happened was that we both began closing more than double, so the return on that time investment was more than worth it.

After a while we had gotten into a rhythm with this. Our sales numbers both increased and we were both earning more, and were both happier. (Autocorrect just tried to change that to "eating more" which would be true too - more commissions means much better lunches every day!)

It took a while though for us to notice something even more astounding: The ups-and-down of sales cycles were gone. We were not only selling WAY more, but were doing it a lot more consistently!

Why?

Very simply, it's because we got into such a groove doing our own thing that we began to ignore our sales manager and even started blowing off meetings now and then. Nothing was said about this because we were doing so well, and everyone knows that top-performing salespeople can get away with practically anything.

The difference was that we stopped cramming the last week of every month trying to make quota. We also stopped slacking off the first week of each month like most salespeople do, since the pressure to immediately sell isn't there.

Instead of being aware of what week of the month it was, or how many sales days were left in the month (something the manager would open every meeting with), here's what happened:

We woke up every day, and did the SAME THING every day.

That's it. There was nothing else to solving the issue of sales ups-and-downs.

This naturally irritated our co-workers who were convinced that we must have been getting leads handed to us by someone in the company, which was not the case at all.

The story doesn't end here, though. There's more:

By working together, Joe and I killed two birds with one stone:

First, we eliminated the problem of ups-and-downs, ruts-and-rolls, by abandoning the issue of selling by the month and taking each day as it comes.

Second, we added an element not of "quality over quantity" but "quality AND quantity."

In becoming consistent with our sales numbers, we turned those numbers into HUGE numbers by ONLY dealing with the very highest-quality leads. It's not enough to merely be consistent. It's about being consistent with the RIGHT people.

We did this by recognizing that by exponentially raising our closing rates, we freed up a lot of time that could be spent prospecting. But instead of blindly going out cold calling, we decided to make the very best use of that time. This meant only dealing with prospects who are ready to buy right now.

Lucky for Joe (and for me too) I had already been spending lots of time - meaning a couple of years - working out via trial and error a very solid lead-generation plan.

I figured out what works, what doesn't, and stuck with the most powerful methods. I assembled them into a system, and began using that system. And it WORKS.

The result: "Sales came so quickly, in such great abundance, that one wonders where they were hiding during all those lean years!"

And nowadays, the number of effective lead-generation methods have increased exponentially with the advent of sites like the very one you're on now.

-Frank J. Rumbauskas

Posted at 12:56 PM in sales, Sales Training | Permalink

It's Me, The "Cold Calling Monster"!

"I was the Cold Calling Monster!"

Yes, it's true - even though you know me as the "Never Cold Call Again" guy, I used to go by the nickname "cold calling monster"!

That's because when I went into sales, I had a fierce determination to succeed. So I took the advice I was given - to cold call - and I took it to an extreme.

I made no less than 100 cold calls, each and every day. Sometimes it was on the phone, sometimes in person (canvassing), and sometimes a combination of both. But I never fell short of my 100 calls.

And I got leads - tons of leads! Yes, despite what you've heard from me about cold calling falling to get leads, I have to admit I was swamped with them. I was setting appointment after appointment, to the point where it was difficult to find enough time in the day for my 100 calls, but I always figured it out.

My confidence in this plan was bolstered by stories from managers and 'old timers' about sales reps who were making almost unheard-of sales numbers, by blocking out time every day to lock their office doors and make a hundred calls.

I knew my success was in sight!

And so I went on with my 100 calls a day, believing that it would not only work but the longer it took to pay off, the more I'd succeed in the end. My schedule was hectic, and I still remember one particular day when I had seven appointments and still did my 100 cold calls, mostly by canvassing the buildings where I had the appointments and then making up the rest on the phone. When I arrived home after 7 PM that evening I felt exhilarated.

It was a really great feeling to go home after such a busy day, with a feeling of accomplishment that I'd really done something. Slow boring days always gave me a lot of anxiety about not getting anything done, so a crazy day full of a hundred calls plus a bunch of appointments really made me feel good.

This went on for a long time and my high activity levels kept me really pumped up all the time.

But there was a problem…

The huge sales numbers never came!

That's right - I was barely closing enough sales to scrape by, let alone make the big killing that I had been promising myself and that all the old timers said those 100 calls a day would bring me.

