“Bring Me The Winner”!
May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“Bring me the winner!”
I want to share a story with you that I heard recently – I have no idea if it’s true, but here goes anyway:
A man went into a restaurant and ordered lobster for dinner. When the lobster was brought out, one of his big claws was missing. When he asked the waiter why it was missing, the waiter explained that the lobster had lost it in a fight. The man exclaimed, “Bring me the winner! I want the winner!”
Are YOU the winner?
When I need to buy something, I always ask for the top sales rep in the office. Why? Because if someone is the top sales rep, it’s usually because they’re giving fantastic service to their customers, and getting endless referrals as a result.
And, on the other hand, the few times I didn’t demand to work with the top rep, and ended up with a poor-performing salesperson, the customer service and follow-up I received were just as poor, or even non-existent.
How Prospects Perceive You
First impressions are everything. That’s as true in sales as in every area of life, business and personal. The first impression you make on a person is the one they’ll always remember. Think about movie stars – you’ll usually typecast them as the role in which you first saw them. To me, Anthony LaPaglia will always be Frank Pesce. Michael Douglas will always be Gordon Gekko. Al Pacino will always be Michael Corleone.
The same is true with YOU – if a prospect’s initial perception of you is one of professionalism and excellence, that is how they’ll always perceive you. On the contrary, if the first impression is one of unprofessionalism, or lack of success, or of desperation, that’s how they’ll always view you, no matter how hard you work or how much you do for them down the road.
Don’t Be A Loser
When you cold call a prospect, the initial thoughts are, “Why is this person cold calling? Is he giving his customers such bad service that they won’t give referrals?”
Or, “Why is she out cold calling? Why isn’t her employer running a solid marketing campaign to generate leads? Will they still be in business in a year or two to support their product?”
Cold calling makes the worst possible impression. No matter what you may think of cold calling, prospects will think you are a loser – or that your company is not financially solvent.
If you want to make a first impression of a winner, the first step to doing so is to stop cold calling, for good. And the first step in doing that is to get your hands on my Never Cold Call Again system, that will show you, step-by-step, how to stop cold calling and start generating hot, qualified leads instead, with people who are ready to buy right now.
And remember, you get a full 30 days to evaluate the course and decide if you want to keep it and pay for it then, or simply send it back and you’ll never even be billed. Do it right now -
Start Your Free Trial Now:
https://www.nevercoldcall.com/ordernow.php
Here’s to your success!
Frank Rumbauskas
“Cold Calling Is Fun!”
April 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“Cold Calling Is Fun!”
Don’t worry – I haven’t lost my mind. (Yet.) Cold calling isn’t fun. You know it and I know it. So why did I say that?
Because I can remember countless times when I heard someone say, “Cold calling is fun!”
In fact, I even did it once. It’s true. Early on in my sales career, when I was going from job to job, failing by cold calling, and not understanding why it wasn’t working – after all, my managers all said it would work – I began deluding myself into believing that cold calling is fun, and that I love cold calling.
I figured that if cold calling works, like everyone told me it would, then the problem must be my attitude, so if I changed that attitude while I was cold calling, it would suddenly work.
It didn’t.
No matter how much I deluded myself into thinking that cold calling was fun, and no matter how many others might try to do the same, it still doesn’t work.
Of course I’d feel really great after those long days of cold calling. Sure, it was hard work, but I really felt like I’d accomplished something! All those hours of cold calling would certainly pay off down the road, right?
Wrong.
They didn’t.
Eventually, it causes practically all salespeople who do it day in and day out to enter the dreaded state known as “call reluctance,” a condition brought on by the endless rejection of cold calling. Contrary to popular belief, endless rejection doesn’t “toughen you up” – psychologists have shown that it actually beats you down, and causes a downward spiral.
I got to that point myself after those years of cold calling. It’s called a “rut.”
