The Winner's Sales Strategy Blog

The Hypocrisy of Cold Calling

One common theme I hear from salespeople who are unfortunately required to cold call is that the very same managers and executives who mandate cold calling do not accept cold calls themselves! Here they are, making cold calling a requirement, and yet they refuse to accept cold calls. Their very own actions prove that cold calling DOES NOT WORK, and yet they're ordering their own salespeople to do it. If that doesn't describe stupidity, I don't know what does!

All selling can be done without cold calling

I get a lot of questions from people asking me if they'd be able to apply cold calling to their particular product or service; many people assume that because they sell intangibles, they must rely on cold calling.

The reality is that selling is selling. All selling is essentially the same and can be accomplished without cold calling, and always with better results. I get annoyed when someone tries to change industries but is turned down in the job interview for that very reason. If you can sell one thing, you can sell anything else. Industry and product knowledge are secondary to sales skills. The same also applies to my prospecting system. It works for any and all industries. My readership is so diverse you wouldn't even believe it. I've received success stories from salespeople in every industry you can imagine, and then some. I recently heard from a vocalist who is using it to book performances with great success!

I've talked a lot lately about my new insurance agency and how much success we're having with using my lead-generation systems to generate so many leads that we now have an excess and are actively recruiting new agents just because we don't have enough people to handle all the leads that are coming in. Cold calling is not only unnecessary in my agency - it's not even allowed!

Insurance agents and singers. You can't get much more diverse than that, and yet the very same selling and prospecting techniques apply to both! And cold calling is a waste of time for both!

Stop cold calling no matter what industry you're in. Start using smart self-marketing systems and watch your success explode.