And so that brings up the next question…

Do more leads = more sales?

Of course more leads equal more sales. That's only common sense. You can't get a sale without first having a lead - leads are the starting point of all sales success. No lead means no prospect, which means no one to sell to and no one to close.

However, there's a catch. (Isn't there always a catch?) The problem is that all leads aren't the same.

There are good leads and bad leads. And that brings us to one of life's basic truths:

Quality always trumps quantity!

We all know this! Yet in sales, the drive is always on to get more and more and more leads, with no regard to the quality of those leads.

It's natural to want to rush out to meet with anyone who will give us an appointment. After all, the basic mindset taught in all sales training is that sales is a numbers game. If you close 20% of your prospects, then doubling your number of appointments should double your number of sales.

But it doesn't really work out that way.

I failed miserably when I started in sales, not because I was a bad salesperson, but because I was spending my days as the "cold calling monster" trying to rack up as many leads and as many appointments as possible, without regard to the quality of those leads.

The Three Categories of Leads

Later on, when a top sales pro took me under his wing to mentor me, I finally learned that there are three categories of leads. Most salespeople are spending time with the two wrong ones - people who either will never buy from them, or people who are undecided and never make a decision. (Those are the ones who string you along endlessly with 'check back in 6 months' or 'we need to think about it first.')

That third category consists of people who will most likely buy from you, if they only knew about you and had the chance to meet with you.

When I learned about that, I soon had fewer leads and fewer appointments, but far more sales.

Best of all, I had a lot more free time. I was selling more by doing less work - by focusing only on people who were pre-disposed to buy from me, I was closing 4 out of 5, instead of my previous record of 1 in 5 when the leads came from cold calling.

After I had mastered this concept and developed a system of lead-generation strategies that brought me an endless supply of hot leads - people who were ready to buy right now - I began teaching that system to others, and you know what they told me?

The same thing happened to them: They began selling a lot more while doing far less work.

And since most salespeople spend nearly 100% of their free time prospecting, you can see what a huge improvement happens to your schedule when cold calling is eliminated.

(Oh yeah, and your stress level goes down.)

Imagine never having to make cold calls, and meanwhile, your sales come in each month, since leads are filling your inbox on autopilot.

It's a great feeling - I know, because I achieved it.

And you can too. If I can do it, and remember that I started out as a total failrue at sales, then you can do it too.

- Frank J. Rumbauskas

Posted at 12:27 PM in Cold Calling | Permalink

Are You Truly Superb At Sales?

Well, are you superb?

What on earth am I talking about? Ok, let me tell you a story...

My First Real Sales Experience

My first real hand-on sales experience began in my teens. My best friend and I used to go to ham radio swap meets on the weekends. We soon discovered that we could make a lot of money buying old, antique radios for as little as $5, fix them up and put a fresh coat of paint on the chassis, and resell it the following weekend for as much as $100.

This was serious money to a kid - especially when our friends were working miserable summer jobs for $5 an hour. Flipping a few radios a week added up to big money!

I mentioned that we fixed the radios up first. We'd diagnose what was wrong with them, go down to Radio Shack for components (back when it was still an electronics store and not a cell phone store), and repair them.

We figured this would be good enough. And it was to an extent.

But then we took it a step further...

We began hammering any dents out of the radios' chassis, give it a fresh coat of paint, and then polish it to a nice finish. Or if it was in pretty good shape to begin with, we'd buff out the scratches and marks.

A Lesson In Perception

We began to fetch even more money for the radios at this point. Always the aggressive marketer, I was trying to come up with more ways to make the radios attractive and improve sales.

That's when I began making up nice-looking price tags and informational flyers that I taped onto the table beneath the radios. They certainly helped.

But then I added some serious marketing "copy" to them.

I started them out with the words: "This SUPERB radio has these features..." and so on.

And sales went through the roof!

We were able to sell the radios so quickly with that kind of sales copy on the flyers that we even began bringing our repair equipment out to the swap meets and would buy and sell the same radio on the same day!

Perception Is Everything

Yesterday I wrote about the principle of power in negotiation. Here's what Herb Cohen, one of the leading experts on negotiation, has to say: "When it comes to power, perception is everything. If you think you have power, even if you don't, you have it. And if you have power, but don't think you have it, you don't have it."

