Smart Calling: Eliminate the Fear, Failure, and Rejection from Cold Calling - Hardcover

Sobczak, Art

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470567023 ISBN 13: 9780470567029

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2010

Synopsis

Praise for SMART CALLING

"Finally, a sales book that makes sense! As a master sales trainer, Art nailed—no, obliterated—the number one fear of selling in this great book: cold calling! Let him teach you to stop cold calling and start Smart Calling!"—LARRY WINGET, television personality and New York Times bestselling author

"Smart Calling is the benchmark as the highest professional standard for effective cold calling. Take the initiative to read and implement Art's rational principles and you will sell much more and develop a prospect base of potential customers who will call you when they are ready to purchase or graciously take your future calls. This is THE BEST sales text I have read in the past twenty years."—REX CASWELL, PhD, VP, LexisNexis Telephone Sales

"You get only one chance to make the right impression in sales. If a top prospect gets a hundred calls a week, you want to be the one he remembers and buys from. Art's proven methods create a unique brand for you and position your offering as the best option. Art's advice isn't just smart, it's priceless."—BOB SILVY, VP, Corporate Marketing, American City Business Journals

"Smart Calling effectively enables inside sales reps and organizations to accomplish a top priority—acquiring new customers. Art's pragmatic and actionable techniques will increase productivity, success, and professional satisfaction."—BILL McALISTER, SVP, Inside Sales, McAfee

"A must-read, must-own book for anyone who wants to increase their sales right away with less effort and more fun. I'm so sure this book is a winner for anyone who needs to call prospects that I'll personally assure you that your results will increase noticeably after reading it, or I'll send you your money back."—MIKE FAITH, CEO & President, Headsets.com, Inc.

"If you need to make a first call to anyone, for whatever reason, this book is for you. More than common sense, it's a real-world, no-fluff, simple approach that anyone can use to be successful."—DARCI MAENPA, President, West Coast Chapter, American Teleservices Association; Director, Member Support, Toastmasters International

About this title

About the Author

Art Sobczak is President of Business By Phone Inc., which specializes in helping salespeople maximize their positive results when using the phone as part of their sales process. As an internationally known speaker and trainer, he has delivered over 1,200 training programs and workshops over the past twenty-six years to large and small companies, associations, and at his two-day public seminars. Art has been a member of the National Speakers Association for over twenty years and has been a presenter at their national conferences and regional workshops.
Visit Art online at www.BusinessByPhone.com and find the latest Smart Calling tips at www.Smart-Calling.com

From the Back Cover

Get a "win" on every call

Do you dread cold calling? Sure, prospecting for customers is a necessary part of doing business, but does that mean you're stuck being the cheesy salesman who irritates everyone? Shouldn't there be a better way?

There is. Art Sobczak's Smart Calling gives you a proven system that makes sense and gets results. Instead of following tired old formulas and scripts that customers recognize and dismiss from a mile away, you'll discover an intelligent method for engaging prospects in a productive conversation that leads them to take action.

Sobczak has built a highly successful career around delivering specific tactics and strategies for winning sales communications. In Smart Calling, he lets you in on his more than twenty-five years' experience, giving you the field-tested, practical information you need to make your calls work while skipping the abstract theory and fancy slogans.

Filled with hundreds of real-world stories and example conversations, Smart Calling equips you to:

• Gather intelligence to make your calls smart

• Utilize the latest "social engineering" techniques

• Generate interest with great opening statements

• Deal effectively with resistance

• Work with screeners, gatekeepers, and assistants

• Listen and learn from your customers

• Get commitment for action

• Stay motivated

• Never be "rejected" again

• And more!

Nobody likes cold calling, and for good reason. Most of the time, cold calls don't work and end up wasting everyone's time. Smart Calling gives you a new and better approach to winning the quality sales that drive growth and create opportunities. So forget about cold calling; get Smart Calling. Don't pick up the phone without it!

Do you dread cold calling? Sure, prospecting for customers is a necessary part of doing business, but does that mean you're stuck being the cheesy salesman who irritates everyone? Shouldn't there be a better way?

There is. Art Sobczak's Smart Calling gives you a proven system that makes sense and gets results. Instead of following tired old formulas and scripts that customers recognize and dismiss from a mile away, you'll discover an intelligent method for engaging prospects in a productive conversation that leads them to take action.