I’ve seen it happen to far too many salespeople. They listen to the rhetoric from sales managers and old-timers: All those time-worn cliches about “getting out into the trenches,” “dialing for dollars,” “beating the streets” … you’ve heard them all, I’m sure.
But thankfully, I got back up again and made it my singular goal to stop cold calling. And when I was finally able to stop cold calling forever, and eliminated all of that rejection and negativity from my life, my sales numbers increased dramatically.
Not only was I spending all of my productive selling time face-to-face with qualified prospects (instead of spending all day looking for someone to sell to), I was with prospects who wanted to buy! I didn’t have to “sell” them and go through endless objections. Which means that my closing rate went up as well, sending my sales numbers through the roof.
So if you want to join one of the top 1% of elite sales superstars, stop telling yourself that cold calling is fun, and instead, start using effective, Information Age strategies and techniques that will bring qualified prospects to you – prospects who are ready to buy right now.
And just what are those strategies and techniques?
The good news is that I spent years with top sales pros and in trial-and-error research, figuring it all out so you don’t have to. The answers are in my Never Cold Call Again system, and the best news is that I’ll ship it direct to you today, and you have a full 30 days to decide if you want to keep it and be billed for it then, or simply return it and never hear from me again.
It’s that simple, so get your copy right now -
Start Your Free Trial Now:
https://www.nevercoldcall.com/ordernow.php
To your success!
Frank Rumbauskas
“Let’s Resurrect Cold Calling!” WHAT?!?
March 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“Let’s Resurrect Cold Calling!”
First of all, this is not an early April Fool’s joke! This is about a real article I just read online, that has me totally floored, and even more so because it came from a reputable business magazine.
The article started out by declaring that cold calling is becoming a “lost art” that must be brought back, and, worse, that salespeople who don’t cold call are lazy!
The first statement is just dumb. “Lost art”? Really? I don’t see people throwing away their computers & internet connections, and telephones, and having telegraph keys installed in their homes instead.
I don’t see people selling their cars and buying a horse & buggy instead.
Cold calling isn’t a lost art. It’s simply inefficient. Just like the horse & buggy when compared with an automobile, and a telephone when compared with a telegraph key.
Worse, it’s ineffective! At least the telegraph would get your message across, and the horse & buggy would get you from point A to point B. But that’s not necessarily so with cold calling.
It annoys people. It destroys your status as a business equal. It’s horribly inefficient, and nowadays, decision makers are becoming experts at avoiding cold calls! Gatekeepers are taught to refuse all of them, and now many businesspeople are setting up “cold call” voicemail boxes that are NEVER checked!
(Just in case you’re wondering why your cold calls aren’t being returned.)
In fact the University of North Carolina did a study, concluding that 80% of executives absolutely, positively will not buy from a cold call!
As to the second statement, that salespeople who don’t cold call are lazy, this is typical of an old-school dictator manager who never actually succeeded in sales.
All of the top sales pros I know and have worked with never cold call. They use efficient lead-generation strategies that bring prospects to them, and eventually they have so much referral business that they don’t have to prospect at all.
If a sales rep isn’t cold calling and isn’t making any sales, you probably have someone who isn’t necessarily lazy. What you have is a rep who was never taught anything effective. I know, because I was in that very position my first few years in sales.
I endured failure after failure cold calling, because that’s all I was told to do. It wasn’t until I figured out other methods of generating leads – efficient Information Age methods – that I became a top sales pro myself.
So if you want to become a top sales pro, one of the elite, then you need to forget about the idea of cold calling for leads and begin using modern, efficient, effective methods instead!
To your success,
Frank Rumbauskas
PS: You’re wondering how to stop cold calling, and start getting hot qualified prospects – who are ready to buy right now – calling you instead? The answer is on page…
https://www.nevercoldcall.com/ordernow.php
Cold Calling SCAMMERS!
March 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“Cold Calling SCAMMERS”
As I’ve mentioned before, I receive daily Google Alerts on my favorite topic, cold calling, and lately I’ve noticed a trend:
Most of the articles Google is picking up begin with “Cold Calling Scam” or “Cold Calling Scammers”!!!