By calling the radio SUPERB, I created a strong perception that this was so!

And it made people buy!

So you have to ask yourself, are you being superb, and more importantly, are you creating the perception that you are superb? By acting the part, dressing the part, and doing things that create the image of being superb? And avoiding activities like cold calling that destroy that image?

When you cold call, you can't be superb. Prospects wonder what's wrong with you that you have to resort to cold calling to get leads. They think, "Why don't you have referrals - are you giving your customers bad service?" Or, "Is your company so broke that they can't afford marketing to generate leads? Will you still be in business in a few years to stand behind your product?"

Don't cold call. Be superb instead. Think the part and act the part, and you will soon bethe part. And your sales will explode as a result.

Posted at 12:26 PM in Sales Skills | Permalink

September 19, 2017

Sales Tip: Are You A "Superb" Salesperson?

Well, are you superb?

What on earth am I talking about? Ok, let me tell you a story...

My First Real Sales Experience

My first real hand-on sales experience began in my teens. My best friend and I used to go to ham radio swap meets on the weekends. We soon discovered that we could make a lot of money buying old, antique radios for as little as $5, fix them up and put a fresh coat of paint on the chassis, and resell it the following weekend for as much as $100.

This was serious money to a kid - especially when our friends were working miserable summer jobs for $5 an hour. Flipping a few radios a week added up to big money!

I mentioned that we fixed the radios up first. We'd diagnose what was wrong with them, go down to Radio Shack for components (back when it was still an electronics store and not a cell phone store), and repair them.

We figured this would be good enough. And it was to an extent.

But then we took it a step further...

We began hammering any dents out of the radios' chassis, give it a fresh coat of paint, and then polish it to a nice finish. Or if it was in pretty good shape to begin with, we'd buff out the scratches and marks.

A Lesson In Perception

We began to fetch even more money for the radios at this point. Always the aggressive marketer, I was trying to come up with more ways to make the radios attractive and improve sales.

That's when I began making up nice-looking price tags and informational flyers that I taped onto the table beneath the radios. They certainly helped.

But then I added some serious marketing "copy" to them.

I started them out with the words: "This SUPERB radio has these features..." and so on.

And sales went through the roof!

We were able to sell the radios so quickly with that kind of sales copy on the flyers that we even began bringing our repair equipment out to the swap meets and would flip the same radio on the same day!

Perception Is Everything

Yesterday I wrote about the principle of power in negotiation. Here's what Herb Cohen, one of the leading experts on negotiation, has to say: "When it comes to power, perception is everything. If you think you have power, even if you don't, you have it. And if you have power, but don't think you have it, you don't have it."

By calling the radio SUPERB, I created a strong perception that this was so!

And it made people buy!

So you have to ask yourself, are you being superb, and more importantly, are you creating the perception that you are superb? By acting the part, dressing the part, and doing things that create the image of being superb? And avoiding activities like cold calling that destroy that image?

Here's to your success!
Frank Rumbauskas

Learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a free 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System.

New York Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas is the author of the Never Cold Call Again® System and has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company’s top 30 most influential people. To learn more, and to download a free 37-page PDF preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system, visit NeverColdCall.com

Posted at 03:15 PM in Sales Tips | Permalink

July 26, 2017

And Then She Said "This Is NOT A Sales Pitch!"

For my birthday a few years ago - my 40th - my wife bought me the NASCAR Experience package - the opportunity to drive a real race car on a real track, Texas Motor Speedway!

I'm not a huge NASCAR fan and couldn't even name most of the drivers, but even still, just knowing that I was driving Jeff Gordon's #24 car on a real superspeedway where he himself has raced that car was surreal.

And the experience was exhilarating

But something else happened that day...

An Unexpected Lesson in Sales

The way the Experience works is that you can buy one, two, or three 8-minute racing sessions.

We scheduled mine on a Friday to avoid the weekend crowds, and sure enough, it wasn't busy at all.

In the mandatory one-hour driver's class that takes place before going out on the track, the facilitator said that because it's a slow day, anyone who wants to could upgrade to a second or third 8-minute session for half price.

Then he followed with this line:

"This is NOT a sales pitch!"

Umm, yeah, right... in our business we call it an upsell or a one-time offer!

BUT...

People believe it!