Sobczak has built a highly successful career around delivering specific tactics and strategies for winning sales communications. In Smart Calling, he lets you in on his more than twenty-five years' experience, giving you the field-tested, practical information you need to make your calls work while skipping the abstract theory and fancy slogans.

Filled with hundreds of real-world stories and example conversations, Smart Calling equips you to:

• Gather intelligence to make your calls smart

• Utilize the latest "social engineering" techniques

• Generate interest with great opening statements

• Deal effectively with resistance

• Work with screeners, gatekeepers, and assistants

• Listen and learn from your customers

• Get commitment for action

• Stay motivated

• Never be "rejected" again

• And more!

Nobody likes cold calling, and for good reason. Most of the time, cold calls don't work and end up wasting everyone's time. Smart Calling gives you a new and better approach to winning the quality sales that drive growth and create opportunities. So forget about cold calling; get Smart Calling. Don't pick up the phone without it!

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Smart Calling

Eliminate the Fear, Failure, and Rejection From Cold CallingBy Art Sobczak

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-56702-9

Chapter One

Cold Calling Is Dumb, but Prospecting Is Necessary: Smart Calling Is the Answer

Cold calling.

Just hearing the words whispered by another causes chest-tightening, loss-of-breath anxiety for many people.

Perhaps one of these people is you. And maybe that's why you're reading this. Given the choice, most people would rather have their fingernails slowly removed with pliers than pick up the phone, call someone they do not know, and try to persuade them to do-or buy-something.

The mere notion of cold calling incites fear-which results in most people's reluctance to do it. Add that to the fact that many cold callers lack the knowledge and ability to do it well-not knowing any better than to use the cheesy, sleazy, salesy-sounding techniques that have spread like viruses over the years-and it further compounds the ultimate feelings of rejection after failing.

Yes, making cold calls is distasteful. And it's dumb. I suggest you never place another one. In fact, after finishing this book, I want you to banish the term from your vocabulary when referring to professional telephone prospecting.

But how will you know what never to do again? Let's begin by defining a cold call:

It takes place when a salesperson calls someone he does not know, who does not know him, and-having little or no information on the prospect-robotically dials number after number, giving the same pitch to everyone who answers.

Of course, these calls are destined for failure. To illustrate the absurdity of the concept, let's look at this scenario:

A magazine writer is assigned an interview with Oprah Winfrey. He begins his conversation with the world-renowned TV personality by saying: "So Oprah, I'm going to do the same type of interview I've done with hundreds of other people. Now-what is it exactly that you do?"

Ridiculous, right? Such a scenario would never take place.

Now imagine this: A sales rep phones a company, gets someone she believes to be a decision maker on the phone, and says, "Hi, I'm Erin Nelson with Able Supply, a company that sells maintenance supplies. I'd like to tell you about our products and talk about becoming a vendor for you. Now-what is it that your company does?"

Though equally absurd, conversations like these occur every day: unprepared salespeople blindly make phone calls, using tired old-school sales techniques, hoping that because they picked up the phone and made a call that they will find someone who will agree to what they want to accomplish.

But hoping is clearly not enough.

Why Telephone Prospecting Is Both Essential and Profitable

Now that we have thoroughly trashed the concept of cold calling, let's get something else perfectly clear: Telephone prospecting is essential for business sustainability and growth.

Huh?

That's right. Prospecting by phone is a necessary part of new business acquisition and growth.

Ideally, it's not the only way, but it's a vital component of the model. Businesses that merely react-waiting for the phone to ring, for web orders to stream in, and on business coming from existing customers-are not nearly as successful as those who employ proactive hunting, or telephone prospecting, as part of the mix.

Think about it: Every business has customers who quit buying for lots of reasons-bankruptcy, downsizing, switching vendors, death, lack of attention from the vendor, and more. Therefore, you need to replace that business just to stay even-and then hope to grow. And telephone prospecting can do that for you-quickly.

Of course, it needs to be done in the right way; the Smart Calling(tm) way, as we'll discuss soon.

Oh, there are detractors out there, people who say-and even believe-that prospecting is dead. They use the term cold calling in their denouncements, but they mean phone prospecting in general. Some of these anti-cold-calling gurus have made names for themselves and profited by preying on the fear of cold calling. Just look at some of the books and learning programs released over the past few years:

Cold Calling Is Obsolete No More Cold Calling

Never Cold Call Again

These resources suggest either getting people to refer you to decision makers or doing direct marketing to generate leads so people contact you. Those are sound theories and certainly preferable to cold calling. If you have the time, ability, and money to engage in those types of marketing programs to generate leads, I suggest you take advantage of them (as long as doing so does not take away from your selling time). In fact, I have personally generated millions of dollars in sales from direct response advertising-a process wherein people with whom I never spoke simply placed orders with us and gave me money.

