The Winner's Sales Strategy Blog

Why Most Salespeople Hate Selling

It never ceases to amaze me how few salespeople I meet who actually love selling, like I do. Worse yet, it appears that a huge number literally hate it - but keep on only because they need a job!

Ask anyone outside the sales profession why they don't like to sell, and they'll tell you, "I hate selling."

There is one reason, and one reason only, why anyone hates selling:

It's because they are inept at it.

They've failed at it.

They can't do it.

This is true in any profession, or any activity in the world, for that matter. People who tell you they hate playing golf - myself included - hate it because they suck at it. (My grass allergy doesn't help either!)

Want To Be Successful? Love What You Do!

It was Socrates who first said it, and it's been repeated by dozens of authors and success philosophers down the centuries: "The only unsuccessful men are those who have not yet found the work they like best."

It's a plain and simple fact that when one is doing the work one likes best, that person is happy, successful, and prosperous.

Work is no longer work. It becomes a labor of love, a joy, to perform.

When I was asked to give an presentation recently on what the #1 cause of sales turnover is, since sales turnover is EXTREMELY expensive for organizations, I had a research assistant find out, and pages and pages of research and case studies all gave the same answer:

Salespeople quit their jobs when they don't like them.

Going deeper into the research, the #1 reason why salespeople don't like their jobs is cold calling. In fact a surprisingly large majority said they'd rather have a root canal than make 100 cold calls.

The #1 reason why salespeople don't like their jobs is cold calling

Is it any wonder, then, that so many salespeople are failures, when they literally HATE what they're doing for a living? When they'd rather have a freaking ROOT CANAL than go to work?

On the other side of the coin, the report contained numerous surveys of business owners & senior executives. When asked what they dislike most about their work, the answer was consistently the same: Receiving cold calls.

The Shortcut to Sales Success

It's well-known to everyone that, no matter how cliche it may sound, the first requirement of success is a positive mental attitude. And you can never have that in your work if you hate your work!

Simply having that positive attitude, and the upbeat enthusiasm that goes with it, makes you magnetically attractive to prospects. They can't resist wanting to BUY from you.

And knowing that cold calling, above everything else combined, is the #1 reason that makes salespeople hate their jobs and destroys positive attitude, the shortcut to sales success is very plain and simple: STOP COLD CALLING! NOW! TODAY!

Learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a free 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System.

He Said, "Where's The Banana?"

I was on a GoToMeeting with a client the other day. He asked me to review a new home page for his company's website.

The first thing I blurted out was, "Where's the banana?"

"Where's the banana" is a phrase coined by Seth Godin, in his book The Big Red Fez: How To Make Any Website Better.

The concept is to picture a monkey in his big red Fez monkey hat, and what are monkeys usually thinking? You got it: "Where's the banana?" Which, incidentally, my one-year old daughter does to me every morning when I make my breakfast shake - she tries to swipe my banana from me before I get it into the blender! I guess that's why we call her our little monkey...

Back to the point...

Web users do the same thing. There should be one and only one action a website should want a visitor to do, whether that's continue on deeper into the website, request more information, or make a purchase.

In this case, there was no clear call to action. And that's when I explained the "Where's the banana" concept to my client, with clear instructions on how to fix the site.

Salespeople Make The Same Mistake

Most salespeople make this same exact mistake: When talking with a prospective buyer, they have NO plan in place to direct the prospect to take a direct, specific action.

Instead, there's usually a lot of vague talk, totally irrelevant questioning and fact-finding, a proposal & presentation that's not done properly, and then a long series of follow-up emails and phone calls to the prospect, who brushes you off over and over again.

No wonder why few salespeople really make it into the big leagues! And it's all because you left the prospect wondering, "Where's the banana?"

The Other Big Sales Mistake

Let's look at a different situation: You run a GREAT appointment with your prospect! No dumb vague questions, but instead, specific and directed fact-finding that enables you to develop a proposal that, as The Godfather would say, "Makes 'em an offer they can't refuse."

But then - nothing happens. Even though you did everything right, and the prospect seemed interested at first, they blow you off anyway and never return another phone call or email from you.

