The Winner's Sales Strategy Blog

No cold calling = get rich

Since I posted a negative email the other day, here's a good one from today: "I just added up the value of the leads. I just got an email that is for two loans, 1 for $350 Million and a second for $150 Million. All together, I have spent less than $25.00 and have approximately $1,500,000,000 in potential business. With not even one cold call."

This is from someone who represents wealthy investors looking to place loans. This is a highly competitive business and one that is very difficult to prospect for. People who do this normally spend 12 hours a day, every day making phone calls as well as a lot of expensive networking in an attempt to build a list of contacts, and hope that those contacts produce leads over time. Here, on the other hand, is someone who used a few simple marketing techniques, spent less than the average cost of a networking breakfast, and has more leads than ANY of his competitors who are doing things the old way. Part of his marketing strategy is to create an impression of being powerful. This is impossible if you are cold calling. Cold calling creates the exact opposite impression, i.e. that you are in need, and as a result it turns off the most highly valuable prospects of all. They only want to deal with business equals. No exceptions.

Is this for real?

I got this email recently: "Cold calling takes BALLS. 90% of my sales last year came from cold calling. I couldn't agree with you less."

And, sir, I couldn't agree with YOU less! Here's another example of someone who seems to think that having, as he so eloquently put it, "BALLS," is more important than making money. Entirely too many managers out there are more concerned with saying things such as, "Where's your competitive spirit? Don't you want to fight and win? Fight the good fight! Get out there in the trenches!"

Well, of course, my answer to that is that such ideas are long dead and obsolete. We're in the Information Age now, and the salespeople who make the most money are the ones who work the smartest, not necessarily the hardest. The key to success today is to forget about cold calling and to use an intelligent, organized system of self-marketing instead. I'm amazed at how all these proponents of cold calling send me these emails but cannot provide any documentation of their success, and think that spending lots of time cold calling is somehow more honorable than actually making money. Another person accused me of being an order taker. Well, duh. The ultimate goal of building a self-marketing system is to generate so many good leads that you become an order taker. Mission accomplished.

I love that commercial!

You know, the Computer Associates one with the software salesman outside the door and the poor prospect trying to jump out the window to escape, then finally disappearing into the ceiling! See, and some people still don't believe me when I say that's exactly what prospects feel when they're faced with a cold calling salesperson.

A dictator manager strikes again

I'm sitting here reading yet another email from a hard-working salesperson who is being held back by a dictator manager. I get these emails all the time, and because I've been there myself, I really feel for people who have to put up with that. I can remember so many instances where a manager actually managed (pun intended) to damage a top-producer's performance. I remember top-producers, myself included, being forced to cancel appointments in order to participate in idiotic cold calling blitzes. I remember how frustrating it was to have my sales results hindered by managers, then to be held accountable by those same managers for suffering performance.

The solution is to put together a marketing program for yourself that can run in the background even as you're forced to participate in silly activities such as cold call blitzes or running around all day to collect 50 business cards. Self-marketing is really the only way to make it to the top these days. It's bad enough to spend your time cold calling just because you've never been taught anything different; however, it's even worse to be forced to do it when you do know how to succeed without it. If you're expected to do a minimum amount of cold calls and/or to participate in cold calling blitzes, the answer is to let your self-marketing program run in the background and generate leads for you.

Cold calling doesn't work

I'm constantly getting emails from people who insist that I'm wrong and that cold calling works. I'm sure a few people out there, maybe 1 in 100, are having success with cold calling. They think I'm misleading people with all my claims that cold calling doesn't work.

When I was still fairly new to sales, I cold called my heart out because I didn't know what else to do. It was the only thing I was taught, and to some degree, cold calling worked for me. The problem is that cold calling is extremely inefficient. It would take approximately 50 cold calls to get a qualified lead (not someone who was willing to meet with me out of idle curiosity). 1 out of about 5 of those bought. You can add up the numbers. A salesperson who cold calls will get sales but their income is severely limited by time constraints. You can only make so many cold calls in a day, week, or month, and the end result is that cold calling puts a rather low cap on your income. I survived for a while by cold calling but I never made any real money when I was still doing it, and I had to struggle to make my numbers every month.

My real success came when I stopped cold calling and started finding more efficient ways to attract prospects. In other words, I marketed myself instead of trying to cold call. The bottom line is that while cold calling will get some sales, it never gets enough and is, by far, the most inefficient way to prospect. As we move further into the Information Age, resistance to cold calling continues to increase and it becomes even more ineffective every day.

