Not
too long ago, someone emailed me to let me know about a heated debate
over my book that was taking place on one of the sales discussion forums
online. Because I get such a kick out of all the old-school “You must
cold call or die!” fanatics still lingering out there, I immediately
signed on to have a look. Sure enough, salespeople who are still out
there working every day, fighting it out in the trenches to make a
living, were agreeing with me. On the other hand, some coach who charges
corporations thousands of dollars to train salespeople posted a lengthy
message about how we live and die by cold calling. There’s no other
way, this high-paid trainer said.
(Interestingly, I took a look at this person’s site. I went to the
articles archive. The very first line of the very first article said,
“Salespeople don’t succeed because they don’t make enough phone calls.”
Needless to say, I clicked my back button and got out of there! No
wonder why so many companies I work with are furious at some of these
coaches they’ve paid $5,000 or more to. Could you imagine paying someone
$5,000 to have them come in for one day of training, only to have them
stand there and say, “Make more phone calls!” We already have managers
reciting that mindless chant all day long!)
What I really noticed in all of this is the same thing I always
notice. The salespeople who are out there, making a living NOW, seem to
understand the truth about cold calling. They know the score. Then you
have a bunch of managers, trainers, and coaches who have been out of the
field, and therefore out of touch with reality, for ten years, twenty
years, or even longer, and yet they still insist that cold calling is
the only way. Period. Plain and simple. Don’t even try to argue with
them, because they’ll fly off into a rant about how anyone who
disagrees is just plain wrong, lazy, or – get this – is mentally insane.
Yes, one of these coaches’ sites I looked at is based on some quack
theory that salespeople who don’t like to cold call have a variety of
mental disorders that can be effectively cured through psychotherapy.
So, according to this person, exactly 100% of us are wacko! Sorry, but
in my opinion, this goes way beyond silly. It’s downright insulting and
offensive to those of us who have to get up every day and make a living
in sales. One must wonder if anyone who touts these quack theories has
ever sold in the first place. After all, most of my managers had never
sold and they claimed to know all they keys to success!
(Ok, just for fun, as if paying someone $5,000 to have them tell you
to make more calls wasn’t enough, imagine paying someone $5,000 to tell
you you’re crazy!)
The point I’m trying to make here is that the “cold call or die”
people are generally those who have been out of the field for an
extended period of time, or have never sold in the first place. The
people who have the “cold calling isn’t working anymore, what else can I
do” attitude are those who are out there today. These old-time coaches
apparently haven’t realized that times have changed and we live in a new
reality now. Seth Godin explained in great detail exactly how and why
Interruption Marketing is dead and has almost zero chance of working in
our new economy, and how Permission Marketing is the way to go. Guess
what, folks – cold calling is the most blatant form of Interruption
Marketing ever known to mankind!
Selling Is Selling
Another point I’d like to touch on is something I faced when I was in
sales, trying to get out of one industry that had stagnated and into
another. Every time I went and interviewed for a position in a different
industry, I got the knee-jerk “You apparently
have a proven track record, but if you haven’t sold in our industry, we can’t hire you.”
This drove me nuts because I knew that selling is selling, much like
what I explained to a reader in a previous mailbag about cross-cultural
differences. Just as people are people and human nature doesn’t change
from one nation to another, it doesn’t change from one product or
service or industry to another. I know people who have been highly
successful in a variety of totally unrelated fields, and I also know
people who have been miserable failures in a variety of fields. It
doesn’t matter. One of the mistakes I made early on in selling was to
assume that something that had been highly effective for someone in
another industry would not work for me. Not so. The only thing that
really changes from one industry to the next is product knowledge, and
that’s a whole lot easier to learn than how to sell.
I’ve previously mentioned the fact that our students are in a wide
variety of industries – it’s safe to assume all industries at this
point. I want you to realize this so you don’t go and make the same
mistake I did early on of saying, “Well, that may work for you, but it
wouldn’t work for my product.” Spend time talking to salespeople you
know who are in completely different industries. Unrelated industries.
(By the way, they make great referral partners. A lot of sales reps only
network with people in related industries. By restricting yourself like
this, you’re closing yourself off from a potentially huge number of
referrals.)
Some of the industries I’ve had the pleasure of working with are:
Steel frame sales. Custom tailors. Life insurance. Investments.
Telecom. IT and internet. Funeral sales. Door-to-door vacuum cleaners.
Thermal coatings for buildings. Legal services. Dentists. Shipping.
Educational products. Accounting services. Copiers. Software. Business
credit lines. And the list goes on and on.
These people are all reporting great success.
And they’re all using the EXACT same techniques and principles.
So don’t pigeonhole yourself because you think what works for someone
else won’t apply to you. Try it! The worst that can happen is nothing.
(Did you hear that? I didn’t say the worst that can happen is you fail
or you lose the sale. I said the worst that can happen is nothing. So
why be afraid of something that isn’t there?) Just watch out for that
one moron coach I mentioned, or you’re likely to be labeled as psychotic
for doing something other than cold calling.
Selling Is Stupid
Okay, before you get offended, realize that I’m in sales too! I’m not
making fun of selling. I’m saying that it’s stupid when you use my
definition of the word. For a refresher, here are my definitions of the
words “buying” and “selling:”
Buying: The act of willingly acquiring for money
something that you want or need. The buyer generally leaves the
transaction feeling happy and satisfied.
Selling: Attempting to convince another that they
want or need your product or service despite the fact that they may not.
The purchaser typically leaves the
transaction with a strong feeling of buyer’s remorse.
Think back to what you’ve been taught in training about doing an
excellent follow-up to alleviate buyer’s remorse and minimize
cancellations. Now you know why.
With that in mind, does it makes sense to sell to someone? Or does it make sense to get them to buy
from you? Think about it. Think about whether the things you’re doing
on a day-to-day basis are selling, or if they’re setting people up to
buy from you. This is very powerful when properly applied.
Speaking of definitions, when I came up with these, I looked up the
standard dictionary definitions to find out what they said. Naturally, I
also looked up the definition of cold calling, and was quite surprised
and shocked to find this:
Cold calling: The ethically questionable practice of making unsolicited calls to people one does not know in order to solicit new business.
Wow. “Ethically questionable.” That doesn’t speak very highly of cold
calling. It’s a reflection on how cold calling is perceived today. It
proves that cold calling immediately triggers a lack of trust and a
credibility issue.
Maybe some of these know-it-all dictator managers and old-school coaches and trainers should look at this.
Try something different!
Don’t keep doing something that isn’t cutting it!
Don’t put too much trust in managers and coaches who have been out of sales for decades!
And whatever you do, don’t get yourself committed to the psychopathic hospital because you don’t like cold calling!
- See more at: http://www.nevercoldcall.com/blog/selling-is-d-u-m-b/#sthash.za5CHzh5.dpuf
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