I’m a huge sports fan, sports nut actually.

Our local NCAA hockey team, nationally-ranked University of Nebraska-Omaha is preparing for its second-round of playoff games this week, after sweeping Bowling Green this past weekend, and ending the season on a roll, beating the number one team in the country, and several other highly-ranked teams. 

UNO started the season last October with high expectations, with a new coach, Dean Blais,  who is considered the rock star of college coaching..

When the season started I read where the players were pretty jazzed too. The captain of the team said that they were going out expecting to win every game. They did not win every one, of course, but did very well.

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One of my vendors, 800Link.com, the company we use for voice mail service, told us on a customer service call that we could reduce the amount we are paying each month, AND get a higher level of service by switching to a new plan. THAT was a value-added call.

Some might question the intelligence of the strategy…c’mon, they are actually cutting their profits per month. However, they are practicing the highest level of integrity, since they are offering a new plan to new customers and felt that existing customers should get the same deal. Contrast that with magazines and other subscription-type products and services that only offer their introductory specials to new customers, while hosing their long-time, most loyal, and, by the way, most profitable customers.

I think it’s brilliant.

That will stick in my mind if I ever think about going elsewhere. Anyone else have something similar you do, or have experienced?

As if using the phone in sales and prospecting wasn’t challenging enough on its own, we also have to deal with working in an environment where there are scumbag scam artists duping unsuspecting targets. The legitimate office supply dealers and document imaging companies that sell toner know what I mean, since that is a classic scam, which makes their calls even more difficult.

You may have received a version of the call I’m sharing today. As you’ll hear, it’s a guy calling with some type of credit card/debt reduction offer. It was provided to us by Steven Bryant who said,

"Art, Here’s a pretty good voice mail message I thought you might enjoy…Problem is…I never spoke to this guy and his scumbag company ever before. When you call they of course try to sell you, but if you ask ANY questions, they promptly hang up."

Take a listen:

Anything positive we can learn from this? From a sales perspective, he sounds very natural, perhaps even intentionally inserting a few "umms" to sound conversational. (I suggest using no "umms" but his add to the effect here.) The value statement is actually pretty compelling. Then he said, "This is the last courtesy call I will be making…" which is a stronger-than-I-recommend version of what I call the "Last Resort" technique, letting them know that you won’t be calling anymore. 

But again, there was no previous conversation, and I’m assuming the company is not legit since, as Steven said, they hang up upon questioning.

What are your thoughts/experiences with this type of company? Anyone ever actually worked at a place like that and can share some inside info?

I’m often asked who I like to follow for pure motivational and attitude information.

Well, there are so many I could publish a directory. One that is certainly in the top 1% is my friend and fellow mastermind group member, Dr. Alan Zimmerman, who’s an expert on personal peak performance. He has written the "12 Little-Known Keys To Extraordinary Success On And Off The Job."  Awesome stuff. To see them, FREE, click here...then on the left side menu bar choose "2-Day Journey."

I always laugh when I see the the "studies"or suggestions on "Best times to call" prospects.
 
In fact, I devote a page to it in my new book, "Smart Calling." (Have you reserved your copy yet? Amazon.com is selling it at a pre-release discount of just $14.93)

To summarize, my feeling is that if you are NOT calling, you have NO chance of success.

Many sales reps use these goofy "Best times to call" pieces of nonsense as an excuse to avoid calling.

Here is a simply awesome piece on this subject by sales trainer and author, Paul Castain. I’ve reprinted it here, and you can also download it at no cost here.
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I always laugh at someone’s comment when I hear them say, "You can’t sell that by phone." It’s ignorant.

Here’s yet another example of someone doing what others have said can’t be done: selling homes and barns by phone. Sand Creek Post and Beam last year made INC Magazines’s 2009 Top 500 List of fastest growing companies, coming in at 218. They sell post and beam barn and home kits, each custom-designed. Pretty much all by phone.

I worked with their sales reps/dealers, managers and owners yesterday at their headquarter, in Wayne, Nebraska. What a fine group of warm, genuine people who care about their customers like family.  

