As usual, I was searching the Internet earlier today to read the latest articles and advice on cold calling. I'm noticing a trend away from cold calling and toward more intelligent prospecting methods - apparently people are realizing that cold calling is dead and they'll go bankrupt if they keep it up - but there was one article I found particularly disturbing. It was written by a sales trainer for real estate agents and said, "You need to create your own plan and you cannot listen to anyone else. Others will tell you that you are wasting time on certain prospecting.... It’s hard when you hear the top agent in your office tell you that cold calling is a waste of time."
Huh? Wait a minute - the article says to ignore the advice of top producers and cold call instead? We all know that the easiest way to achieve success is to model the actions of the successful! And to top it all, this article acknowledges the fact that top-producing agents DO NOT cold call but says to do it anyway! The bottom line is to only take advice from those who have already done what you hope to do, and when it comes to sales, successful people don't cold call.