Not to be fearful - I haven't gone mad. (Yet.) Cold calling is never fun. You know it and I know it. Then why would I say it?
Because I can remember countless times when I would hear someone say, "Making cold calls is tons of fun!" Believe it or not, I even said it once. I'm serious. Early on in my sales adventures, in the days when I was job hopping, not succeeding by cold calling, and not understanding why it wasn't working - after all, my bosses and sales trainers all said it would work - I began deluding myself into believing that cold calling is truly enjoyable, and that I love cold calling.
I decided that if cold calls work, like people kept telling me it would, then the problem must be with me, so if I changed my attitude while making cold calls, the cold calling would suddenly work.
But cold calling never worked.
No matter how many times I told myself into thinking that cold calling was enjoyable, and no matter how many others might try to do the same, it still doesn't get results.
But the good news is that I'd feel really great after those long days of cold calling. Naturally, it was hard work, but I sincerely felt like I'd accomplished a great deal! All those hours of cold calling would certainly pay off down the road, right?
Nope. They didn't.
Eventually, cold calling causes practically all sales professionals who do it day after day to become victim to the feared state known as "call reluctance," a condition caused by the never-ending rejection of cold calling. Contrary to popular opinion, 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 calls. I entered a deep "rut." I've seen it happen to entirely too many sales reps. 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," "banging doors" … you've heard them all, I'm sure.
On a more positive note, I got back up again and made it my singular goal to never cold call again. And when that finally happened I stopped cold calling forever, and eliminated all of that rejection and negativity from my world, then my sales numbers increased dramatically. What's more, I even looked forward to getting up and selling every day, instead of dreading it.
I was not only using all of my productive working hours in front of qualified prospects (instead of wasting every day searching for prospects), I was meeting with prospects who really wanted to buy from me! I didn't have to "close" them and go through endless objections. Which meant that my closing percentage went up as well, sending my commission checks sky high.
So if you want to join the top 1% of elite sales superstars, stop trying to convince yourself that cold calls are fun, and instead, begin utilizing powerful, Information Age strategies and techniques that will attract qualified prospects to you - prospects who are willing to buy right now.
And just what are those strategies and techniques?
A few weeks ago, another sales author and myself sat down and it took us less than a minute to make a list of over a dozen solid lead-generation strategies that work better than cold calls, ranging from old-fashioned networking events, speaking at free events, and offline marketing, on up to online marketing, social media, Facebook, and more.
If you still believe there are no alternatives to cold calling, guess again! Use your brain and do some thinking and you'll marvel at how you ever wasted time cold calling in the first place!
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New York Times best-selling writer Frank Rumbauskas has taught over 50,000 sales professionals everywhere how to make more sales with less stress. Learn more at http://www.nevercoldcall.com/
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