Here's the problem: They were never FULLY qualified in the first place!

Maybe they really do want your product, but don't currently have the budget for it, or maybe they will be ready to buy a year from now, but not today. That, my friends, is not a prospect you want to spend time with. Not until they're FULLY qualified and ready, willing, and able to buy right now. So stop wasting your time and spinning your wheels on people who, quite simply, aren't going to BUY.

Work to really qualify - and qualify OUT - prospects. Then you'll only spend time with those who are ready to buy, and your sales numbers will explode!

New York Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas is the creator of the Never Cold Call Again® System and has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Influential People. To learn more, and to download a free 37-page PDF preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system, visit NeverColdCall.com

Use Leverage To Get More Sales and More Customers

I’ve heard from a few people this week - well, every week - who say that cold calling is working well enough for them and they don’t need to change anything. That’s fine – as I’ve always said, if it works for you, then keep doing it. My materials are for people who either are not getting results with cold calling, or who do not want to do it anymore.

However, here’s something to think about. Even if cold calling is "working" for you, you’re failing to use the amazing power of LEVERAGE to your advantage. What I’m getting at is the fact that as a cold caller, you can only make one call at a time or knock on one door at a time. Add into that the fact that you must also fit appointments and other work such as generating proposals into every business day, and your ability to make a large number of quality cold calls diminishes rapidly.

It also leaves you with much less time to close sales with qualified prospects.

Systems of self-marketing allow you to use the power of LEVERAGE. Let’s say you do well at cold calling and continue to make, say, 30 calls a day. What if you could put systems into place that effectively made an additional 300 calls per day while you’re free to do other things? If your 30 calls per day got you one hot lead, wouldn’t a system that performs the equivalent of 300 calls generate 10 hot leads in a day?

This is the power of leverage, and this is where those who rely solely on cold calling are missing out. If cold calling works for you then keep it up, but doesn’t it make sense to add to it and increase your number of leads exponentially? Then you’ll be so busy with all the appointments and all the new sales you're making, that you really will drop cold calling after all! 🙂

If you're not up to speed on modern, Information Age lead-generation methods, learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System here.

New York Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas helps companies make billions by improving sales processes and marketing strategy. He has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company’s 30 Most Influential People. If you're in sales and want to stop cold calling forever, download a free 37-page PDF preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system at NeverColdCall.com

How I Learned To Sell More - at Starbucks!

I want to let you know about a powerful sales tip I picked up at Starbucks, of all places.

About a year ago an incredible new coffee shop opened up near my office, and before that, my only exposure to "gourmet" coffee was Starbucks.

I was blown away when I finally tasted the real thing, instead of the mass-produced stuff cranked out by a chain. It was like tasting a $90 steak at a high-end steakhouse after eating McDonald's all your life.

Even when I visited Seattle recently I couldn't even find anything as good!

But, one thing about experiencing truly gourmet coffee really threw me:

At Starbucks we've all seen the people who hold up the line ordering "non-fat this, double-this, soy that, blah blah blah." But at the real gourmet shop, you never see that.

Ever. 

People simply order off the menu.

Why?

Because the true gourmet shop won't tolerate any of that crap. They're not going to bastardize their superb beverages just because of someone's silly whims.

Those people can take their business elsewhere, and they do.

It reminds me of when I sold large business telephone systems many years ago. Now and then a prospective customer would sign the contract but cross out and modify some of the terms & conditions printed on the back. (Law firms were especially guilty of this.)

As a rookie I'd take it back to the manager and go back & forth trying to get it approved so I could get the sale.

After some experience, and realizing how many sales I didn’t get by wasting so much time on one prospect, I stopped doing that and told those customers to find someone else to play their mind games with.

Why?

Because all the time I'd waste trying to close that one sale was costing me at least 1 or 2 others, from people who were easier to deal with!

And what was even more surprising is that after giving that ultimatum, the prospect realized they were dealing with a person of power, and just accepted the contract as-is and bought! 

Now ask yourself: How much time do YOU waste chasing after prospects who take so long to close that you could bang out a few other sales instead if you walked away?