Why our free market is so great

From today's paper: "Americans may have noticed that their grocery bills have remained fairly stable, but it may surprise supermarket shoppers to learn that they have retail giant Wal-Mart to thank for keeping a lid on prices. At an industry conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, this week, makers of foods from cereal to soup lamented the difficulty of raising prices on such household staples when discounters like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. wield so much power over the grocery market."

I point this out because it's a perfect example of what makes our system of free enterprise so great. Without it, we'd be paying $20 for a loaf of bread. You hear some out there whining, but in the end, consumers benefit greatly from this situation. I think it's important to think about because so many salespeople complain about "unnecessary" competition, such as those who have to compete with dealers selling the same products their company happens to manufacture. Without this competition and open market, we'd live in a world of eternal economic stagnation and ridiculous inflation. Next time you find yourself in one of those situations, remember that we all benefit from it in the end.

Feel good? What?

Ok, this is a good one. I was on a sales message board doing my usual thing of finding out what's on salespeople's minds lately. A discussion started about rejection, how to handle rejection, how to overcome rejection and still get the sale, etc. A sales trainer who is rather well-known locally chimed in and said rejection doesn't matter. What really matters is that we FEEL good.

Feel good?!? This is sales, not some overly new-age cult about finding our inner child or whatever. This is business. Business is nasty sometimes. Don't get me wrong - I sincerely believe that a positive attitude is necessary for success, and the best way to do well at your job is to make it fun. But there comes a point where one can become overly positive and lose sight of reality. Feeling good is great but it doesn't pay the bills. A positive attitude is only one part of the big picture, and I've seen so many people focus on only one thing and lose sight of the big picture. Don't fall into that trap. It's like my argument against attempting to correct a slump by "increasing your activity" - by increasing your activity, you're throwing more fuel on the fire instead of correcting the core problems, such as an inability to close or to properly qualify prospects at the start. A positive attitude is a must but will only work if it's backed up by intelligent planning and action.

Give before you get

I was on Tony Parinello's radio show a few weeks ago and he pointed out that a great way for authors like he and I to promote ourselves is to hold free seminars. Get six or seven thousand people to show up, give them a full day of valuable training for free, and at the end of the day at least a few thousand will buy your books.

What a great idea for salespeople to use. Figure out ways to provide your prospects and your community free information they can use. Put together an email newsletter that gives them valuable information, without a sales pitch, on a regular basis. You'll be the only person they think of when it's time to buy. It sure beats cold calling and works a thousand times better!

This explains a lot

I decided to investigate some of the local angel investor groups. I'm not interested in being an investor myself, not yet anyway, but thought it would be a great resource for meeting other like-minded entrepreneurs. I was disappointed to see that these people are still investing in crazy, "pie-in-the-sky" businesses. It's as if they learned nothing from the dot-com fiasco. They still believe in business plans that will take years to become profitable, if they ever do at all. I signed up for a mailing list put out by one of these investors (who, by the way, always includes his/her PhD title in the messages) and what I've read so far explains a lot. This person was talking about how entrepreneurs are good at coming up with ideas but terrible at managing a business. From my experience, I strongly disagree with this statement. The message went on to explain that the inexperience of entrepreneurs is the reason these investors replace the existing management with their own people whenever they decide to fund a new venture.

Well... "their people" are the same old-school MBA-types who have managed to bankrupt one major corporation after another. These are the same people who, with all their experience and advanced degrees, are consistently run out of business by forward-thinking entrepreneurs in their 20s. This was a big revelation to be because it explains why so many young companies with great ideas are so grossly mismanaged in the sales department. They throw out any and all sensible strategies and instead order their sales force to "cold call more," "do more activity," and on and on. Forget all the "old, right answers" such as cold calling. They were right once upon a time, but today they're very, very wrong. Use your head and work efficiently in ways that make sense in the 21st century.

Now this is a good idea

I was just reading Seth Godin's excellent book, "Survival Is Not Enough." Ok, fine, I was listening to the audiobook. But at least he reads his personally! In any case, he puts forth a great idea: Have all the salespeople in the office record their calls. This is legal in most states, but check to be sure. Then, once a week, each salesperson burns their 5 best calls onto a CD, and once a week, small groups of 6 or so salespeople play and listen to each other's CDs. Finally, once a month, create one CD containing all of the month's best calls and distribute it to everyone.

This is an excellent way to stay fresh and learn new things. As salespeople, we tend to stop learning once we become experienced. This is a great way to avoid falling into that trap.