Wendy Weiss

Good chum Wendy Weiss is recognized as one of the leading authorities on lead generation, cold calling and new business development.

If you are struggling to connect with qualified buyers or need to jumpstart your team’s production, I recommend that you download a free copy of Wendy’s newest e-book, The Cold Calling Survival Guide.

Wendy’s an amazing teacher. Her latest e-book will have you setting appointments with highly-qualified prospects within 24 hours. You can go grab it here.

Over to Wendy …..

What is the truth about cold calling? So many people believe so many negative myths about cold calling that sometimes it’s almost impossible to see beyond the darkness… Read on to discover:

Whenever someone subscribes to our email newsletter, “Opening Doors & Closing Sales,” they get an email from us asking them about their most pressing sales and/or new business development issues. We send this email because it helps us help our readers. When we know what’s on your mind, it makes it much easier to develop material that will help you.

Here is an email we recently received from a new reader:

“Since you asked, I want to let you know that I apparently suck at cold calling. I’m not a very good bullshitter.”

Wow! I feel for her. Talk about starting out from a difficult place…

But it’s not really her fault. Cold calling has been so demonized, people believe so many negative myths about cold calling that sometimes it’s almost impossible to see beyond the murkiness of the various stereotypes about what is essentially just a phone call.

This new reader unfortunately seems to believe that she needs to make stuff up and be incredibly manipulative in order to succeed at cold calling. Not true.

Here are some of the things that people believe about cold calling:

1. It’s a numbers game. It’s not. While you do have to dial the phone, sheer volume of calls is not enough to help you succeed. Today it’s simply too hard to get people on the telephone. Today you have to be targeted, strategic and skilled.

2. Cold calling is manipulation. Many people (see email from reader, above) believe that cold calling is about manipulating people into buying things they neither want nor need. Not true. Your cold call is simply your introduction. There are many ways to meet a prospect, this is one of them.

3. Go through the ‘no’s’ and hang ups until someone finally says, ‘yes’ to you. This is my personal favorite—really, who wants to do this? I call this myth the “Warrior Delusion” because a lot of cold calling training centers on how to deal with rejection. Instead, of learning to handle the ‘no’s,’ it’s a much better idea to learn the skills that you need so that prospects say ‘yes.’ Couple that with some strategic thinking and targeting and you’re in a much better place to succeed.

4. The Born Sales Person. This is a very insidious myth because it keeps people from taking action. (See the email from reader, above.) No one is born knowing how to cold call. It’s a communication skill and like any communication skill it can be learned and improved upon. (The Queen was lucky, early in her career she learned this skill and it enabled her to build a business. You can learn it too.)

Bottom line what we’re talking about is a phone call—the basic tool of any sales professional. It doesn’t have to be painful. It doesn’t have to be brutal. It’s simply a phone call.

If you’ve noticed that it’s more and more difficult to get prospects on the phone or to engage them when you do. If you’re struggling to ‘get in the door,’ I invite you to download my all new ebook, The Cold Calling Survival Guide.

Download your copy HERE

Wendy Weiss, “The Queen of Cold Calling™,” is a sales trainer, author and sales coach. Contact her at wendy@wendyweiss.com. Visit her at http://www.wendyweiss.com

Source: Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

You can find the video in the right-hand column of this page or watch it at YouTube (time: 2 minutes 34 seconds). Or, get a PDF transcript of the video’s content: Excellence: Tuck in the Shower Curtain.

Source: The Tom Peters Weblog

Source: The Tom Peters Weblog

Source: The Tom Peters Weblog

The increasingly intense competitive challenges of the world economy challenge everyone - everywhere - to adapt in order to prosper under new rules.

In the old economy, hierarchies pitted labor against management, with workers paid wages depending on their skills, but that is eroding as the rate of change accelerates.

Hierarchies are being replaced by networks; labour and management are uniting into teams; wages are coming in new mixtures of options, incentives and ownership; fixed jobs melt into fluid careers.

As business changes, so do the traits needed to survive, let alone excel. All these transitions put increased value on emotional intelligence.

Competitive pressures put a new value on people who are self-motivated, show initiative, have the inner drive for outdoing themselves, and are optimistic enough to take reversals and setbacks in their stride.

The ever-pressing need to serve customers and clients well and to work smoothly and creatively with an ever more diverse range of people makes the ability to empathise all the more essential.

At the same time, the meltdown of old hierarchies increases the importance of traditional people skills such as building bonds, influence and collaboration. And that is as true for employers as it is for employees.

The task of the leader draws on a wide range of personal skills.

Research has shown that emotional competence makes the crucial difference between mediocre leaders and the best. Indeed, emotional competence makes up about two thirds of the ingredients of star performance in general, but for outstanding leaders emotional competencies – as opposed to technical or cognitive cues – make up 80 to 100% of those listed by companies as crucial for success.

Star performers show significantly greater strengths in a range of emotional competencies, such as the skills of persuasion, team leadership, political awareness, self-confidence, and achievement drive. Empathy, one of the key elements of emotional intelligence, is central to good management; it is difficult to have a positive impact on others without first sensing how they feel and understanding their position.

People who are poor at reading emotional cues and inept at social interactions are very poor at influencing others in the workplace – fact!

News: Finally sorted the preview pages for the brand new JFA site yesterday – thanks to Lindy Richardson for her input.

Big w/e coming up: Can Chelski overcome the might of Big Bad Bayern at home in Munich? No idea what I am talking about? Don’t worry about it, it’s called soccer and for some of us Brits it is a religion. Actually, it is more than that, we go every week!

A couple of very interesting guest posts whilst I take a break for a couple of days, so do pop back if you find yourself at a loose end, and I’ll be back on Monday. Bon weekend a tous! (Have a good one!)- JF

Source: Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

Source: Jeb Blount| Sales Gravy Blog

1. Knowing When to Close the Sale
2. The Alternate of Choice Close
3. The Gaining vs Losing Close

Source: Tom Hopkins’ Sales Training Blog

1. Arouse Emotions, Don’t Sell Logic
2. Creating a Consultative Environment in Selling

Source: Tom Hopkins’ Sales Training Blog

1. Closing Sales = Sweet Success
2. Be Aware of Unique Cultural Needs in Sales
3. Barriers to Closing

Source: Tom Hopkins’ Sales Training Blog

Originally posted at: John Maxwell on Leadership
Copyright 2009-2011. All rights reserved.

Follow JohnCMaxwell on Twitter.
Or visit John’s Facebook page.
Introducing a new daily video program, A Minute with Maxwell. Sign up here. It’s free!
Knowing the difference between players and pretenders

Source: John Maxwell on Leadership