How much time do YOU waste chasing after prospects who take so long to close that you could bang out a few other sales instead if you simply walked away?

I'm willing to bet it's a huge amount.

And think about the customer service headaches and nightmares those high-maintenance customers cause after the sale, causing you to lose even more time and more sales down the road.

I once read in a sales book about having a "velvet rope policy" for acquiring new customers. Like an exclusive nightclub, you should realize that you have value to offer, and as a result, only sell your products or services to customers who DESERVE to receive that value!

It's a scary thought at first - walking away from potential sales to find better customers - but in the long run, when you only deal with people who you want to deal with, your sales numbers go up exponentially. You don't waste nearly as much time closing them, or dealing with their customer service nightmares, and you'll find that nice friendly customers will be a HUGE source of referrals. (Forget about getting any from high-maintenance customers.)

So when you're ready to take your sales to the next level, realize that YOU are the one with tremendous value to offer, and think about whether you really want the stereotypical high-maintenance Starbucks-type customer as one of your own!

Learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System here.

New York Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas is the creator of the Never Cold Call Again® System and has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Influential People. To learn more, and to download a free 37-page PDF preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system, visit NeverColdCall.com

The Remarkable Similarity between Selling and Dating

This past Saturday I was reading an old issue of Men's Health I found laying around the house.

One article was about how empowered women have become, and in particular, how it's now just as common for a woman to approach a man and ask him out as it is for a man to approach a woman.

This wasn't the big news, though....

What really stood out in the article was this little tidbit:

"Not only are women asking men out nowadays, but more importantly, women report that they're far more attracted to a man they approach, versus a man who approaches them!"

This flies in the face of traditional opinion on the subject of dating, but nevertheless, it's true.

And that begs the question: WHY is it true?

The answer is simple: People want what is difficult to get.

More importantly, the thing in question doesn't actually have to be hard to get. It only has to seem that way.

The reality is that when a woman goes up to a man and asks for his phone number, he may have been just as ready to approach her - but because she approached him, he seems hard to get even if he's not.

In other words, it's all about perception. The reality of the situation doesn't really matter.

How To Use This Principle To Get Easy Sales

Now to the point of this article: How you can use this dynamic to get easy sales - and perhaps more importantly, how you've unknowingly let this dynamic work against you, and why it's cost you sales.

We've established the fact that the person who must make the initial approach ends up wanting the desired object more than if things had happened the other way around.

This means you must take a serious look at how you're initiating your sales processes.

If you are approaching your prospects to begin the sales interaction, whether it's through cold calling or some other method of contact, you set into motion a dynamic where you become less desirable than if the prospect was forced to approach you.

When a prospect approaches you for a sale, regardless of how they find you, they immediately place a higher value on you and your product or service, than they would on a salesperson who cold called them.

A great example of this dynamic is why referrals are such good leads - it's because the prospect is calling you, as the result of being given your name by a friend or colleague, rather than you having to call them.

The bottom line here is that if you're cold calling, you're putting yourself in a position where you're instantly of less value than those who are getting prospects to call them.

Even though you're selling the same product or service at the same exact price when cold calling, as you are when someone calls you, the hard truth is that those who call you are going to put a lot more value into what you're selling and will be far more likely to buy right now.

You need to stop cold calling if you want to watch your sales and your closing rates go up dramatically!

Learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System here.

New York Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas is the author of the Never Cold Call Again® System and has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company’s top 30 most influential people online. To learn more, and to download a free 37-page PDF preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system, visit NeverColdCall.com

Should You Always Quote Full Price? Or Is That Costing You Sales?

Sell At The Best Price or The Biggest Profit Margin? #OneQuestion

With so many companies paying commissions as a percentage of gross margin, it's tempting to quote full price - or at least a very high price - when writing proposals. You'll certainly make the biggest commission this way, but the question begs: will you lose too many sales on price to make it worthwhile?

If you've read my materials before, you know that I am very blunt about speaking the truth, and the truth is this: price matters. Lots of sales trainers seem to be in total denial of this fact, and a lot of managers too, who just happen to be paid on profit margin. They insist that if you're a good salesperson, you can sell everything at full price. But in the real world, price matters. People have budgets and spending caps. Period.

