Stop Cold Calling and Start Making Sales

Investor Alert: Cold Calling

2004-07-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

Cold Calling

The telephone rings . . .

It happens to all of us. The telephone rings as you're sitting down to dinner, relaxing with family or friends, or putting the kids to bed. A stranger is selling something.

. . . is there help or trouble on the line?

It's known as �cold calling.� For many businesses, including securities firms, cold calling serves as a legitimate way to reach potential customers. But sometimes serious trouble and financial losses await you at the other end of the line. Dishonest brokers may pressure you to buy a bad investment. Or the investment might be a scam.

Whether the calls are annoying, abusive, or downright crooked, you can stop cold callers. The law protects you by requiring cold callers to follow several rules. But you need to take steps to take advantage of these rules and to protect yourself.

This brochure tells you about your legal rights, how to deal with cold calls, how to stop them, and how to evaluate any investment opportunity that comes your way over the telephone. "

Stop cold calling and start making sales

2004-07-11T11:02:00.000-07:00

Stop cold calling and start making sales: "'When I need to create sizzling, high-impact copy for my sales materials, I always turn to the marketing wizards at the High Performance Marketing Group. They have the amazing ability to take my ideas and turn them into captivating copy that delivers spectacular results for my business. If you want to increase your sales, you can't afford not to hire them.' "

Cold calling to get business

2004-07-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

It's interesting to read about different views on cold calling. Consider the following scenario, though, if you use or plan to use cold calling as a business development tactic.

Imagine that you are a busy business owner who must deal with the day-to-day challenges of running a company.

Now imagine that you get several unsolicited calls per week (or per day) from sales people who got your name from some compiled list. For the most part, these sales people who call you have not bothered to take the time to do any research whatsoever on you, your company or its problems.

As you think about this, you're probably shaking your head in agreement.

Most B2B sales people assume that just because you are a business person, you should have an inherent need for what they sell. For example, if you are a Web site designer, you might assume that if a business doesn't have a Web site, they should be receptive to having you develop one for them.

What most sales people fail to understand is that just because people theoretically need what you sell, that doesn't mean they actually want it, or that they want it now. If they did, don't you think they probably would have already called someone about it?

Alternatively, even if people do want what you sell, they often have other problems to deal with that are more important than the problem your product or service solves. Until those front burner problems are solved, the problem your product or service solves will stay on the back burner.

You've probably heard of "permission marketing" — a concept first brought to the forefront by Seth Godin in his book of the same name. This concept, which has been widely applied to email marketing, says that you must get people's overt permission before you contact them. Further, you also must honor that permission by not veering from the topic on which the permission was granted when you make subsequent contact. Otherwise, you're practicing what Seth termed, "interruption marketing." I call it "intrusion marketing."

And cold calling, dear reader, is a high-level form of intrusion marketing. When you cold call you are most likely intruding into someone's life. You are usually interrupting what they are doing. You are uninvited. Despite your best intentions, you are probably perceived as an annoyance.

If you disagree, ask yourself if you wake up every morning thinking, "Gee, I just don't get enough unsolicited calls from sales people. I sure hope I get some today." You say you don't wake up thinking this? Well guess what, no one else does either!

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to get business that don't involve traditional cold calling: where you call strangers out of the blue with an offer they probably don't want, at least not at the moment.

The antidote to cold calling is strategic positioning. By that I mean, posturing yourself as an expert in your field through various methods so that people know something about you and how what you do can solve one or more of their problems.

When you use strategic positioning, you find that people start calling you. When they do, they usually believe they want what you sell and they already have the perception that you are the best choice to deliver it. And being perceived as the one to call in your field is the key to your success.

Strategic positioning takes time to set up. It's not a quick fix. As such, many people are too lazy to implement a strategic positioning plan. But consider the amount of time and energy it takes to cold call day after day. If you use cold calling you know that most of that time and energy is wasted.

Now I'm not saying cold calling doesn't work. Heck, I was once a "cold calling cowboy" who smiled and dialed my way to the top of the sales heap.

But when I think about all the frustration and, yes, humiliation I had to endure along the way, I could kick myself (hard) for not knowing about strategic positioning.

If you want to know more about strategic positioning, simply contact me and let me know. If there's enough interest, I'll do more posts on the subject.

Stop cold calling and start making sales

2004-07-09T06:07:00.000-07:00

Stop cold calling and start making sales

2004-07-08T14:37:00.000-07:00

Stop cold calling and start making sales: "Look, you can either keep on being a 'cold calling cowboy' (or girl) or you can step into the 21st century and start making more sales with less effort and frustration.
It's up to you: continue to struggle or convert to success.
Which course of action do you want to take?"

Stop cold calling and start making sales

2004-07-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

Stop cold calling and start making sales: "If you are obsessed with getting better results from your selling efforts; if you have a burning desire to succeed and want to create a better life for yourself; if you are ready to take action today, then you are EXACTLY the kind of person who will benefit from owning my 'Stop Cold Calling' System or from working with me one-to-one."

Stop cold calling and start making sales

2004-07-07T17:24:00.000-07:00

Stop cold calling and start making sales: "Are you ready to let me help you double or triple your business in the next 30 to 90 days? If so, please read on. You're in for the time of your life! "