In this Friday’s column, I’m pleased to introduce you to Wendy Weiss, The Queen of Cold Calling.  But, don’t let her moniker fool you, she deals with how to use the phone as a sales tool, not just how to cold call.

Wendy says she was never supposed to be a sales trainer; she was a professional ballet dancer and had assumed her career would be in dancing.  However, like most professional dancers, she had to have a “real” job in order to survive between dancing contracts.  Her hunt for a job led her to a company who hired her to make cold calls to set appointments for their salespeople.  It certainly wasn’t what she had envisioned as her “dream job,” but living in Manhattan is expensive.  She needed the money.  She took the job.

To her astonishment she was not only good at cold calling, she was great at it.  Over a period of several years she studied the use of the phone, what worked, what didn’t, she honed her skills.

She eventually opened her own company competing with her former employer.  At the same time, she began teaching her techniques to other salespeople.

Unfortunately, during this time she suffered an injury that ended her dancing career.  That injury proved beneficial for the sales industry.  Wendy eventually decided she could make a career training others full-time.

For over a decade she has been training salespeople the secrets of making the telephone work for them as a key sales tool.  She works with both individuals and companies as both a trainer and individual sales coach.

Today, Wendy is recognized as one of the premier telephone communications trainers in the country.  Her first book, Cold Calling for Women, is one of the best-selling and most recognized works on the techniques and strategies of generating business via the telephone.  And, despite the title, Cold Calling for Women is NOT just for women–it is the guide for any salesperson who uses the phone extensively, whether for cold calling or just client and prospect communication.

To learn more about Wendy and find to some great free phone training resources, visit her website at www.wendyweiss.com.

Next week I’ll introduce you to one of the most innovative and creative trainers in the area of the sales process, Sharon Drew Morgen.  Sharon Drew is the creator of the Buying Facilitation system, and is recognized internationally as one of the true thought leaders in the area of sales process.