I either chuckle (or say bad words) when I read from today’s nouveau (faux) sales experts that the phone is dead and you’re a moron, or a luddite, for even attempting to use the phone to secure a meeting or to sell. Ha!
The telephone has made an amazing comeback over the past few years. So many sellers abandoned it in favor of pathetic automated messaging on LinkedIn (see my post from yesterday for a perfect example) or spamming prospects with garbage email after garbage email, that those sales pros who do use the phone, and use it well, are having tremendous success.
Last week I led a workshop for 60 sales managers and one of the highlights was when the SVP of Sales brought up a successful new hire they had recruited away from a competitor. The managers enjoyed peppering this young sales stud about his background, his success, and why he chose to join their firm. Then someone asked how he built such a solid book of business in such a short time. The young sales star gave a one-word answer: Prospecting.
If it is not your most important sales tool, then the phone is at least one of your most important tools. There is no getting around the fact that top salespeople are proactive salespeople, and for many, making smart phone calls is their most effective weapon.
Some of my very best writing about using the phone to secure meetings with strategic target prospects appears in Chapter 9 of New Sales. Simplified. and Chapter 11 of Sales Truth. And one of my very favorite books on the topic is Smart Calling by Art Sobczak.
My original copy of Smart Calling is drenched in yellow highlighter ink and the book is at the top of my short list of recommended resources for inside salespeople and those who use the phone in any capacity to sell. I joke with Art that I recommend his book so often that I probably have sold more copies of Smart Calling than anyone other than him!
Enjoy my reaction to seeing that Art decreed my signed copy as Serial #0000001 of the just released Third Edition!
Grab a copy of Smart Calling today from your favorite bookseller and take your telephone game to an entirely new level!