Now let me ask you a question: Do YOU want your name and reputation associated with something that’s increasing associated with scams?
In the Never Cold Call Again book I mention that one particular dictionary defines cold calling as follows:
“The ethicially questionable practice of making unsolicited calls to people one doesn’t know in order to attract new business.”
Ethically questionable!
Before I go on, let me review some of the main reasons why cold calling has become the worst possible way to prospect for new sales:
- It destroys your status as a business equal
- It is completely random and has a very low success rate
- Cold calling limits production because it is too time consuming
- Cold calling makes timing work against you
- It is becoming illegal in many areas
- It makes prospects question your reputation; they wonder why you don’t have enough referrals and must cold call instead
- Most salespeople hate cold calling and would rather not do it
And now this whopper of all reasons not to cold call: Cold calling has become synonymous with SCAMMERS!
Your reputation is the one thing, along with your time, that you must guard zealously. That’s why so-called Reputation Management companies, that work to promote a good image of a company online and in the press, have become such a huge industry.
As a salesperson, YOU must zealously guard your own reputation. It’s a must if you want to win as many sales as possible, and more importantly, get as many referrals as possible.
But with cold calling now being associated with scam artists, it is the absolute last thing you want to do with your time!
When you stop cold calling and begin using more effective techniques and strategies to generate sales, your reputation is safe. And your sales numbers explode exponentially. And best of all, you don’t have to waste time and endure the drudgery of cold calling!
So stop cold calling – do it right now!
And here’s how to do that, right now: Start using the effective techniques & tactics in my Never Cold Call Again system that will get hot, qualified prospects calling YOU, ready to buy right now!
Remember, you get the full course shipped direct to your door, and you have a full 30 days to evaluate it and begin using it for free. If you don’t like it for any reason, simply send it back within 30 days and you’ll never pay a dime. Do it right now:
https://www.nevercoldcall.com/
Thanks for reading, and here’s to your success!
Frank Rumbauskas
This Sales Manager Fires People For Cold Calling
February 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with a top regional manager in the US for one of the major life insurance companies. Unlike the usual 100-calls-a-day routine imposed upon insurance salespeople by most managers, this individual has a very different policy.
Any salespeople in his organization who are still cold calling after 3 months are automatically fired!
Interesting. Especially when you consider the fact that he’s the top manager nationwide for a huge insurance company.
When I asked why he does this, the answer was simple. He sees two major problems with any salesperson who is still cold calling after 3 months. First, that person isn’t using his or her time effectively. Second, anyone who still needs to cold call after 3 months has failed to build an effective system of generating leads.
This manager is so on target that I’d quickly be out of business if his ideas were adopted by all other managers! And salespeople would be a lot better off both in terms of happiness and financial success! In fact, I wouldn’t mind being out of business under those circumstances. I really enjoyed selling in those few positions where I had a sensible manager who could actually think for himself.
This person obviously understands some basic principles that I’d now like to explain.
Time Management
I’m not the biggest fan of literal “time management.” I think most time management systems are overly complicated, and, ironically, people waste too much time managing their “time management.” Time really is our most precious asset and the one most often wasted, so I always tell people to just get to work and stop killing time putting tasks into an endless maze of categories, priorities, and so on.
The study and mastery of time management needs to go far beyond the organizational skills usually taught in time management books and courses. Let me explain what I’m talking about. Here is how the average salesperson’s time is spent:
80%: Prospecting
20%: Selling
Those of you who read that mailbag with the letter from the insurance agent should remember my statement that selling is not prospecting and prospecting is not selling.
The fallacy in spending 80% of your time prospecting and only 20% of your time selling is that you’re only paid to make a sale. You are not paid to prospect. You are not paid to cold call. You are not paid for time in your car. You are not paid to network and go to lead groups and mixers.
You are only paid to make a sale.