This has nothing to do with sales. But I am so upset I had to share it with you.

At this time of the year I get really optimistic, since Spring Training is now starting for baseball teams, and everyone technically still has an equal chance. I will attend as many spring games as I can in Arizona.  I’ve been a lifelong Kansas City Royals fan since their inception in 1969, when I was just 9. I was at the seventh game of the World Series when they won it all in 1985. And I have followed them in all the years since when they have mostly sucked. I even attended their fantasy camp a few years ago and had the opportunity to play with and against guys I watched while growing up. I’m just a Royals geek. And hey, we made some offseason moves, that, well, we’ll see…these guys could have career years.

But now, however, a horrible omen has thrown a damper on even my unreasonable optimism. A man has filed a lawsuit against the Royals because he was hit in the eye at a game last year by a hot dog thrown by the mascot, a guy in a lion suit. (See the story here.) Great, that’s all we need.

So I’m thinking the Royals have now already been mathematically eliminated from contention. There’s always next year.

As if I didn’t have enough to keep me busy, I’ve officially gotten into Facebook. I promise not to use it to tell you what I had for breakfast (energy bar) or what I’m wearing (workout clothes). No, all of my speaker/trainer/author friends and gurus say that Facebook is an essential element of the social media mix and staying connected with customers. Who am I to argue?

So, I will have a Facebook personal page (and I will friend everyone who asks), which I understand is required to have a Fan Page, which is where I will be spending most of my time investment there. I will go there fairly regularly to post, and respond. In fact, I have a bribe there for you to become a fan. Go to my Fan Page, and you’ll see how you can download my ebook of 501 sales tips you can use right now.

Let’s connect on Facebook! (and Twitter, and LinkedIn, and…)

Last Saturday I had the great opportunity to present my Smart Calling workshop to the student, faculty, and partners of Ohio University’s Sales Centre. The Sales Centre is a certificate program at the University that trains and prepares its students to hit the ground running after graduation, with sales as their chosen field.

I was thoroughly impressed with the students and faculty of this outstanding program that is entirely self-funded. This year the program will have around 80 graduates entering the workforce. (Attention employers who recruit new college grads: wouldn’t you like to hire someone who has already committed to sales as their career choice, had to go through a selection process to get admitted to a prestigious educational program like this, and invested many hours of classroom and real-world field work towards that end? If so, contact Ken Hartung, Executive Director there, 740-593-9328)

Here are some photos from my day there.

 Here are some of the directors of the Sales Centre, and the student leaders of the program. From left, Ken Hartung, Dr. Catherine Axinn, me, Nate Marshall, Katie Marvinney, Kaitlin Daly and Meredith Grossi. 

As you might have noticed, I’ve begun shamelessly plugging my new book, "Smart Calling-Eliminate the Fear, Failure, and Rejection from Cold Calling."  In short, it shows you, step-by-step, how to acquire intelligence about prospects, and then how to USE that information in opening statements, voice mails, and questioning to generate interest, build rapport, engage the prospect in a conversation, and then move them to the next step in the sales process.

There is no excuse for anyone to ever place a "cold" call, or to use any of the tired old tactics that actually cause resistance (I go through example after example of these in the book).

Like most others who write books, we want to make a big splash on the release date and get it to the top of the best seller lists on 3/31, so you’ll likely receive an email about it that week from me, or one of the many other sales experts partnering with us. Actually, don’t wait…amazon.com is offering a pre-release discounted price for the book of only $14.93. (When I first saw that I was miffed, thinking they are pretty much giving it away, then I realized, LET them give it away…I want as many people as possible to have this information and following me.)

Ok, enough blatant self-promotion. I came across a great blog post by Garth Moulton, co-founder of Jigsaw.com about why cold calling is not dead, despite a lot of drivel written about that to the contrary. (Actually, as I point out in the book, "cold" calling is dead, being replaced by Smart Calling™, but we’re on the same page here.)

Check out the post…especially Garth’s hilarious quote at the end.