The Winner's Sales Strategy Blog

Free Teleseminar this Wednesday

This coming Wednesday evening I'll be the guest on Mark Joyner's Simpleology Live Learning Event, where we will be discussing my Never Cold Call techniques in-depth. It's free, so don't miss it! All you need to do to tune in is register for Simpleology. It's a free online tool that you'll love in addition to the free teleseminar on Wednesday:

Click Here to Register

"What can I do to help?"

I always hated hearing that line from managers.

The only times I didn't do well in sales were when I worked for companies and managers that forced me to cold call, participate in cold calling blitzes, and otherwise require me to do things "their way."

These were the same managers who would repeatedly ask, "What can I do to help," which was a silly question since it was their poor management style and requirement to do stupid activities like cold calling that derailed me in the first place.

Good managers don't have to ask that question because good managers can assess the situation and come up with solutions. Good managers also recognize that the reason for hiring experienced salespeople is because experienced salespeople already know how to sell. Therefore, they don't force cold calling and company-mandated "sales plans" upon them.

How can this work?

I just checked my mail and found a nice pad with a photo and telephone number for a local realtor on it. I like that realtors are typically more marketing-savvy than other types of salespeople, and know better than to waste time cold calling, but how can this possibly work?

Blindly mailing out pads with your name and number on them isn't effective, and I'm guessing it's also very expensive. If I'm looking for a realtor, I'll ask friends for referrals or search online. I would do so even with this realtor's pad sitting on my desk and his smiling face looking at me.

Remember, cold calling may be a waste of time, but ineffective interruption marketing is a waste of money. Salespeople need to stick with self-marketing that works, not a shotgun approach that is just as random as cold calling.

What an idiot (and scam artist)

When I wrote the first edition of Cold Calling Is A Waste Of Time almost three years ago, I included the following paragraph:

"If you are one of those "little dictator" sales managers who terrorize your salespeople ... do me a favor and return this book for a full refund because you have no place in the world of professional selling and I do not want my name disgraced by having it on your bookshelf."

For the first time in nearly three years, a "little dictator" manager has returned the book citing that paragraph as his reason.

What a jerk.

Instead of taking the techniques I teach, and using them to generate qualified sales leads for his team, he instead decided it's more important to his weak, fragile ego that he force cold calling on them and terrorize them with endless funnel reviews and demands for forecasts.

I had a great meeting with marketing geniuses Mike Filsaime and Tom Beal in New York last week. Mike and I spent a lot of time swapping funny stories about our refund customers - both of us enjoy a refund rate that is far, far below any industry average and the ones we do get are obvious scam artists, or, as we like to call them, "serial refunders." These are people who have the nasty habit of always ordering things knowing in advance they'll copy them and send them back, thereby abusing the money-back guarantee policy.

Just when I though serial refunders were the scum of the earth, this little dictator comes along and proves himself to be even lower. I hope you don't work for this guy. In fact, I know you don't because you'd be too busy attending mandatory cold calling blitzes and funnel reviews to have time to read my sales blog.

No wonder why!

I was going through some boxes that have been stored in closets for years, wondering why I keep any of it since it just sits there. Needless to say, I threw most of it out. I did keep one thing - a notebook from a sales job I held way back, about six years ago.

While thumbing through all my notes I remembered why I left that company. We had seemingly endless meetings addressing the issue of sales reps stealing leads, resolving disputes between sales reps and between us and the manager, meetings with higher-ups complaining about all the dishonesty in the office, and, worst of all, notes about our mandatory cold calling blitzes.

I said to myself: NO WONDER why that office did so poorly!

That sales manager was fired shortly after I left (and shortly after most of the other reps quit). Last I heard, they weren't doing so well, and I don't even know if they're still around.

The bottom line is this: A lot of nonsense goes on in sales offices other than selling. If salespeople would just sell, they'd be so much more successful than most are!

Live learning event annoucement

Don't miss the Simpleology Live Learning Event coming up this Wednesday, March 8th, featuring bestselling author Dr. Joe Vitale. Joe will be teaching a class titled "How I Went from Homeless to Hero in 3 Easy Steps." It's free so here's the link to register:

Click Here

By the way, I'll be the guest on the Simpleology Live Learning Event on March 29th. It's also free so you won't want to miss it. You can use the same link to register for that one as well.

Do you know what you REALLY want?

Or do you fall into the trap of human nature, that is, automatically wanting what you don't have? Here's an example: I'm from New Jersey and my girlfriend is from New York. We always complain that we don't have real Chinese food here in Phoenix like we did back east. We long for good old fashioned NYC Chinese takeout instead of P.F. Chang's and Pei Wei.

My mother and sister came out to visit. We ate at P.F. Chang's and Pei Wei. The whole time they carried on about how great those places are, and how much they wish they had them back east instead of the 'lousy' takeout they're used to.

Interesting, isn't it? We all long for what the other person has instead of being thankful for what we already have and focusing on our REAL goals and desires.

Simpleology Live

#1 bestselling author Mark Joyner invited me as the guest on his Simpleology Live Learning Event on March 29th. You'll need to register for Simpleology to listen, but the good news is it's free. I've been using Simpleology for over a month and have found it to be incredibly beneficial, much better than any coaching I could've used (and paid for!). Here's the link:

Click Here for Simpleology

A gem of advice

I came across this while reading Life's Little Instruction Book today:

Judge a neighborhood by the manners of the people who live there.

You already know I think Scottsdale sucks. If I'd had this advice six years ago, I would have never moved there!

Fake Caller ID coming to an end

Not too long ago I posted about the increasing use of fake caller ID, done using voice-over-IP technology, that telemarketers and cold callers have been using. Now the federal government is investigating - apparently they're not too happy about it, according to an article on Wired today. Click Here To Read.