Just by saying, "This is not a sales pitch, it's only because we're not fully booked today," people believed him and bought the upsell.

In other words, he made sales by NOT appearing to be SELLING!

And if you're not a total rockstar at sales, rolling in cash every month when you get your commission check and living large, there's a reason: because you come across as someone who is SELLING!!!

The very best salespeople - the six figure earners - never sell. Instead, they create the circumstances for buying to take place, and sit back and simply let people buy.

How To Succeed in Sales

Of all the varieties of selling, from rookie mistakes all the way to sleazy dishonest tactics and high-pressure "closes," the worst of all is cold calling.

If you look at my definition of "selling", cold calling definitely takes the cake. It makes it practically impossible to let people buy.

If you want to succeed in sales, and become a top-performing salesperson almost immediately, there are two steps you must take to make that happen:

1. Stop selling, and start creating circumstances where people buy.

2. The first step to that is to stop cold calling - it's the worst form of selling.

Take those steps, and watch your sales numbers explode and your stress disappear!

Learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a free 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System.

Posted at 07:33 PM in sales, Sales Skills, Sales Tips | Permalink

And Then She Said "This Is NOT A Sales Pitch!"

For my birthday a few years ago - my 40th - my wife bought me the NASCAR Experience package - the opportunity to drive a real race car on a real track, Texas Motor Speedway!

And the experience was exhilarating

But something else happened that day...

An Unexpected Lesson in Sales

The way the Experience works is that you can buy one, two, or three 8-minute racing sessions.

We scheduled mine on a Friday to avoid the weekend crowds, and sure enough, it wasn't busy at all.

Then he followed with this line:

"This is NOT a sales pitch!"

Umm, yeah, right... in our business we call it an upsell or a one-time offer!

BUT...

People believe it!

Just by saying, "This is not a sales pitch, it's only because we're not fully booked today," people believed him and bought the upsell.

In other words, he made sales by NOT appearing to be SELLING!

And if you're not a total rockstar at sales, rolling in cash every month when you get your commission check and living large, there's a reason: because you come across as someone who is SELLING!!!

The very best salespeople - the six figure earners - never sell. Instead, they create the circumstances for buying to take place, and sit back and simply let people buy.

How To Succeed in Sales

Of all the varieties of selling, from rookie mistakes all the way to sleazy dishonest tactics and high-pressure "closes," the worst of all is cold calling.

If you look at my definition of "selling", cold calling definitely takes the cake. It makes it practically impossible to let people buy.

If you want to succeed in sales, and become a top-performing salesperson almost immediately, there are two steps you must take to make that happen:

1. Stop selling, and start creating circumstances where people buy.

2. The first step to that is to stop cold calling - it's the worst form of selling.

Take those steps, and watch your sales numbers explode and your stress disappear!

Learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a free 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System.

Posted at 07:33 PM in sales, Sales Skills, Sales Tips | Permalink

Are You An Annoying Pest? Or A Welcome Guest?

That question was first coined by Dan Kennedy, way back in 1974.

Yes, even in the pre-Internet, pre-Social Media days, when cold calling was still in vogue, wayyyyy back then, someone STILL had the common sense to explain why cold calling was ineffective versus the direct-response marketing methods of the day!

Having given you the history - and proper credit - on where that phrase came from, you have to ask yourself, which one are you?

The Annoying Pest

I deal with the annoying pest as a business owner, although the problem is getting less and less common, partly because both myself and technology have improved at blocking out annoying pests, and partly because of the generational shift in selling - in other words, the newer, younger generation of sales managers who are taking over who understand that cold calling is a relic of the 1950s and won't have their sales teams doing it.

By the way, who is the annoying pest?

I'll answer that question with a question: Do you cold call?

If you said "yes" then YOU, my friend, are the annoying pest!

And the annoying pest is no longer welcome in the modern world of commerce.

In fact, the annoying pest hasn't been welcome in a VERY long time, but far too many people simply don't get it.

The Welcome Guest

The welcome guest is what some call the "new" breed of salesperson but there's really nothing "new" about it. I was the welcome guest back in the 1990s after I'd learned, and had it taught to me by a brilliant sales manager, that cold calling is for lazy morons who don't have the brainpower to prospect intelligently.