In other words, 80% of the time, you’re working for free.
What would your results be if you could reverse those numbers and spend 80% of your time selling? That would quadruple your sales. Let’s say you fared poorly at increasing your time management and efficiency and only managed to double your sales. If you doubled your sales, wouldn’t you be able to, say, hire a telemarketing agency to do your prospecting for you? Or put some money into other forms of marketing?
Of course you would.
From there your sales would begin to multiply exponentially. Which brings me to Lesson #2 in this newsletter.
Metcalf’s Law
Metcalf’s Law states that the power of a network is equal to the total number of its components squared. In other words, if there’s one component, the square of one is one, so the power of the network is 1. If there are 2 components, then the power is 4. 3, and the power becomes 9. And on and on.
For our purposes, let’s apply Metcalf’s Law to selling. If you and you alone are doing all of your own prospecting, your power is 1. If you implement one lead-generation system to work on your behalf while you continue to prospect on your own, you have two elements at work, and your power is now 4. Enter a third lead-generator and your power is 9. Four, and your power goes to 16. And on and on.
This is why it’s so important to forget the idea that you must be self-sufficient and do it on your own. It’s much better to put systems to work for you. That way you’ll increase your power exponentially and begin to enjoy the fantastic power of leverage.
Leverage
The biggest mistake most salespeople make is failing to use the power of leverage to their advantage.
This goes back to the mentality of doing everything on your own, or of being self-sufficient. Companies are guilty of this sort of antiquated thinking when they expect salespeople to be self-sufficient and find all of their own leads instead of providing marketing support to generate qualified leads for the sales reps.
A salesperson, or company for that matter, that is using the power of leverage gets ahead exponentially. A few simple systems that cost little or nothing to get started are at work, contacting prospects in a variety of ways. It’s like having three or four people out there prospecting for you. But because all of your time is now free to spend on selling to qualified prospects, rather than waste your time cold calling and chasing unqualified prospects, your power goes up exponentially rather than incrementally.
It really makes no sense at all to have the mentality that you’re going to be the classic rugged individualist and try to go out there and do it all yourself.
Successful managers and owners build teams.
Successful salespeople build lead-generation systems.
If you’re not attaining the sales results you desire, it’s probably because you’re not using systems and the power of leverage and Metcalf’s Law. Stop trying to do it all yourself, and begin building and using systems to do it for you. Then, and only then, can you reverse the 80/20 rule in your favor.
Many of us have read “Walk Like A Giant, Sell Like A Madman” by Ralph Roberts. Ralph devotes most of that book to the effective use of systems. Those of you who have read it will remember that he eventually built his systems to the point where all he does now is close. His systems take care of all the preceding steps. Read that book if you’d like to learn more about the concept of using systems in a sales position.
Speaking of books, in my Never Cold Call Again system, I first lay out all of my various lead-generation strategies that work without cold calling. Then I show you how to put them together into an organized system in order to exponentially increase the leverage of your lead-generation efforts.
You’ll see just how and why the people who are already using it are selling more and working less. You’ll also learn about several different systems that you can begin using right away to generate leads. To get your copy right now, please visit:
https://www.nevercoldcall.com/ordernow.php
Thanks again for reading, and feel free to pass this on to a friend.
Good luck and happy selling!
Your friend,
Frank Rumbauskas
Break Your Cold Calling Addiction
February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
It’s Time To Break Your Addiction!
Last week I wrote a guest article for a major sales website, about my perspective on cold calling now that I’m a business owner & decision maker. I realized there are many great points in that article, so I’d like to share the major ones with you.
The first one is that as a business owner, cold callers never reach me. Ever. And the really bad news is that this is the case with nearly all decision makers! The reason why cold calling has such a low success rate, as a percentage, is because 4 out of 5 of us are unreachable. Period.
To make matters worse, it’s now a common tactic for decision makers to dedicate a separate voice mail box just for cold callers, and guess what? It’s never checked!
