Overview

Over the past number of years sales trainers, consultants, psychologists and experts of all kinds have introduced a variety of solutions to the problem of cold calling. We know anecdotally that most salespeople dislike cold calling, but we also recognize it as useful, if not a requirement, for most sales jobs. So there is a clear need for a solution. But most solutions on the market today are simply very, very bad.

Most solutions fall into two categories: tricks of the trade, and avoidance. Tricks of the trade include things like the "secret squirrel," where you don't tell the gatekeeper anything but your name (or the name of your company,) - which you say very authoritatively - so she's initimidated or thinks the executive knows you, and will therefore put you through. It also includes calling when she's not there, or not telling the executive what you're calling about, and other mystery-making tactics that, of course, most decision makers see right through. Tricks also include "The Seven Steps to Better Cold Calling," and its cousins "The Three Steps to Better Cold Calling," "The Four Steps to Better Cold Calling," and "The Five Steps to Better Cold Calling;" as if there were a formula to it. But given that if you Google the words Steps to Better Cold Calling you get over 11,000,000 hits, you might justifiably wonder which one is right. Tricks of the trade also include confidence builders, since fear is often an inhibitor to success; and motivators, like yelling "sell, Sell, SELL!" in a variety of ways. But the sad fact is that most tricks of the trade just don't work. But even the ones that do work don't work for very long - because cold calling is not a parlor game, and there are no tricks that are going to get you in the door, and position you to sell, easily, reliably and consistently over the span of your career.

And, in fact, sales managers acknowledge as much when the send their salespeople for training. They'll hear about another course, and send their people so they can pick up a few tips to get them productive again. But even the idea that "tips" are useful assumes that the salesperson knows what he's doing in the first place, and only needs a little tweaking to his technique to make his quota. But when it comes to cold calling, that assumption is generally incorrect. And that approach is simply a treadmill, one that most salespeople dream of getting off one day, and live on their base of accounts - the ultimate avoidance technique.

Avoidance techniques are also what marketing is all about, because if salespeople could make effective cold calls there would be no need for advertising, direct mail, trade shows, networking or PR to feed them leads. But even salespeople themselves are trained in avoidance techniques. For example, salespeople who send an introductory letter before calling do it primarily to give themselves an opening line (i.e. "I'm calling to follow up the letter I sent you,") because they don't have an alternative opening that they feel comfortable with. The irony - and the proof that this is why it's done - is that many salespeople will use the line without having first sent the letter, because they know they prospect won't see, read or remember it anyway. They just need an excuse to call, and an easy, if false, way to break the ice.

But the fact is that there are no tricks of the trade that are going to work, nor tips that can polish an underlying ineffectiveness, and neither will avoiding the problem work. The only thing that will work, we have found, is understanding. Understanding the value of what you're selling, understanding the prospect's situation and motivations, and understanding the process - how to bring the two of them together. Understanding is a different route altogether, and it is what The Most Powerful Weapon in Your Marketing Arsenal is all about. Understanding your product's value will give you the confidence you need to sell it. Understanding the prospect's situation and motivations will give you an effective strategy. And understanding exactly how get in the door will give you all the tools you'll need.

The Most Powerful Weapon in Your Marketing Arsenal therefore takes a different approach. After 25 years in the sales and marketing, and working with hundreds of successful (and thousands of unsuccessful,) salespeople, and after testing dozens of techniques, (and working on both sides of the desk,) and especially after making tens of thousands of cold calls and booking tens of thousands of qualified leads and appointments, we think we know what works. And that is what The Most Powerful Weapon in Your Marketing Arsenal is all about.