5 Reasons Experienced Salespeople Should Cold Call

There are five reasons everyone should cold call, at least occasionally, and this includes sales managers, according to the best-selling author of Reach Out & Sell Someone and You Can Sell Anything by Telephone

Lots of businesses insist that novice salespeople cut their teeth by cold calling. Their jobs are to prospect, qualify buyers and to set appointments that the more experienced ?pro?s? go out and see. Presuming the initiates pass muster, they?ll graduate to the ranks of regular sellers and it will then be their opportunity to run the leads others set for them. You see this pattern in financial services, real estate, and insurance, to name just a few industries. There are five reasons I believe EVERYONE should cold call, at least occasionally, and this includes SALES MANAGERS.

(1) Cold calls build confidence. Nothing is the mother?s milk of selling, like self-confidence and swagger. Winners exude it, and by making successful cold calls, you?ll earn this money-making aura.

(2) Cold calls build sales. Cold calls, properly deployed, build NEW BUSINESS. Nearly anyone can up-sell or cross-sell an existing account, though too few do. But the real dough is in adding new clients to the books, whose upside potential is great.

(3) Cold calls build independence. Assemble a decent list, get on the phone, and you?re half home. You don?t have to depend on direct mail, space advertising, trade shows, or gosh forbid, the iffiest leads that come from articles and publicity.

(4) Cold calls build character. You?re in the ring, exchanging and absorbing hits. Sometimes you reel on the ropes, but you force yourself to come out for the next round. I?ve often maintained that the best cold callers have absolutely no problem getting dates, mates, jobs, and nearly anything else they want, because they?re unafraid to ask!

(5) Cold calls build futurity. With fresh accounts, you?re at the very beginning of their expected ?life cycle,? not in the middle or end, and therefore, they?re worth more than your current book of business. They answer the question that keeps conventional marketers up at night: ?Where will tomorrow?s customers come from??

Finally, and you can make this number six if you wish, but I believe it is even more important than the previous five points:

COLD CALLING FIGHTS COMPLACENCY.

Experienced salespeople are their own enemies. Most retire on active duty, seeing only those buyers that are ?lay-downs? or ?walk-ins,? the ones that are pre-sold or so docile that it?s like shooting fish in a barrel.

That won?t work in cold calling.

The best reward is that you?ll stay at the top of your game, close additional business, and not lose deals to more aggressive competitors.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top trainer, conference and convention speaker, and sales, customer service, and negotiation consultant. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is also the best-selling author of 12 books, more than 1,000 articles and several popular audio and video programs. His seminars are sponsored internationally and he is a faculty member at more than 40 universities, including UC Berkeley and UCLA. Gary brings over two decades of sales, management and consulting experience to the table, with impressive academic credentials: A Ph.D. from USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a J.D. degree from Loyola Law School, his clients include several Fortune 1000 companies..

His web site is: http://www.customersatisfaction.com and he can be seen on CNBC at: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=417455932# and reached at: [e-mail] His blogs include: YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS! and ALWAYS COLD CALL! at: http://www.alwayscoldcall.blogspot.com