That’s right. If you’re wondering why your messages aren’t returned, it’s because your prospects never get them in the first place.
Is this rude? No, I don’t think so. As someone on the “decision maker” side of the table rather than the “salesperson” side, our definition of rude is receiving a cold call in the middle of a busy day when we’re already behind on work.
Another point to keep in mind is the statistic I love to quote, from the study done by the business school at the University of North Carolina that concluded that 80% of business decision makers in the US absolutely, positively will not buy as the result of a cold call.
Why is this important?
Well, aside from the obvious fact that cold calling is a waste of time, is the fact that 20% of those people will buy from cold calls. And therein lies the problem.
As long as those 20% are still buying from cold calls, salespeople will continue to delude themselves into thinking that “cold calling works!”
Seriously – the average success rate from cold calling is 1%, and among the very best of the best, it’s 3%.
Three percent! But is this any surprise when only 1 in 5 decision makers will even respond to a cold call in the first place?
If that 20% of the market would just stop responding to cold calls, people would wake up to the fact that it’s a zero-results game, and they’d finally give it up and do something more productive to generate leads.
But, I’m not complaining. As long as the majority of salespeople continue to cold call and keep on fighting each other over that 20% of the market, the rest of us are free to go out and close sales with the other 80%.
I titled this email “Break Your Addiction” because that’s what cold calling is. It’s an addiction. And as long as salespeople get a sale here and there from cold calling, the addiction will go on, and they’ll continue to be afraid to stop cold calling and begin doing something different and better to prospect for sales.
So that’s why it’s time for you to…
Break Your Addiction!
There’s really no sense in continuing to cold call when even a university study concluded that 4 out of 5 people will never respond. That’s pretty bad odds. And in terms of actual sales success, it’s even worse than that.
But, there’s good news: There’s a way out of the cold calling addiction. Lots of ways out. And I’ve assembled them all into a step-by-step, easy to use system. And I’ll let you try it out, on me, for 30 days.
I’ll ship the Never Cold Call Again system direct to your door and you have a full 30 days to decide if you love it (and almost everyone does), or if you want to send it back, in which case we’ll never bill you for it and you’ll never hear from me again.
It’s that easy – so get yours right now:
Start Your Free Trial Now
https://www.nevercoldcall.com/ordernow.php
Here’s to your success!
Frank Rumbauskas
“Goes to show that Cold Calling DOES Work!”
December 15, 2011 By 1 Comment
“Goes to show that cold calling does work!”
I saw Wall Street, one of my two all-time favorite movies, this past weekend again for the first time in a long time!
Naturally, considering what I do for a living, I had to laugh when Bud Fox gets promoted to his new corner office and the sales manager says over the
loudspeaker, “Goes to show that cold calling does work.”
Of course the irony of the scene is that Bud wasn’t cold calling at all. (What he was doing is illegal, but that’s another story altogether!) And just before that announcement, one of the cold calling reps was fired. Go figure.
This nonsense goes on in just about all sales offices. Ask any sales manager what their top performers are doing and they’ll tell you they’re cold calling.
Of course they’re not. If they were, they wouldn’t be top performers – they’d probably be on probation, or out of a job completely!
It happened to me all the time when I was new to sales and trying to find my way. It goes without saying that all sales managers – except for one – told me to cold call, but it was even more frustrating when I’d approach top sales reps who told me the same thing.
It drove me nuts because I’d watch them and observe them and clearly see that they were not cold calling.
Finally I started at a new job where the sales manager had a brain, and when he saw me start cold calling, because I didn’t know what else to do, he pulled me
aside and said, “Frank, I didn’t spend thousands to hire and train you to have you doing the job of a minimum-wage telemarketer.”
That’s when he let me in on the dirty little secret:
Cold calling is a sham and a waste of time!
He teamed me up with the top sales rep in that office. We went to our first appointment together where I could watch him work his magic.