However, in reality, direct marketing is just that: marketing. And when a sales rep-whose primary job is to sell-spends precious selling time sending out letters, drafting e-mails, putting out door hangers, and completing other administrative busywork, then he is avoiding his most important function: talking to people. I've seen many a sales rep who thought they were being productive by sending out mail. In fact, they were just busy. In many instances, they were afraid to make the calls, so they deluded themselves into believing that they were engaging in sales behavior, which, in actuality, was avoidance behavior. In fact-after browsing various online sales discussion forums-I came across proponents of telephone prospecting who have much harsher terms for the people who buy into the "no cold calls" method of selling: wimps, wusses, pansies, chickens, and other terms too R-rated for this book. Additionally, when you have identified a prospect you feel would be a great customer-someone you just know would benefit wildly from a business relationship-you may very well grow old and poor waiting forever for that person to respond to a marketing campaign. And you might not know anyone who could refer you to them. But picking up the phone quickly fixes all of that.

The fact-proven by those of us who have made fortunes doing it and those showing success right now-is that prospecting by phone works. And when done the right way-the Smart Calling way (oops, jumping ahead again)-it is wildly profitable.

In his very good book, Cold Calling for Chickens (Cyan Communications, London), sales trainer Bob Etherington writes, "Fact: In any market 85 percent of the available new business goes to the 5 percent of sales people who know the secret of successful cold calling." Though Etherington uses the term cold calling, like most of those who teach the successful way to do it, the call is not that cold at all.

The same goes for another expert who has proven the effectiveness of prospecting, fellow author and sales consultant Paul DiModica. In his book, Value Added Selling, he says,

Cold Calling is the fastest way to increase your sales pipeline, your company's revenue, and your personal income. It is the difference between meeting a CFO of a Fortune 500 company and selling to supervisors. If you were to analyze the top income sales positions in the U.S. (stockbrokers, commercial insurance salespeople, mergers and acquisitions salespeople) you would find that they all cold call.

Telephone prospecting is the quickest, cheapest, and most interactive way to make a contact and a sale. Consider this: Many of you reading this could pick up the phone right now, call someone you don't know and who never has heard of you, and have an electronic payment transaction minutes later.

Let's look at some of the other benefits of telephone prospecting:

You can enter a buying process that already is in progress. You may have been on the other end of this. Think of a situation where you were several calls, weeks, or months into a sales discussion with a prospect. Perhaps you were already well into the proposal phase. Then, suddenly, you are informed another competitor has entered the picture. What? You've done the tilling, planting, and nurturing, and they come later attempting to harvest the crop! Well, that's fair. But you want to be that guy, and prospecting does this for you.

Phone calling creates immediate opportunities for you that you never would have had previously. Hopefully, this does not come as a shock: Only a minuscule percentage of the world's population is looking for what you sell right now or looking to buy from someone different. But a phone call can change all of that by bringing someone into a sales process immediately-even when they were not previously considering doing anything differently.

Calling creates future opportunities. To somewhat contradict the previous point, you can surely create immediate opportunities, but let's be real: Most of the people you call will not enter into an active sales cycle with you at that immediate moment. Some will simply and flat out not be prospects. However, there may be a future fit with others, even if the timing is not right today. Therefore, with regular prospecting, you methodically fill your pipeline with qualified prospects whom you subsequently enter into your stay-in-touch marketing campaign, so that when the time is right, you are top-of-mind.

It sharpens your sales skills. Anyone can reactively take an order or respond to a warm lead who contacts you. The more you practice regularly, the better you become.

It's motivating! When you take action on anything and move toward a goal-especially if it is just a bit scary-it is impossible to feel down or depressed. Your mind becomes preoccupied with the task at hand, and you inherently find ways to accomplish it.

Cold Calling Myths, Smart Calling Truths

Before we go any further, I must dispel some prospecting myths that have been perpetuated over the years. Some of these beliefs are still held by sales managers and reps, and in all cases they are just plain wrong. They contribute to all of the negative opinions that surround telephone prospecting and general sales prospecting.

Cold Call Myth: "It's just a numbers game."

