I Was The Cold Call Machine

by Frank Rumbauskas⁽³⁾
http://www.nevercoldcall.com

Yes, it's true - I once had the nickname "cold calling monster"!

It's due to the fact that when I entered sales, I had a strong determination to succeed. So I took the suggestions I received - to cold call - and I took it to the maximum.

I performed at least 100 cold calls, every single day. Some dayd it was on the phone, sometimes canvassing, and sometimes a combination of both. But I never fell short of my 100 calls.

And I got leads - lots of leads! Yes, in spite of what I may have said about cold calling not getting leads, I must confess I was swamped with them. I was setting sales lead after sales lead, so much so that it was difficult to find enough time in the day for my 100 calls, but I always figured it out.

My faith in this approach was bolstered by tales from bosses and old timers about sales reps who were making over a hundred thousand annually, by scheduling out time every day to shut themselves in their office doors and make hundreds of cold calls.

I was assured my achievement would be guaranteed!

So I continued with my one hundred cold calls every day, believing that it would not only work but the more time it would take to pay off, the more I'd earn in the end. My schedule was hectic, and I still recall one particular day when I had seven meetings and still did my hundred cold calls, mostly by canvassing office buildings where the appointments took place and then making up the rest on the phone.

It was a wonderful experience to go home after such a hectic day, with a sense of accomplishment that I'd really accomplished something. Inactive days always gave me a lot of anxiety about not getting anything done, so a crazy day full of a hundred cold calls plus a a bunch of sales appointments made me very happy.

This continued for many months and my extreme activity numbers kept me really pumped up all the time.

But there was a problem...

The huge commissions failed to arrived!

You heard me - I was barely closing enough sales to scrape by, let alone earn the huge income that I had been promising myself and that all the old timers said those 100 cold calls every day would bring me.

And so that brings up the next question...

Do more leads = closing more sales?

Of course more appointments leads to additional sales. That only makes sense. You can't get a sale without first having a lead - leads are the starting point of all sales success. No lead means no prospect, meaning you can't close a sale.

However, there's a catch. (Isn't there always a catch?) The problem is that all leads aren't the same quality.

There are good leads and bad ones. And that brings us to one of life's basic truths:

Quality always beats amount!

Everyone knows this! Yet in sales, the drive is always on to get lots more leads, with no attention to the quality of those leads.

It's natural to try to hurry to meet with anyone who will give us an appointment. Besides, the basic mindset taught in all sales training is that sales is a numbers game. If you can sell to twenty percent of your leads, then doubling your quantity of leads should double your quantity of sales.

However, it doesn't really work out like that.

I failed miserably when I started in sales, not because I wasn't a good salesperson, but because I had spent my days as the "cold calling monster" trying to get as many leads and as many appointments as possible, with no attention to the quality of those sales prospects.

The Three Types of Leads

Years later, when a top producing sales rep took me under his wing to mentor me, I finally realized that there are 3 categories of leads. The majority of salespeople are spending time with the two wrong ones - people who either will never buy from them, or people who are looking to drive a ridiculous bargain. (Those are the ones who string you along endlessly with 'check back in 6 months' or 'we need to think about it first.')

The final variety is made up of sales prospects who would buy from you, if they only knew about you and had an opportunity to meet with you.

When I found that out, I soon had less prospects leads and fewer appointments, but far more sales.

Best of all, I had a lot more free time. I was selling more by doing less work - by focusing only on people who were ready and wanting to buy from me. I was closing 4 out of 5, beating my old previous record of 1 in 5 when I was still cold calling.

After I had conquered this concept and learned a system of lead-generation strategies that brought me an endless supply of hot leads - people who were ready to buy right now - I began teaching that system to others, and you know what they told me?

The same thing happened to them: They began selling a lot more while doing far less work.

And since most salespeople spend nearly 100% of their free time prospecting, you can see what a huge improvement happens to your schedule when cold calling is eliminated.

(Oh yeah, and your stress level goes down.)

Imagine never having to make a cold calling, and meanwhile, your sales come in each month, since leads are filling your inbox on autopilot.

It's a great feeling - I know, because I achieved it. I was able to stop cold calling forever, and life is good!

Cold calling author Frank Rumbauskas has taught salespeople all around the world how to stop cold calling forever! Read more articles at http://www.nevercoldcall.com/cold-calling or download a free 37-page PDF at http://www.nevercoldcall.com

Article submitted Thursday, December 22, 2011 & read 11 times.

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