Even when using the powerful profit justification techniques I teach, if your price is out of line, it's out of line. I'm a car lover, for example, but as much as I love my car and feel that it's worth every penny of the $160,000 I paid for it, no way would I buy the same car for $260,000!

Your prospect will take your profit-justified proposal and ask a competitor to provide the same solution at a better price. I know this from hard experience, early in my sales career selling business phone systems, when I took my manager's advice to always quote full price. Sure enough, the prospect would take our proposal to a cheaper competitor and have them build out an equivalent phone system for less. 

As usual, this topic came to mind due to a real life experience that happened to me. It was a conversation yesterday with a friend who happened to be the prospect of a salesperson trying to make a full-price sale. The moment she objected to the price, the salesperson immediately offered a lower price. A much lower price.

Her reaction? She was insulted - infuriated - that the sales rep tried to pull one over on her. She rightfully felt that his intent was to get as much money as he could out of the sale. When the sale was in jeopardy, he instantly dropped his price. After all, getting less money is still better than getting none.

I feel the same way when a salesperson marks up a price in an attempt to make easy money off of me. I'm not stupid, and I take it as an insult to my intelligence when it happens.

You know how much I promote honesty and integrity - something I feel is sorelylacking in selling today - and few things will mark you as being more dishonest and unethical as trying to "bleed" prospects for as high a price as possible.

When I was selling based on margin, I gave a fair price up front and stuck with it. I told the prospect flat-out that my price was my best price and it could not come down any more. I explained that I feel it's unethical not to give my best price up-front because anything else would be an attempt to rip the prospect off. Prospects identified with this and appreciated my honesty and frankness. I got lots of sales this way.

In addition to angering prospects, quoting your full price will also cause you to lose more sales than you know. Prospects will consider your quote to be "out of the ballpark" and assume that even if you can negotiate, you still won't be within their budget, and as a result they won't return your calls when try to offer that lower price. Quoting a fair price up front gives you a much better shot at the sale.

Having said all this, quoting a fair price doesn't mean giving your maximum discount on every proposal. Find the right balance where your price is fair and competitive but where you're still making a good commission. If your proposals are within that range, you'll win plenty of sales and have a generous commission check to show for them!

New York Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas is the author of the Never Cold Call Again® System and has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company’s top 30 most influential people. To learn more, and to download a free 37-page PDF preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system, visit NeverColdCall.com #OneQuestion

 

Selling Is Stupid (and Selling Sucks)

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 coach 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. 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!

Remember, the worst that can happen is nothing. Since nothing is the usual result of a cold call anyway, you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. So get out there and try something new and different. Besides, doing something different is fun. And that alone will make your job a lot easier!

If you’re ready for fresh, powerful ideas that work, get my program right now:

The Never Cold Call Again System:
https://www.nevercoldcall.com/ordernow.php

Remember, you get a full 100% money back guarantee. If you love it – and almost everyone does – keep it. If you don’t love it, simply send it back and you’ll receive a fast and courteous refund. It’s that simple.

And I’m sending it to you with FREE shipping!

Thanks once again for your time and attention. Good luck and happy selling!

Your friend,

Frank J. Rumbauskas, Jr.

Sell More and Grow POOR!

"Sell More and Grow - POOR?"

That sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

Well, I hate to break the news, but it's true. We've all heard of the famous book "Think and Grow Rich" but what most people fail to realize is that day after day, they're going out to "Sell More and Grow Poor."

The problem lies with that one word - SELL.

What is selling? What does it really mean? Here are my definitions of both 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.”

See the difference?

Very few salespeople understand how to get people to BUY from them. Instead, they grind their wheels day after day, hearing objection after objection and "no" after "no," not realizing that if they'd just start the sales process from a position where the customer buys from them, rather than trying to sell to people, they'd make a lot more sales - and do it with less time and less stress.

Most salespeople don't understand this concept because of the training programs that many companies put them through. Most have a long list of "steps of a sale" anywhere from 3 or 4 steps, up to a whopping 20 in one case!

