INTRODUCTION

When I first wrote this book three years ago, I had a feeling it would do pretty well. After all, I had been teaching the same things in my public and in-company training programs for years, and the process and material was field-tested. What actually happened blew me away.

We hit Number One in the Sales category on Amazon.com on the very first day. It stayed there for a while, and it continues to sell well three years later, while hundreds of other sales books have died on the vine. It was named Top Sales Book of 2010 by Top Sales Awards, beating out some other very fine books by big-time sales authors. And the reviews and success stories from people who use the process to get results have been both gratifying and humbling.

If you are reading Smart Calling for the first time, welcome aboard! If you have been through the original, welcome back. While I’ve added some additional examples, tips, techniques, and success stories from readers, the process itself hasn’t changed. But the reason I wanted to do this second edition is because of what has changed in the past few years: our ability to Smarten up our calls, making it even easier to be successful. You’ll see many of these updates in Chapter 5.

So, what’s this Smart Calling stuff all about?

Let’s go back a few years. Okay, a lot of years. I wish I had had this book when I first got out of college and into my first corporate sales job with AT&T in 1982. It would have prevented a lot of grief and made me much more money.

Then again, some of it would not have made sense, since there was no Internet and PCs were just making their appearance. And “sales intelligence” meant going to the library and finding a list of businesses that belonged to a trade association. However, even without the benefit of today’s technology, the pure prospecting and sales process and techniques in this book would have worked 30 years ago, just as they do today and will 30 years from now and beyond.

Even in the numerous sales jobs I had in high school and college, I knew that typical cold calling—phoning people I didn’t know anything about and giving a pitch—didn’t make sense and was actually quite painful. I always tried to find a better way, an edge that would get superior results; I was constantly reading, listening to tapes, attending seminars, studying, and tinkering with my own approach. I always did well in my sales positions. However, I also knew I would never be good enough for my satisfaction and that there always is more to learn. My quest continued in a couple of other corporate sales jobs and then in my own company as I had to pound the phones to acquire clients for my fledgling consulting and training firm.

Eventually, I did find—and continue to fine-tune—a better way. You are holding it (or reading it on your screen): a smarter way to prospect. A process that makes sense and gets results, and one that does not require you to sound like that cheesy salesperson that everyone considers an intrusive pest.

This book is a step-by-step guide that will show you how to call people you do not know and who do not know you, engage them in a conversation, and ultimately get them to take some action. And in the cases where you do not accomplish that primary objective, I will show you how to avoid the morale-killing rejection that is usually associated with telephone prospecting.

I’ve built my business and reputation over the past 30 years on delivering very specific how-to tactics and strategies. Many people—including, unfortunately, sales trainers and authors—tell you what you should do on the phone. You should create interest. You should get past the screener. You should leave a compelling voice mail message. And listeners and readers say, “Uh, okay,” as they wonder how in the heck they are going to do it. I’ll answer that for you and give you a precise recipe and ingredients for prospecting success by phone.

This book is long on practical how-tos and short on big picture strategy and fluff. I’ve always been somewhat of a simple, get-to-the-point kind of guy—a style you’ll see and from which you’ll benefit throughout this book. What I’ve learned from delivering more than 1,300 training sessions and studying human behavior and learning styles, is that people learn best when you relate to their world and entertain them. Therefore, you will see many examples of stories as I make my points.

I will guide you through the logical creation and execution of your own telephone prospecting call using my Smart Call methodology. You will learn the same process and techniques I present to my training clients. These methods are being used successfully to initiate profitable relationships worldwide, and I’m confident they can work for you, too, just like the thousands who have already read this book and made it part of their sales process.

Unlike some gurus out there, I don’t claim to have invented sales, and I certainly don’t have all the answers. I don’t believe that my approach is the only way to realize success. That’s why I will give examples from and point you in the direction of others with expertise in some very specific aspects of sales—and others with a more generalist view—throughout this book.

You may not agree with everything I say. I don’t care. Actually, that is good, since it means you are thinking about what you read and applying it to your situation. That is healthy. What I do ask is that when you do disagree, react as you should when you get resistance in a sales situation and ask yourself, How might this be true? or How could this work for me?

Who Will Benefit from Smart Calling?

The primary audience, of course, is all people with “sales” in their title, primarily those who sell to other businesses. But it’s not limited to traditional salespeople. Anyone who picks up the phone to call a person they don’t know—with the objective of persuading that person to take some action—will learn from this book. For example:

• Freelancers of all types
• Independent professionals
• Sports recruiters
• Writers looking to get published
• Job seekers
• Fund raisers
• Many others

Regardless of whether your career relies on regularly calling people to get new business or whether you have one person to whom you want to sell an idea and may never place a prospecting call again, this book will help you do what is necessary.

Taking Action Is Required

As I tell my training workshop participants, everything I will share with you is totally worthless—until you do something with it. I know this material works, but only if you do.

My friend Larry Winget—who is known as an irritational motivational speaker—says in his book It’s Called Work for a Reason—Success Is Your Own Damn Fault that many people are “spectators rather than doers.” I agree, and I have seen too much evidence of that among the ranks of salespeople who do nothing to improve themselves—even when the resources are provided to them. I’m hopeful that is not you. You have taken the first step by investing in this book. The payoff will now come by putting in the work.

There are a number of exercises throughout the book that ask you to research, write, and practice. At the end of each chapter, I also ask what other action you will commit to as a result of that chapter.

Prospecting and sales is a lot like golf: You can read all you want to and become knowledgeable about it, but you will become excellent at it only by practicing. I know it sounds like a cliché, but you will get out of this book what you put into it.

I’m ready if you are. Let’s begin making your prospecting calls Smart!