The Winner's Sales Strategy Blog

Learn from those who are successful

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.

Target bans the Salvation Army

I hate to see something like this happen, but Target stores announced today that they will not allow the Salvation Army to place their famous red kettles on Target store property this holiday season. Their decision is due to ever-increasing complaints from customers about being solicited for donations on store property.

It's a shame that the Salvation Army will lose a potential $8.9 million dollars this year that would have been raised on Target property; however, maybe it's time for charities to rethink their strategies. I recently discovered that military recruiters have been buying my book. Resistance to any sort of cold calling has become so high in our modern society that even charities need to come up with better strategies for collecting donations than the old-fashioned ways they're still using. I contribute to charity on a fairly regular basis; however it's almost always in response to a mailer or some other form of direct-response marketing, not a phone call or in-person cold solicitation.

The world is rapidly changing and we all need to change with it, whether we're in traditional sales or not. Instead of losing money due to decisions like this, our charitable organizations have the potential to raise more money than ever before if they would just modernize their methods.

More proof that selling is selling

One thing that always infuriates me is seeing a top salesperson attempt to change industries only to be turned down because he doesn't have experience in that particular field. In fact one of my best friends right now, who happens to be one of the best salesmen I've ever met, is trying to switch careers but every manager says, "I can't hire you because you don't have experience in our particular industry."

This is idiotic because selling is selling. If you can sell one thing you can sell another. It's the same process and anyone with half a brain can pick up the product knowledge very quickly. This came to mind today because I've noticed a lot of Army recruiters have been buying my book lately, and today's news says that the National Guard is adding 1,400 recruiters because the war in Iraq has made recruiting for the Guard much more difficult.

The fact that such diversified salespeople as Army recruiters and insurance agents are both getting great results by using my prospecting system is the most solid proof I can think of that all selling is the same. If you're a manager, don't ever turn down a salesperson with a solid track record just because he or she hasn't worked in your industry. If you do you're turning down a potential top producer.

Prospecting

What is prospecting? This goes back to the very basics of my entire sales strategy but since I haven't talked about it in a while I wanted to touch on it. Most salespeople think prospecting means cold calling, but in reality cold calling is only one form of prospecting and also happens to be the most inefficient and least effective.

To a successful salesperson - I'm talking about the top 1% of top producers - prospecting means marketing. To take it a step further, marketing means automated lead-generation systems that work for you so you don't have to. These systems generate your leads for you so you can spend all of your available time selling. Remember, prospecting isn't selling and selling isn't prospecting. They're two entirely different skillsets so don't confuse the two!

The essence of what I teach is how to set up automated marketing systems to provide you with a steady supply of qualified, ready-to-buy leads. This is how the very upper eschelon of top salespeople can consistently produce mind-boggling sales numbers. Just spend some time watching the best of the best salespeople at work - they never cold call, and if you set up your own marketing systems you too can never cold call again!