Five Ways Cold Calling Beats Competing Methods

Writen by Dr. Gary S. Goodman

You've probably been a little confused by the ads and articles that say opposing things.

Some tout cold calling as a great tool, while others claim it is a waste, passé, and too difficult.

As I've pointed out in my best-selling books, REACH OUT & SELL SOMEONE and YOU CAN SELL ANYTHING BY TELEPHONE, it is a phenomenal way to get business, providing you do it well.

There are at least five ways that it beats the pants off of alternative sales techniques:

(1) It is active, not passive. I can't overvalue this aspect because by being active you make things happen and you get your blood pumping. You've heard the expressions that say fortune favors the bold, and the harder I work the luckier I get. They're true. Take charge of the sales game and it will take care of you.

(2) You never know what kind of gold mine you'll be entering. An existing account only has so much potential, but a new one can offer a rich vein of untapped treasure. The key is to get in and then to spread out, as one very successful Xerox computer systems manager used to say.

(3) People admire people with courage, and you show this quality when you cold call. The higher you reach in an organization, the more credible you become, because senior managers and business owners wish their people did what you have the guts to do.

(4) If you can cold call successfully, every other sales activity becomes a cake walk. When you get a warm, inbound lead, you jump on it, hug it to death, and don't let go until you have converted it. Why? You appreciate it all the more because you've been doing some heavy lifting. I call this the "lead bat" phenomenon. If you swing a lead bat and then pick up a regular bat, the latter always feels light as a feather.

(5) You respect yourself because you turned nothing into something! Let me say that again, for emphasis: YOU HAVE TURNED NOTHING INTO SOMETHING! This is exactly what all creative people do, but your creativity can be measured in dollars and cents, and you can thoroughly own your results. Nobody did it for you. You did it for yourself.

These are simply five ways that cold calling is superior to other methods. Who you become in the process of mastering this technique may be more important in your life than the dollars you earn through it!

Best-selling author of 12 books and more than 950 articles, Dr. Gary S. Goodman is considered "The Gold Standard" in sales development, customer service, and telephone effectiveness. Top-rated as a speaker, seminar leader, and consultant, his clients extend across the globe and the organizational spectrum, from the Fortune 1000 to small businesses. He can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.