Yes, you heard me: Cold calling is LAZY. It's for people who don't want to THINKand learn something new and different. As Henry Ford once said, thinking is the hardest thing there is. That's why almost no one does it.

The welcome guest, on the other hand, is just that - welcome. The welcome guest is someone who can solve a problem. Someone who can add value. Someone who can benefit all involved.

The welcome guest doesn't irritate people with the rude, intrusive behavior of cold calling.

And most importantly of all, the welcome guest is SUCCESSFUL and PROSPEROUS.

The annoying pest is a FAILURE, and usually a frustrated one at that, thanks to the lousy personality that develops over time due to the never-ending confrontation and negativity of cold calling.

The irony in all this is that, for a few years, I was an ANNOYING PEST!

I cold called because I didn't know any better. I was new and young and dumb and I simply did what I was told to do. After all, wasn't I supposed to follow orders from my manager?

Nope. Not when the manager himself had spent life as an annoying pest.

Finally I got a clue - from a new sales manager who practically hit the ceiling when he saw me cold calling the first day on my new job and pulled me aside to tell me I was too good to do the job of an unskilled telemarketer.

This was a shock to my system, but there began a process of many years of learning and trial-and-error method that taught me how to generate endless hot leads, without ever making another cold call, ever again.

Suddenly I was working fewer hours, going on fewer appointments, yet I was making a lot more sales.

Best of all, I had a lot more free time. I was selling more by doing less work - by focusing only on people who were pre-disposed to buy from me, I was closing 4 out of 5 sales, instead of my previous record of 1 in 5 when the leads came from cold calling.

After I had mastered this concept and developed a system of lead-generation strategies that brought me an endless supply of hot leads - people who were ready to buy right now - I began teaching that system to others, and you know what they told me?

The same thing happened to them: They began selling a lot more while doing far less work.

Making the transition from annoying pest to welcome guest is a great feeling - I know, because I achieved it. (Oh yeah, and your stress level goes down.)

And now it's your turn.

Learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a free 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System.

Posted at 07:31 PM in Cold Call, Cold Calling, Cold Calling Scripts | Permalink

Why Most Salespeople Hate Selling

It never ceases to amaze me how few salespeople I meet who actually love selling, like I do. Worse yet, it appears that a huge number literally hate it - but keep on only because they need a job!

Ask anyone outside the sales profession why they don't like to sell, and they'll tell you, "I hate selling."

There is one reason, and one reason only, why anyone hates selling:

It's because they are inept at it.

They've failed at it.

They can't do it.

This is true in any profession, or any activity in the world, for that matter. People who tell you they hate playing golf - myself included - hate it because they suck at it. (My grass allergy doesn't help either!)

Want To Be Successful? Love What You Do!

It was Socrates who first said it, and it's been repeated by dozens of authors and success philosophers down the centuries: "The only unsuccessful men are those who have not yet found the work they like best."

It's a plain and simple fact that when one is doing the work one likes best, that person is happy, successful, and prosperous.

Work is no longer work. It becomes a labor of love, a joy, to perform.

When I was asked to give an presentation recently on what the #1 cause of sales turnover is, since sales turnover is EXTREMELY expensive for organizations, I had a research assistant find out, and pages and pages of research and case studies all gave the same answer:

Salespeople quit their jobs when they don't like them.

Going deeper into the research, the #1 reason why salespeople don't like their jobs is cold calling. In fact a surprisingly large majority said they'd rather have a root canal than make 100 cold calls.

The #1 reason why salespeople don't like their jobs is cold calling

Is it any wonder, then, that so many salespeople are failures, when they literally HATE what they're doing for a living? When they'd rather have a freaking ROOT CANAL than go to work?

On the other side of the coin, the report contained numerous surveys of business owners & senior executives. When asked what they dislike most about their work, the answer was consistently the same: Receiving cold calls.

The Shortcut to Sales Success

It's well-known to everyone that, no matter how cliche it may sound, the first requirement of success is a positive mental attitude. And you can never have that in your work if you hate your work!

Simply having that positive attitude, and the upbeat enthusiasm that goes with it, makes you magnetically attractive to prospects. They can't resist wanting to BUY from you.

And knowing that cold calling, above everything else combined, is the #1 reason that makes salespeople hate their jobs and destroys positive attitude, the shortcut to sales success is very plain and simple: STOP COLD CALLING! NOW! TODAY!

Learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a free 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System.

Posted at 07:31 PM in sales, Sales Tips, selling | Permalink

The Two Most Common Sales Traps and Mistakes

Are You Complacent? Or A Genius?

There are two major traps that salespeople and entrepreneurs alike fall into. I've fallen into both myself, first as a salesperson, and then again as an entrepreneur, in the initial years after I started NeverColdCall.com.

The "Genius" Problem

When I was selling in late 1999/early 2000, my specific territory was an area of town that was very business-dense, so there were a huge quantity of B2B prospects there, but that area was also notorious for the arrogant and so-called "fake" people who both lived and worked there.

During that time, I repeatedly came across the "genius" problem: People who had the attitude that if they didn't already know about something, then it must not exist; therefore it was very difficult to get appointments with these people. (Eventually I realized that I DID NOT WANT appointments with these people - they weren't worth my time.)

Never mind the fact that I was selling a brand-new, cutting-edge technology that they absolutely didn't know about. But in their minds, they already knew everything!

In their minds, they already knew everything!

I did the same thing for a while after initially enjoying financial independence, which unfortunately didn't last all too long because I also fell into "genius" mode. I was doing so well with so little work that I closed my mind to further learning and had fun instead. Then eventually I came to my senses and gave up the "I don't work anymore" routine - as you can tell from these emails, I now work - a lot!

Salespeople do it too. I fell into the trap, which was particularly dangerous at a time when the Internet was just beginning to take over, and it began to make older, albeit proven, lead-generation methods less and less effective.

The "Complacency" Problem

This is the more dangerous of the two. I know I did it, first in sales when the leads and commission checks were pouring in with little effort. When 9/11 hit, the economy crashed - and I was forced to reinvent FAST - I gave up my complacency in a hurry.

I did it again after starting NeverColdCall.com, at the same time I had considered myself a "genius." I was fat and happy, as the saying goes, and let things run on autopilot for a while.

I was fat and happy, as the saying goes.

Of course, it didn't last, because in today's economy, businesses are forced to reinvent themselves an average of every two years - a far cry from the Industrial Age of the 20th Century when a business could chug along for decades with few major changes.

Complacency in Sales

I can always tell when I'm dealing with a complacent salesperson. It's a dead giveaway when they say, "I don't need your stuff because cold calling works for me!"

When I hear that, I immediately know I'm talking with someone who is happy with mediocrity - happy to earn just enough to keep the bills paid, stay employed for another few months, and maybe even put a few away into the savings account.

When I hear that, I immediately know I'm talking with someone who is happy with mediocrity.

However, complacent people never, ever achieve noteworthy success. Never, ever.

That's the reason I stopped being complacent. Now I never stop thinking of and working on new idea, new businesses, and I never stop learning - last night I read chapters from two different books while listening to a third in the car today. Not to mention the fact that I have a short list of books I regularly re-read, to be sure I stay sharp on fundamentals. (Hint: It takes a minimum of three readings of a book before you really "get it.")

The bottom line is that if you want to achieve noteworthy success, and attain your goals and dreams, you must never fall into the complacency trap.

And if there's one huge red flag that a salesperson has become complacent, it's that they're still cold calling in the 21st Century, when cold calling simply doesn't find enough qualified leads anymore to make it worth your time.

So do yourself a big favor: STOP cold calling, and START using effective, intelligent, Information Age methods to start bringing qualified prospects to YOU!

Learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a free 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System.

Posted at 07:29 PM in sales, Sales Tips, Sales Training | Permalink

Ronald Reagan's Powerful Sales Lessons

What Ronald Reagan Can Teach Us About Sales

You hear a lot about Ronald Reagan from politicians these days, on both sides of the aisle. History regards him as one of America's greatest presidents, so he gets name-dropped by a lot of people who attempt to identify with him during campaigns.

But what you don't hear about is what Ronald Reagan can teach us about sales, because he was a master salesman!

His most important goal - and greatest accomplishment - was toppling the Soviet Union. While it's generally believed that he did it simply by out-spending them on military buildup and nuclear missiles, that's not entirely true.

Let me tell you how he really did it:

Reagan's Introduction to the Soviets

Ronald Reagan's eventual domination of the Soviet Union began even before he started going after them in earnest.

