Cold Calling....

Cold calling has probably deterred more people from pursuing a sales career than any other activity. After all, what could possibly be less fun than calling strangers, disrupting the flow of their busy day, and trying to convince them that they need to make time to speak with you? When you receive a sales cold call, how does it make you feel? Do you enjoy the experience? I personally hate it and I hate getting them as much as giving them.

And I mean going to the dentist, eating liver and onions, smell of vineager hate it.

There is a reason why cold calling is uncomfortable. When we make cold calls, we are asking people for something (their time) before we have given them anything of value.

It goes something like this. "Hello perfect stranger, I am a squid and expect you to give me all of your business so that I can get rich and you don't even know what I have to offer you yet, also, I am banking on the fact that you weren't raised in a kennel so that you won't hang up on me, listen to me long enough that I might be able to manipulate an appointment out of this last ditch effort in my dwindling sales career end of the month I don't have any money left attempt to get someone to buy my product. Is that okay with you?"

Does that sound like a good beginning for any mutually beneficial business relationship?


Salespeople receive a greater return on time invested when they reallocate cold calling time to other prospecting activities. However, if you are REQUIRED to make cold calls, do yourself a favor and QUIT. You are wasting your life and your company's resources.

For most salespeople, a comprehensive Pipeline Plan will produce the best return on prospecting time invested. What is a Pipeline Plan? It is a management tool that lists the various prospecting activities a salesperson plans to engage and the amount of time they intend to invest in each activity, each day, week, month.

The most effective prospecting plans don't focus on a single type of activity; rather, they include a mix of activities, such as:

* Networking - professional associations, breakfast groups, chamber of commerce, etc.
* Referrals - earn them.
* Strategic Alliances - are there other vendor resources that your clients can benefit from?
* Speaking - great opportunity to hone your skill and inform the public.

Best of all, advanced decision making in this format will afford you DATA. Data driven decision making will allow you to see what works and what doesn't and adjust accordingly. Instead of making a complete fool of yourself or quitting...email me for more information on the Pipeline Plan.

Life is Brilliant!

-Jarret