The Winner's Sales Strategy Blog

Insurance Selling Secrets now available

Our comprehensive Insurance Selling Secrets course, consisting of a giant book, 5 full-length CDs, and 4 full-length DVDs, is now available.

Since we pre-launched it to our private Insurance Selling Secrets newsletter subscribers on Monday, the 500 copies are running out quickly - here's where you can learn more about the course, and why we only produced 500 copies and plan to pull it off the market in about a week -

http://www.nevercoldcall.com/insurance

Anatomy of a publicity stunt

I recently put up a blog about a city I recently moved away from. I really despised the place so I put up a blog making fun of the town as a way to vent, and as a way to possibly get some publicity with the hope that my books and other products could share the limelight and enjoy and increase in sales.

Well, that's exactly what happened.

A television station interviewed me regarding the blog. Two other stations immediately picked up the story, because media all watch each other to find out what stories are hot, and then two radio stations publicized the blog.

A portion of the 3,000 or so daily visitors that all of this media attention has generated are going to my other sites and buying. And, this didn't cost me a dime. It's all free traffic, free marketing, free publicity. Sales are up as a result.

The publicity stunt is gaining in popularity as a fun way to gain exposure for a business or a product. My friend Joe Vitale has both taught it and successfully used it in the past. Think about how you can use it, and what kind of fun things you can do that will get the public's attention. And, this event proves what I've mentioned in my books - that all you have to do is get one media outlet to run your story. The rest will play copycat and run it too.

Finally, I'm going to refrain from posting the link to that blog here as I prefer not to offend anyone who may happen to live in that particular city ... it's all in fun but you never know.

It's all cumulative

I just had an urgent voice mail waiting on my cell phone. It was from a gentleman looking to purchase wireless internet access for his new office, asap.

I haven't sold that stuff since 2002.

It just goes to show the cumulative effects of self-marketing ... 5 years later, people are STILL calling thanks to the marketing campaigns I did way back then!!

Article promoting cold calling

My name came up in a short article that advocates cold calling. The author gives the usual argument that cold calling can be marginally effective, especially for a beginner without resources.

Again, the "increase your activity and you'll get 1 out of 50" crowd continues to fail to see that such an activity schedule leaves little time for actual selling and other necessary activities! Your income will be severely limited by time if you rely on the "numbers game" theory of prospecting. The only way to get ahead is to use leverage, which means multiple lead-generation systems, not the extraordinarily time-consuming activity of cold calling.

This one line in particular really irked me:

According to statistics, 80% of new sales are made after the fifth contact but most sales people give up after making the second call.

Top sales pros know that if you have to make more than two contacts, the prospect is not sufficiently qualified and will not be worth your time - even if you close the sale, you missed out on five others that your competition snatched up while you were busy stalking an unqualified or under-qualified prospect!

The key to massive sales success is to get people who are ready and willing to buy calling you. As #1 bestselling author Jeffrey Gitomer says, "It's not who you know that matters, it's who knows YOU that counts."

Link to article

Thoughts on moving and priorities

I'm preparing to move in a few days and as such I've been busy packing and going through bookshelves, boxes, closets, and other places full of things that haven't been touched in a long time.

As part of the process, I'm realizing how much powerful knowledge I possess in the physical sense - books, CDs, and videos - but do not possess in my own mind. The information is just wasting away on a shelf collecting dust instead of making me money.

I've resolved to set aside one hour per day for learning, whether it's reading, listening to instructional audios, or watching instructional DVDs.

And I strongly recommend you do the same. Spending hours on end learning isn't effective. What's effective is taking in a little bit at a time, but doing it very consistently. That one hour spent on learning each day will improve you and your sales results exponentially.