It was all about the first impression he made. First impressions count. First impressions last. And Reagan's first impression, to the Soviets, was of a man of power and respect.

When Ronald Reagan arrived for the first time in the Soviet Union, it was winter, and it was downright cold outside - typical Russian winter weather with sub-zero temperatures and gusting winds and snow.

And then it happened....

Ronald Reagan got out of his limo, wearing only a suit with no overcoat. In the below-zero temperatures, he kept his cool (no pun intended), and didn't shiver or do anything else to indicate that he was cold. He looked like a super-human to those watching on television, and made his Soviet counterparts, dressed in heavy overcoats, scarves, and fur hats, look like wimps.

The collective thoughts of the Soviet people were, "Who is this man?"

And then it was all downhill for them from there. As Sun Tzu said in The Art of War, "Every battle is won before it's ever fought." And Reagan had the Soviets psychologically defeated even before the arms race began that eventually brought them down.

What's YOUR First Impression?

If Reagan brought down the world's only other superpower besides the United States, based on the first impression he created on his initial visit, then you KNOW that first impressions count.

Ask yourself this: What is YOUR first impression?

Are you showing up with power and authority as Reagan did, causing people to ask themselves, "Who is this person?"

Or are you supplicating and looking desperate and hungry when you approach sales prospects?

I've got some news for you: If you want to look weak and desperate, then there's no better way in the world to accomplish that than by cold calling.

Cold calling sub-communicates that you have nothing else to do, no customers to service, no prospects wanting to do business with you - in other words, that you're desperate.

It also makes you look greedy, and not in a good way. Cold calling shows that you are out to GET a sale from them, not to GIVE them value and honest service.

So if you want to convey the level of power and authority that Ronald Reagan did in toppling the Soviets, you need to stop cold calling. Immediately. Right now.

Learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a free 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System.

Posted at 07:28 PM in sales, Sales Power, Sales Skills | Permalink

Want to Close Sales? Then Shut Up!

"Please just SHUT UP already!"

Shut up? Yes, shut up!

To explain, let me tell you a story:

One day, once I'd figured out how to close sales - which of course means I was getting people to buy from me, without doing any pushy selling - I had an experience I have never forgotten.

I was in an appointment with the managing partner of a big, imposing law firm. He had many framed news articles all over his walls about the multi-million dollar awards he'd won for his clients.

Like the law firm, he was big and imposing, and not exactly an "easy" prospect. Just seeing his success as a trial lawyer told me that I'd probably met my match when it came to the negotiating game, and this would be a tough one to crack.

I was there to present my proposal and hopefully close the deal. This was a large firm, with well over 40 attorneys and a huge support staff, so the cost of the phone system I was proposing was in the $100,000 range. In other words, it was a major purchase for them.

I presented my solution, answered questions and objections, and then sat back - and then I SHUT UP.

The big famous lawyer sat back and shut up too. He leaned back in his chair, staring at the price.

Then he got up and began pacing around the room, still staring at my proposal.

Minutes dragged on for what seemed like hours. Like most salespeople, I was uncomfortable with the silence, and really wanted to say something to break it, but I bit my tongue and kept my mouth shut.

Minutes dragged on for what seemed like hours.

After some more pacing around and huffing and puffing on his part, he finally said, "Ok, we'll buy it."

And that was that. I walked out with a signed contract, a signed check, and a wonderful feeling of victory like no other! Not to mention a big fat commission check.

Why Most Salespeople Lose Sales

Few salespeople are able to keep their mouths shut in a tense closing situation like that. That's why there are so few superstars in the sales world.

It takes a lot of strength and fortitude to be able to stay quiet when all you want to do is break the silence!

But as the old sales rule goes, "He who speaks first, loses." And it's true.

Most salespeople lose for two major reasons:

#1. In those closing appointments, when the prospect is silent and thinking about the purchase, the salesperson breaks the silence by saying something, and alas, as the saying goes, "He who speaks first, loses."

#2. They're in a closing appointment with a prospect who is not fully qualified, and ready, willing, and able to buy right now.

Obviously, that managing partner signed a $100,000 check that day because he WAS in fact fully qualified, ready, willing, and able to buy. And those are the ONLY kind of prospects you should spend your precious and valuable time with.

