You're Going To Be Great At This!

If you're anything like me, you hate to cold call. Especially when the weather is nasty. But when I first started out in the business, I had to "drop in" on people because I didn't have any contacts or referral sources.  Working in a B2B setting was difficult to get the decision maker when he or she was out playing golf or "taking the rest of the day off" when it was nice and sunny. I did realize, however, that the odds of contacting business owner and manager increased greatly when the weather was bad. I also realized that the worse the weather was, my competitors wouldn't be out in it either. That left me, alone in the rain or sleet or hail, to call on prospects that I wanted to convert to customers. And it worked more often than not. If you're having a hard time trying to pin your B2B prospect down, try making an in-person visit or a phone call when the weather is bad. It may work for you.    Chris Castane s is a humorous speaker who helps sales ...

Let me start with saying that there are only two times when someone is okay using profanities. The first is if the "curser" is under 3 years of age. There's something oddly adorable about a toddler dropping f-bombs, especially when the parents of said child feign any knowledge of "where she heard that". Fun and cute at the same time. The other situation would be if the person using blue language is over the age of 85 and female. Hearing grandma threaten to "stomp a mudhole in your ass!" would make every kid laugh because they knew she wasn't that serious. This example is only made better by memories of my Greek grandmother watching professional wrestling and yelling at the TV.  Get your copy of "Nearly Motivated" here  https://tinyurl.com/3tp37psa In other than these two situations, keep the cursing to yourself, or your friend group. And maybe that group of guys from church you hang out with. But definitely keep it away from work and prof...

When I graduated from college, the idea of a career in sales was not scary, as much as it was just strange. In my head, sales people were pushy, manipulative and a bit underhanded. There was no way I was going to be the stereotypical sales guy.  However, I was in need of a job, so I used some sort of twisted logic to believe that if I could do well selling crappy accident insurance plans, I could move up in the organization. I apparently was incorrect on several parts of that argument.  It didn't work out that way at all. But I did get some basic sales training, which helped me in my next career move, which was at an office supply company.  The owners of the company had decided that they needed to add an outside sales person to the mix, something their competitors had been doing for years. They took one of their employees, Ed, who worked part-time in the retail store, and moved him to a newly created outside sales position for a summer. With no training, Ed managed to get...

How do you deal with your competitors? For some, a little friendly competition is a good thing. On the other hand, our competitors are taking sales away from us, which means a loss of income. And some will try to work with their competitors by forging alliances or even just taking over their business by buying them out. Years ago, I met a gentleman who was established in the insurance field. I was an upstart just getting back into the business after an absence. He and I chatted from time to time and we really didn't cross paths too much when it came to our clientele. Generally speaking we got along.  One day a lady called me and said she wanted to change her insurance. She was going through a divorce and was on her soon to be ex-husband's group plan. She said she had tried to reach her agent but he wouldn't return her phone calls. I obliged her and got her a policy she could afford.  About a month later the other agent approached me in the hallway at a networking function, ...