“My prospects and clients are certainly feeling the pinch of the economy and they’re fearful.  But I also closed the biggest sale of my career last week.”

“Despite the news and the hype of the last two or three weeks, I’ve only seen a slight decrease in our sales.  Our salespeople have to be much more selective in qualifying prospects and they have to spend more time building value into the sale, but our customers are still buying, they’re still getting the financing they need, and their companies are still profitable.  It’s tough, but not nearly as bad as what you’d believe if you just listened to the news.” (more…)

What I find interesting is the article simply related the reasons decision makers hate cold calls and that if one wants to use cold calling as one of their primary prospecting tools, they had better get the best cold call training they can-or, better yet, learn more effective methods of prospecting.I’m always amazed at the emotional reaction many salespeople and managers, and great many sales trainers have to anything that might question the orthodoxy of cold calling.  

Simply mention that you question the effectiveness of cold calling and the reaction is immediate and vehement.  I’ve been accused of hypocrisy since “those who oppose cold calling are only trying to sell their overpriced, worthless ‘training.’”  Nice to know that the only trainers who believe what they say are the ones who agree with the sender of the email. (more…)

As Wall Street smolders, Congress grandstands, and the business community frets, our lives continue.Are you spending more time checking the news and than finding prospects?  Are you more worried about the economy than your pipeline?  Are you frozen in place, mesmerized by the teetering financial markets? (more…)

The simple answer to why decision makers hate cold calls is cold calls are one of the biggest time wasters for them.

Decision makers hate cold calls and have no interest in taking your call because all you do is waste their time.  Period.

Now, you don’t see it the same way.  You believe you have something of value to offer the decision maker–actually, you want to see if you have something of value for them.  You have to qualify them and that’s one of the things you’re hoping to begin to do while speaking with them.  All you want is a couple of minutes of their time to set an appointment and learn a little something about whether or not they’re a qualified prospect.

To you, all you’re asking is just three, four, maybe five minutes of their time and a short little 10 or 15 minute appointment.  No big deal–just a moment of their time.

But look at what you’re asking from their point of view:

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How would it feel to have qualified, decision-makers eager,willing and delighted to meet with you?

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Ah, the endless search for the silver bullet, that magic formula that will make sales so easy, so quick, so painless.  For many in sales that Don Quixote quest is never-ending.   The internet is full of sites that promise that magic bullet—if you’re willing to pop for only $895, they’ll send you the 14 page e-book that will give you the secret you’ve been looking for.

OK, so it doesn’t exist.

That’s not to say that there aren’t real strategies that work.  There are.  And Craig Elias is presenting a free tele-seminar that gets you as close to THE silver bullet in sales as you’ll ever get.

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As far as professions go, selling is one of the simplest.  It has four basic elements: 1) identify a quality prospect, 2) connect with the prospect, 3) meet a want or need or solve a problem, and 4) monitor the solution to insure it continues to meet the need or resolve the issue.

There are few occupations in life that are simpler.  Yet these four simple elements are fraught with complexity.  Unfortunately, we salespeople often find creative ways to make them more complex than they really are, or more correctly, we find ways to make our workdays more complex and activity filled than they need be.

We have a myriad of activities that consume our day.  When analyzed objectively, most of us will find that we spend the majority of our time preparing to perform one of the basic elements of our job.  We spend a great deal of time preparing to prospect by gathering and researching our prospecting lists, preparing our presentations and follow-up packages, preparing the contract to be signed, preparing ourselves to return phone calls, preparing to prepare.

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