On the way over, he explained, “Calling people at random is a complete waste of time. There is a certain percentage of the market who is pre-disposed to buy
from you. Your job is to get those people to know about you so they call you and you become their order taker.”
That’s when the light bulb went off for me.
He told me that 20% of the market absolutely will never buy from me, 20% will buy if they know about me, and the other 60% are up in the air and need to be “sold.”
The failure of most salespeople comes about because they waste their time calling on the 20% who will say ‘no’ and the 60% who will say ‘maybe’ instead of
spending all of their time in front of that 20% who will definitely say ‘yes’ and BUY.
By the way, that 60% ‘maybe’ crowd is the worst of all because most of them will string you along and waste your time without buying! At least the ‘no’ people
will say no and not waste your time. (I bring this up because most sales managers will instruct salespeople to go after that 60%, which makes no sense to me.
Under my sales philosophy, you work with them only after they move into the 20% ‘yes’ crowd.)
In any case, that day was a HUGE eye-opener for me.
From that point forward I only spent my time with top sales pros. I asked lots of questions, observed, took them to lunch, whatever I needed to do to gain their
knowledge.
Over time I learned all of their lead-generation tactics, worked them into a system, and began using that system to the point where I had more leads than I could handle, and since most of those leads were in the 20%, pre-disposed ‘yes’ crowd, my closing rate was an astonishing 80%, compared with the 20% average in
my company!
Eventually others wanted to learn from me, and that’s how my Never Cold Call Again system came about. It’s the complete storehouse of all that knowledge and
‘inside information’ that I used to become a top success in sales, and that thousands of others have used to do the same.
The best part is that it’s now available to YOU. And I’ll send it to you for 30 days, and only then do you have to decide if you want to keep it and pay for it. If you don’t like it for ANY reason, send it back and you’ll never, ever hear from me again. It’s that simple.
Start Your Free Trial Now:
https://www.nevercoldcall.com/ordernow.php
Speaking of the movie Wall Street, a few of Gordon Gekko’s bits of wisdom stand out. One is “I don’t throw darts at a board.” Another is, “If you’re not inside, you’re outside.”
So stop throwing darts at a board by cold calling, and stop wasting your time, outside the storehouse of knowledge that is awaiting you. Get on the ‘inside’
right now:
Start Your Free Trial Now:
https://www.nevercoldcall.com/ordernow.php
To your success!
Frank Rumbauskas
PS: This week I sent info about a sales job opening in one of my companies to my list of ‘Never Cold Call Again’ customers. One applied and mentioned that he is having huge success with the system and that his co-workers are always begging to know what he’s doing. He told them where they can get it and mentioned in his email to me, “They aren’t willing to spend $97, so they are not willing to be successful.”
The question is… are YOU willing to be successful?
https://www.nevercoldcall.com/ordernow.php
“You Can’t Get A Little Bit Pregnant.”
December 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
“You can’t get a little bit pregnant, son.”
Yeah yeah, I know, another quote from the movie Wall Street, but what can I say, I hadn’t seen it in years until this past week and it’s one of my all-time favorites!
That line stands out in my mind specifically because of a conversation I had today about the fact that NEW isn’t necessarily BETTER.
Here’s the problem:
In the last couple of years there’s been a lot of talk online and in discussion forums about “A new way to cold call” or “Cold Calling 2.0″ or what have you.
And when I hear any suggestion that there is a “different” or “new” way to make a cold call, I can’t get past the fact that cold calling is still cold calling.
Just like you can’t get a little bit pregnant.
You either sell out or you don’t. There’s no middle ground about it.
All experienced marketers and salespeople know that the word “new” sells. But new doesn’t always mean better.
The “new” Mustang that came out in the 1970s, the Mustang II, was new but certainly wasn’t better. In fact, it was a Ford Pinto with a Mustang badge on it.
It was a flop.
“New” Coke also flopped. Sure, it was “new” but people didn’t like it. They chose original Coke and the new version went away.