Smart Calling Truth: It's a quality game. It does not matter how many calls you place; what's important is the number with which you have success. A baseball player could swing at every pitch, but only the quality attempts have a chance of hitting the ball. Casino games are numbers games; sales and prospecting is a quality game.

Cold Call Myth: "For every no you get, you're that much closer to a yes."

Smart Calling Truth: You are no closer to a yes unless you are doing the right things to get the yes. The previous no has absolutely no bearing on your next call. Activity solely for the sake of activity does not get you closer to success.

Cold Call Myth: "You need to love rejection to be successful at prospecting."

Smart Calling Truth: You want to avoid rejection. It is a state of mind based on how you react to what happens to you. I'm not a psychologist, but I would say it is impossible to love rejection unless you have some type of mental illness. Smart Calling shows you how to get a win on every call-even when you get a no.

Cold Call Myth: "The telephone is just for setting an appointment."

Smart Calling Truth: Salespeople are using the telephone to sell every type of product and service. Limiting yourself by getting off a call too early unnecessarily lengthens the sales process. Your sales model might involve a face-to-face visit, but that visit will always be more productive if you take your call further.

Cold Call Myth: "Never give the screener any information."

Smart Calling Truth: The screener may be a decision maker or influencer and needs to be treated like the buyer. We will devote an entire section on this topic.

Still Think Prospecting Doesn't Work? That's News to Someone Doing It

Scott-Vincent Borba, CEO of Borba (www.Borba.com), sells a line of high-end unique skin care products that are applied as well as ingested. In his first full year of business, Borba did $5 million in sales, and every deal he made started with a cold call. His products are carried by such companies as Saks, Sephora, Four Seasons Hotels, Victoria's Secret, and QVC.

In the early days, Borba made 60 prospecting calls a day. Although he is now, five years later, an established celebrity in the skin care field, he still makes prospecting calls. I asked what his revenue is today. He said his company is privately held, but revenues have increased 50 percent every year. I could do the math.

When I mentioned to him that there are people who believe that prospecting is dead and doesn't work, he screamed-even before I could ask a question-That's crazy! Are you kidding me? I cold-called Anheuser-Busch and sold them on carrying my beauty water! These are beer guys!"

Borba has found such success in this area because he is prospecting the right way. He stresses the importance of knowing about the business issues of the company and the person he is calling. He also suggests that callers treat executive assistants like CEOs, since they are the decision makers' most trusted advisors. These people have often helped him get to and sell the C-level buyers with whom he works.

Any final words on successful prospecting from Borba?

"If you want something, you have to make it happen."

Okay, you might be thinking, all of this makes sense. Maybe you already knew you needed to pick up the phone to accomplish whatever objective you have to meet. The problems, though-the real reasons you bought this book-might still be gnawing at you: the "How?" part of it.

How can you make it more palatable to call someone you do not know?

How can you show success doing it?

How can you overcome the fear of the no?

How can you avoid using outdated, salesy techniques and sounding like the cheesy cold caller that everyone has experienced and has their favorite horror stories about?

How can you avoid turning into a Jell-O-legged stutterer who sounds like a total doofus when confronted with the inevitable resistance?

The Answer: Smart Calling

The subtitle of this book is "Eliminate the Fear, Failure, and Rejection from Cold Calling." I'm not being very humble when I claim that this is a great title that I'm proud to have created. However, it's not about me. It's about you and about how, together, we're going to do just what it promises.

Let's define in three steps exactly what Smart Calling is:

1. Acquiring intelligence about people, companies, and industries prior to speaking with a decision maker.

2. Using that information within a proven prospecting and sales process, speaking in a conversational, consultative dialogue that puts both you and the prospect at ease.

3. Consequently helping prospects take actions (buying from you) that they feel good about and from which they gain value.

As a result,

You get through to more buyers, more often, since gatekeepers not only provide you with information but also become part of the process and your sales team.

Buyers are more receptive initially, in the first 10 to 20 seconds of the call-the time during which most calls fail.

Buyers don't view you as a typical salesperson or vendor but rather as someone who has their best interests in mind and can provide real value and return on investment.

You become more comfortable with your calls and confident in what you say-even in difficult situations.

You will never be rejected again. (You might be skeptical about this one, but you'll see exactly how and why this is the case later in the book.)

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Smart Callingby Art Sobczak Copyright © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0470567023
• ISBN 13: 9780470567029
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 242