My Pops sent me an old book he came across at a book sale and I think the title is going to stick with you… Timid Salesmen have Skinny Kids, by Judge Ziglar (yes, the younger brother of Mr. Zig Ziglar). Judge Ziglar broke the world record in 1964 for selling more than $104k in cookware. By 1978, he had made more than 40,000 sales calls. Just thinking about Judge’s plight makes me feel pretty damn fortunate. We get to sell stuff that’s a hell of a lot more interesting (no offense to cookware fanatics) and we don’t have to spend 80-90% of our time on the road to reach our revenue goals! It’s been awhile since I’ve used the Ben Franklin close – so I laughed my butt off when it happened to be on the first page I opened.
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When I started in Sales, my boss threw me a call script and a printed sheet of company names to start calling (a few contacts were sprinkled in as a bonus). I remember how excited I got when someone on the other end was interested in what I was selling. Any of you that have ever cold called before, you know the feeling well! Let’s face it; cold calling has a negative reputation in sales and customer circles. “How dare someone I’ve never met call me and try to sell me something!” they say. I got news for you – if it weren’t for the tens of thousands of telesales reps out there plugging away at the phones, the world economy would be but a fragment of what it is today! So pick up the phone for goodness sakes!
Two thoughts before I tackle the topic of working for free. 1) How about we make everybody feel better and change “cold call” to “initial or intro call”? and 2) In today’s world, true cold calling is reserved for commodity sellers (and perhaps the lazy as you move up the value chain!).
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