This is the same phenomenon that’s going on with these “new” ways of cold calling. Guess what – cold calling is cold calling whether you call it new, old, or otherwise.
Here’s some third-grade math to demonstrate:
Cold calling generally doesn’t work and most salespeople who make 50 cold calls will get 0 sales out of it. So:
50 x 0 = 0
The “new” way of cold calling is still cold calling, no matter what you call it. So, it also generates this result:
50 x 0 = 0
As I’ve said many times, the answer to improving in sales isn’t to increase your activity. It’s to change your activity to something that works.
A “new” way of cold calling isn’t a change at all. It’s a sneaky way to trick you into thinking you’re doing something different, when in reality you’re just doing more of the same. (And to make matters worse, some of these techniques are downright unethical.)
So here’s an idea:
Instead of increasing your activity with cold calling, or looking for “new” ways to cold call, try eliminating cold calling altogether and change your activity to something that works!
And what’s proven to work is a systematic, tested, real-world-proven system of lead-generation strategies and techniques that bring hot, qualified leads to you
without you having to make even one single cold call.
I’ll send you this system, on me for 30 days, and you have all that time to implement it and try it out. When you see the results you’re getting I’m sure
you’ll want to keep it – nearly everyone does – but if you don’t like it for any reason, send it back and you’ll never be billed and will never hear from me again.
Do it right now -
Start Your Free Trial Now:
https://www.nevercoldcall.com/ordernow.php
To your success!
Frank Rumbauskas
PS: People wonder how I can take all the risk and send my system out to people on the ‘honor system’ without going out of business. The answer is simple: The
system works so well, and generates so many leads, that most people are HAPPY to pay for it 30 days later!
Start Your Free Trial Now:
https://www.nevercoldcall.com/ordernow.php
The Real Problem With Cold Calling
November 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Sales Tip: The Problem With Cold Calling
I receive daily web alerts on my favorite subject of
conversation, cold calling, and I read them. I’m constantly
watching for opportunities to contribute to a discussion on
sales, but especially cold calling, particularly if there’s a
charlatan selling his “latest, greatest, newest way to cold
call” scam product.
In the over eight years that I’ve been following trends on cold
calling, I’ve gotten very good at spotting trends, and there’s
one that is popular right now: The idea of “Cold Calling 2.0” or
“the new way to cold call.”
Whoever coined this term no doubt took the name from Web 2.0.
However, the idea that cold calling is any different today than
it was in the past is ignorant at best, and downright dishonest
and unethical at worst. Maybe even illegal, if a claim of false
advertising can be proven! In my opinion, attempting to trick
salespeople and small business owners into believing that
there’s anything new or different about cold calling that might
work is problematic at best. In reality it’s doing a nasty
disservice to salespeople who may already be struggling to make
their numbers and put food on the table.
Here’s an example: I had a call recently with an individual who
spent over four figures (yes, four figures!) on a package from
one of these “Cold Calling 2.0” gurus. What was he taught for
that obscene amount of money? To send e-mails to companies,
pretending to ask for help, using fake contact names, all with
the lowly goal of learning who the real contact person is.
To me, that’s a lot of effort – and quite a bit of lying – just
to find out who the contact person is. After all, the sales
interaction doesn’t even begin until that contact person is,
well, contacted … and the recommended advice from that point
forward is – you guessed it – the old, ineffective, annoying
cold call.
Let’s face it: Cold calling is cold calling. I don’t care if
it’s a direct, in-your-face, old-school cold call, or a sneaky,
dishonest “Cold Calling 2.0″ call where the entire process is
based on a lie. And if all you have to show for that is a
contact name, you still haven’t even made the real cold call yet!
Here are some key reasons why cold calling – whether it’s
“old-school” style, or especially this sneaky “Cold Calling
2.0,” continues to become less and less effective as time goes
on:
1. Cold calling lacks honesty and integrity. I’ve been talking a
lot lately about honesty and integrity. They need to be the
foundation for everything you do, end of story. Without building
on those principles, nothing else you do will last for the long
term. Sure, you might get a lead and maybe even a sale now and
then by being sneaky and telling little white lies, but what
will that do for your reputation and self-esteem in the long
term?