And guess what? I didn't find him by cold calling. No way. People like that aren't even accessible via cold calls, let alone even willing to take one.

I found him by modern sales prospecting and lead generation methods. No "dialing for dollars" or "pounding the pavement" or "banging on doors."

No "dialing for dollars" or "pounding the pavement" or "banging on doors."

That crap may have worked in the 1950s, but we're in the 21st Century now, my friends.

If YOU want to close deals with the whales, then the whales need to know who YOUare.

Make a name and rep

utation for yourself. Celebritize yourself. Dress the part. Write a book and get it printed cheap online, and sign autographed copies to people you meet. It will make you an authority figure in their minds.

Be where the buyers are. I can't tell you how many deals I closed that began with sitting at the bar in a restaurant to have dinner after 5pm. I did my homework, learned where the whales hang out, and I hung out there too.

You can do the same. Believe me, if I can do it, then YOU can do it!

Posted at 07:26 PM in Sales Closing | Permalink

Cold Calling Is For Idiots

A good friend of mine, a fellow business owner, made a very interesting post on Facebook and tagged me in it, to make sure I didn't miss it.

The post title? "Dinosaurs trying to sell flying saucers."

Here's the rundown:

First, he was cold called, without his permission, and his "email me instead" requests were repeatedly ignored.

Second, he finally agreed, via email, to do a live online "demo" with them, and only three minutes into it, the sales rep was spewing out old sales puke like "benefit statements" that make all of us prospects cringe in our seats.

My friend, sick of the useless "benefit statements," cut off the presentation and said, "Look, I'm not getting anything from this, so let's do both of ourselves a favor, and please email me a feature & price list."

Instead, the sales rep kept emailing him more slide presentations.

Finally, after asking about a gazillion more times, my friend FINALLY received a so-called proposal, that strictly contained pricing for their various packages. No breakdown of cost or comparison chart for their individual services.

Five weeks later, they've still done NOTHING to try to build a relationship with him, show him why their services would add profit to his bottom line - NOTHING.

Instead, it's just been endless crap sales techniques like "sell them on benefits first" and "you need to build warmth," ad nauseum.

Why Does This Still Happen?

One simple answer: UNQUALIFIED SALES MANAGERS!

And... unqualified sales trainers, or the kinds who keep people failing so they'll keep coming back for more training. Yes, they're out there.

The problem in this case isn't the salesperson. I can almost guarantee you it's the sales manager, or a crooked sales trainer, who is still teaching the garbage in sales books from the 1980s that are all about pestering people every day until they either say yes or no, spewing out "value statements" like a robot that mean nothing to qualified prospects, and other assorted old-school nonsense that simply doesn't work anymore in today's economy.

I hate to break the news, but in today's Internet age, prospects are just too smart and too well-informed to fall for any of that garbage.

Worst of all the garbage being taught to sales reps by unqualified managers is, you guessed it, COLD CALLING!

Here's the most twisted and sick thing about cold calling: Even if you ARE a great salesperson, and you KNOW how to sell effectively, the sad reality is that cold calling simply won't uncover the highly qualified prospects - those who are ready, willing, and able to buy right now.

When Baylor University's recent study concluded that it takes 7.5 hours of cold calling to set just ONE qualified appointment, they meant what they said: QUALIFIED. Not a time-waster. Not a "Seymour" as author Tony Parinello calls them - those who always want to "see more" but never buy! A qualified appointment is with someone who, like I said, has the means, and is ready and wanting to buy right now.

And cold calling, unfortunately, simply doesn't produce enough of those types of leads to be effective in today's tough economy.

The Solution

If your manager is still telling you to cold call, STOP!

That stuff just doesn't work anymore. Period. End of story. Your job is to STOP doing what doesn't work, and START doing what does!!!

Posted at 07:25 PM in Cold Calling | Permalink

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Frank Rumbauskas is a New York Times Best-Selling Author, one of Fast Company's Most Influential People Online, Winner of Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, The World's Best Sales Trainer, The #1 Sales and Marketing Strategist on the Planet, and a very humble and loving husband, dad to two beautiful daughters, and all around great guy! To get Frank to explode your organization's sales numbers until your head is spinning, your wallet is bursting at the seams, and everyone thinks you're a genius, contact him at [email protected]

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