R.I.P Cold Calling is DEAD
Yes, you read right. I finally have conceded. I am raising the white flag and concede to all the social selling experts that social is the way and picking up the phone is dead......I can see everyone looking at me smirking that I have finally arrived in the new age of selling with the modern buyer...yes Truth Bomb Tuesday has made its impact and I have finally woken to the new age of selling and that the buyer has changed........BEEP BEEP BEEP...PHONE ALARM GOES CRAZY.....
GASP! Get the F@#$ out of here....OMG! What a nightmare! As I wipe the sweat from my brow and try to slow my racing heart, I rush to my laptop and gather my thoughts...phew, what a relief...
Now that I have calmed down and am drinking my coffee, because yes! Coffee is for closers! I want to share my thoughts on how to use modern buying principles that will help you find more prospects, engage with more people and close more deals.
The first tip I have for you to close more deals……Read this article about how a sales professional cold-called her way to a $15m business.
The second tip I have for you to close more deals...Is to stop focusing on closing more deals and look at the behaviors and characteristics that separate Sales professionals from Empty Suit Sales People...
What is the commonality in the images below?
The Wolf of Wall Street and Truth Bomb Tuesday...are the influences who have created a negative stigma associated with sales....with one who continues to do this even today. At least the other coined his program...' Straight Line Sales Training'.....hhhmmm
For us to be high performing sales professionals we need to adopt a mindset that separates us from the empty suit.
Mindset plays a crucial part in how the market perceives us. Our mindset starts with our values which are driven by our philosophies.
When we are clear about our values and why we exist, this will help us navigate through certain decisions and help our market appreciate what we represent.
Before we even consider engaging with our market or if we are already engaged with the market. STOP. Think. Gain clarity on what you represent.
Ask yourself the following:
- What are your values?
- Why are these important to you?
- What is your personal mission statement?
- What do you want your image and brand to communicate about you?
- How does this translate into a personal brand promise?
One we have built the foundation the next stage is to identify and develop the characteristics that make up the Sales Professional Mindset.
Why is developing a Professional Mindset so important? When we think of the empty suit sales person – we think about salespeople making promises they can’t or have no intention of delivering. Salespeople Larry Levine calls ‘commission breath’, who are only after one thing - they are people who care about making a sale and not a customer as Jeffrey Gitomer says. The salespeople who have tried their hardest to tarnish our great profession have a narcissistic mindset, a mindset that is centered on themselves. Doing whatever is needed to obtain sales regardless of how the product or service impacts the customer.
By crafting the right mindset and understanding our customer has a certain perception of salespeople this will enable us to separate sales professional from the rest. This will help us change the perception of salespeople, from manipulative and tacky nuisances out to make a buck, to helpful, knowledgeable professionals who help customers make the right buying decisions for them.
What separate Sales Professionals from the rest? A Sales Professionals mindset can be broken into three elements:
When we adopt a Sales Professional mindset - a buying mindset, we put our customer at the centre of everything we do. To achieve this philosophy of customer first, we must be clear about the behaviours and actions we need to exhibit to achieve living each element of a sales professional.
Time block an hour in your calendar this week, to consider and record what you must do to exemplify each element. If you want to be the best, if you want to be a high performing Sales Professional, take ACTION and explore the mindset of a sales professional and how you will apply each element in your role.
ACTIVITY: With your sales team if possible or individually, divide a whiteboard into three sections or use 3 flipcharts. Write each element as a heading and then record the behaviours and actions you must exhibit for each element.
One more thing to address: there are several people I can hear asking, Luigi - what does cold calling have to do with this article? Across every industry sales professionals work within, there are empty suits who perpetuate the perception of sleazy sales. This perception then creates invisible barriers when sales professionals try to engage with their buyer.
Regardless of the channel you use to engage, you must first identify who you serve, what your purpose is and the behaviours you must exhibit. The channels we use to engage with our target are irrelevant if our ulterior motive is to serve ourselves....Like...."Sales have changed, the buyer has changed, traditional selling techniques don't work anymore....so sign up to my course"...
It’s time for us Sales Professionals to separate ourselves from the empty suits, it’s time we draw the line and separate them from the best profession in the world.
Marketing at Full Throttle Falato Leads
5 个月Luigi, thanks for sharing!
Passion Project Focus Strategist helping go-getters make expert decisions daily, to love their life no matter what.
5 年Luigi P.?We are entering a new decade and we've had 25+ years of internet.? It is circling back to relationships and humbling ourselves to asking for help on our approach and meeting the right people at the right time through our network.? Sincerely giving and receiving is where it is at as we all when we help each other find what we desire, need, want.?
Luigi! This is one of the very best articles I've ever read. Thanks for keeping it real!
Founder and CEO, AthleteGEM? NIL Jewelry Collective | WHITE ROCKS Diamond Co.
5 年Good article Luigi. I see where you are going with this article and from my perspective, "cold calling" isn't dead but perhaps the old school methodology of trying to achieve all 3 buying mindset objectives on the first call is certainly critically wounded on the sales battlefield. I read a good quote that reminded me of the sales process...."A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them." Liberty Hyde Bailey Certainly as a sales professional, I am eager to utilize every tool at my disposal that has proven successful over an extended period of time. It would be hard to argue picking up the phone and making that call still isn't a path to success. I see your point is more about changing how us sales professionals use the phone vs not using it at all. Keep up the diligent work. I appreciate your efforts and certainly gained value from your article.
Grow a scalable and saleable consultancy business that works without you.
5 年After using cold calling as my main lead gen tactic for 24 years, I finally gave it up last year and switched to a more authentic, customer friendly approach using social media.? I'm grateful for the lessons I learned cold calling, but also grateful that I have better options now.