I have many clients and students who now receive 100% of their
business from referrals. Do you think this could be possible if
they didn’t live and do business by the highest, utmost
standards of honesty and integrity? No way.
A big part of the “cold calling 2.0” myth is using a new “angle”
to cold call. Well, I hate to break it to you, but honest,
ethical people don’t have to use “angles” or “gimmicks” to do
business.
2. Cold calling provides zero value to others. Another subject
that’s coming up a lot in my talks and programs lately is that
of giving value first. If you give first, with no expectation of
reward, and no strings attached to your giving of value, you
will reap rewards like you’ve never dreamed possible. People
will look up to you as a trusted business adviser, they will
respect you, and they will see you in an entirely different
light than your competition.
Here’s the clincher: You can’t give value first if your initial
contact with a prospect is through a cold call. Instead of
positioning yourself as a generous provider of value, all a cold
call does is position you as a hungry salesperson who just wants
to get a sale … with no regard to providing any value first.
This is precisely why closing rates of leads that come from cold
calling are the lowest of all, or as my friend and author
Jeffrey Gitomer has said, “Cold calling has the lowest
percentage of sales call success.” It’s also why prospects tend
to trust cold callers far less than other salespeople – they
wonder what’s wrong with you and your company that you have been
forced to cold call – the last resort of a desperate salesperson
- to drum up business. It doesn’t speak highly of you or of your
company’s financial stability.
3. Cold calling strictly limits your income by time. Due to the
sheer amount of time required to make enough cold calls to get
enough qualified leads, you will never make a high income by
cold calling. Think about it – with all the time it takes to run
appointments, meet with prospects and customers, handle customer
service issues, attend sales meeting, write proposals, prepare
reports, attend training (including your own continuing
education), and so on, how on earth are there enough hours in
every week, day, and month to make all those cold calls? There
simply aren’t! Sure, if your product or service is a great offer
and you’re good at cold calling, you might manage to eek out
100% of quota and hang on to your job for another month, but do
you really want to spend the rest of your life eeking out your
quota and starting over again next month? Of course not! I
assume if you’re taking the time to read this article, it’s
because you’re focused and have high goals for your career and
your life and want to make the big bucks!
You’re not going to make the big bucks cold calling. Even if
you’re some kind of cold calling genius who can make it work,
you’re going to severely limit yourself by time and never reach
the six-figure and higher income brackets. The only way, and I
really mean the only way, to achieve that is through leverage.
You need to have lead-generation systems in place that work
exponentially, and simultaneously, to generate the quality and
quantity of leads you’ll need to have to make the big bucks.
That’s what will open the doors to promotions to upper
management, consulting opportunities, or my own path – becoming
a best-selling author and speaker.
If you’re out in the ocean, you have two choices: Swim back to
shore and live on, or tread water until you die. Cold calling,
including the new, so-called “cold calling 2.0” tactics, are
treading water. Do you want to break through and move to the
next level and beyond, or do you want to continue treading water?
Hopefully those points clear up this idea of “cold calling 2.0”
and expose that urban legend as just that – a legend. I’m tired
of hearing from struggling salespeople who have spent hundreds,
or in some cases, over a thousand dollars on these “new cold
calling” courses, only to have them fail, spend a mere $97 on my
system, and find out it was the answer to their prayers. Save
your money, use your brains, and think for yourself … and stop
treading water with those ineffective and time-consuming cold
calls!
And remember, even though my Never Cold Call Again system
costs only $97, you also have a full 30 days to “try it before
you buy it” … so there’s no reason not to!
Start Your Free Trial Now:
https://www.nevercoldcall.com/ordernow.php
To your success,
Frank Rumbauskas
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