Some even require each step of a sale to take place. I worked for one of those companies a while back - I remember having hot prospects who were ready to buy from me, who would get angry and go buy from a competitor instead when I insisted on holding a face-to-face appointment, all because the big dumb company required it.

I've heard of another company where only so-called "self-generated" leads count toward quota - and by "self-generated" they meant cold calling.

Absurd! Insane!

A sale is a sale, regardless of where the lead comes from. Saying that a sale that wasn't generated by cold calling somehow doesn't count is utterly ridiculous, yet this is the nonsense that many salespeople are taught, and it's the reason why so many are not as successful as they could - and should - be.

The problem with cold calling, in this example, is that it creates a selling situation right from the very start. The most successful salespeople (and companies, for that matter) are the ones who set up a buying situation from the start - and who don't annoy and push people away with confrontational selling tactics.

So, if you want to know how to rapidly increase your sales, the answer is simple: Stop selling to people, and begin creating a context where people are buying from you instead. And the first place to begin is to stop cold calling - because I can't think of anything that typifies "selling" more than cold calling!

New York Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas is the author of the Never Cold Call Again® System and has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company’s top 30 most influential people online. To learn more, and to download a free 37-page PDF preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system, visit NeverColdCall.com #Sales #Sell #Selling

Why Selling Is Really Stupid

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

New York Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas is the author of the Never Cold Call Again® System and has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business  Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company’s top 30 most influential people online. To learn more, and to download a free 37-page PDF preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system, visit http://www.nevercoldcall.com/

Powerful Sales Lessons - from a Baby?

My wife and I had our first child recently - woohoo! It's been a lot of fun, and a huge learning experience as well.

Since  this is our first and we had no idea what to do, we hired a baby nurse  for a few days, not to take care of the baby as much as to teach us how  to take care of the baby ourselves.

The  most obvious part of baby care is that you're never pleading with or  begging the baby to do anything. Instead, you create the ideal  circumstances to get the baby to do what you want, or what's best for  the baby.

What's  most interesting is that unlike typical, sleep-deprived, frazzled new  parents, we're sleeping pretty well and are relaxed and life is going on  mostly as normal. All this because of a little bit of knowledge!

This  was also true when we got a dog. We have a Great Dane, and with a dog  of that size, you can't mess around with it being untrained. So we hired  a military dog trainer to come to the house, but rather than train the  dog directly, what she did was teach us how to train the dog. The  results were pretty amazing, and people are  continually amazed at how  well-behaved she is.

Again,  there was no begging or pleading or saying "please" to the dog. You  create the ideal circumstances, and the dog does what you want it to do.

The bottom line with both dogs and babies? Begging doesn't get them to do what you want.

So ... WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING IT WITH YOUR SALES PROSPECTS?

If  begging doesn't work with dogs or babies, it most definitely won't work  with sales prospects. In fact, it actually turns them off and gives  them all the reasons in the world not to BUY from you.

Like  parents who go through life, or at least those first few months,  frazzled and  sleep-deprived, most salespeople go through their lives  frazzled and stressed out. And frequently broke.

Why?

Because  they're not learning HOW to be successful. Worse, they sell in a way  that comes across as BEGGING and PLEADING to prospects!

Begging & pleading with baby = fussy difficult baby.
Begging & pleading with dog = bad dog.
Begging & pleading with prospects (even if you don't realize you're doing it) = NO  SALES.

So  do yourself a favor, stop begging & pleading with prospects. Stop  putting  prospects up on a pedestal and supplicating to them and  treating them like  superiors. Instead, take charge and create the  circumstances for them to buy right now.

"Circumstances? Hell, I make circumstances! ATTACK!"
-Napoleon Bonaparte

You need to have the same attitude in sales! Don't beg & plead - ATTACK!

Read the full article here


To your success,

Frank Rumbauskas

New York Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas is the author of the Never Cold Call Again® System and has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company’s top 30 most influential people online. To learn more, and to download a free 37-page PDF preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system, visit http://www.nevercoldcall.com