I am blessed to live within the same city as my brother and as often as possible he and I like to get together at our favorite breakfast place in town to catch up, swap stories, and laugh until it hurts. At our most recent breakfast this past Sunday, he mentioned to me that he and his wife watched “Creed” the other night, starring Sylvester Stallone in the latest installment in the “Rocky” franchise.
Although I knew the movie was up for a handful of Academy Awards, I had to ask, tongue in cheek, if Rocky could still box given his advanced age, knowing full well that he was not the protagonist in this film. To my surprise, my brother told me how good the movie was, how riveting the script and screenplay turned out to be, and how captivated he was during the movie.
That was surprising for me to hear because, to my recollection, this was the 476th film in the “Rocky” series, and how many new ideas and concepts can the directors of this franchise come up with after so many years?
Not to get on my soap box, but as a movie lover, I am dismayed at the lack of creativity in Hollywood these days. If a film studio needs revenue fast, they simply make another super hero movie, or a fourth or fifth installment of a tried and true franchise. Because the movie has high name recognition and generated ample revenue at the box office once upon a time, that usually results in good financial gain for the studio that created the movie.
It has been sad for me to watch some of my favorite movies go through sequels and watch the quality go down with each version, thereby losing the credibility and attraction that the original movie once generated. I think of “Jaws”, “Jurassic Park”, and, to a less historically significant degree, “Anchorman” and “Dumb and Dumber”. These once original, successful movies have been diluted and drawn out for far too long in an effort to produce a quick buck by the film studios.
This is not meant to be an overarching criticism of the film industry, but rather an analogy of what is going on around us in the sales profession. Have you ever realized that there is a lack of new, original, and innovative ideas in the sales profession today?
For a line of work that is so imperative to the functioning of society and the generation of economic benefits, both at the micro and macro level, to have so few ideas and innovation in an industry like this is horrifyingly alarming.
Many sales trainers make a lot of money recycling old ideas and re-packaging them as new. They take good ideas that other people have had, dust them off, polish them up, and serve these leftovers as a new hot dish. This is a good way to make money for oneself by selling ideas to a new generation of sales professionals without necessarily going through the work of developing a new, innovative system that nobody has thought of before.
This is not to say that there are not good sales trainers out there, because I have benefitted from many of them and think there are plenty who are worth listening to and hiring. It’s not the trainer that I have an issue with, but the originality of his or her ideas. To have an idea in sales that is truly original, one of a kind, and innovative in a way that can inject new life and rejuvenate the sales profession is worth noting indeed.
Although cold calling is certainly not a new concept, the idea behind it, when implemented in the way that it has been traditionally taught, is, and should remain, a thing of the past. When you think of the traditional approach to cold calling, what comes to mind? Think of the cold calls that you have received, or the way that you were instructed to make these calls in your profession.
How long are your calls? Who are your calls about? Were you instructed to leave a voice message? How do you make use of sales psychology to optimize your chances of success? If you have been taught in the mold of sales people past, I know exactly how you are going to answer these questions because I have worked with people like you and have received cold calls from countless others that approach this methodology in the exact same way.
I believe that cold calls, when executed to perfection, should be around 45 seconds in duration, simply because it is subscribing to the less is more theory and leaves the prospect’s curiosity piqued.
I believe the cold call should not be about what you do professionally, the organization you represent, or the services that you provide, but rather who you are as a person and how you can bring value to that organization simply based on who you are. People by people, not companies, right?
I believe that with every call you make, should you get their voicemail, you should leave a message and expect your call to be returned. Did you know that my voicemails are all just about seven seconds long, yet I have an 84.1% return rate?
I also believe that sales psychology can be used effectively in a short amount of time in an effort to pique curiosity, create a sense of urgency, and enable you to connect with the prospect at a deep level on the cold call, thereby increasing your odds of success.
When learned, practiced, and implemented to perfection, there is nobody you cannot schedule an appointment with, simply by picking up the phone and asking for that meeting.
How is that for an original idea?
At The Cold Call Coach, we have taken this vehicle of getting in front of potential clients and totally revolutionized the approach. When done correctly, cold calling can be the most powerful, effective, cost-efficient method of prospecting and scheduling appointments with your ideal clients.
Want to get a front row seat to the hottest ticket in town? Give us a call at 414-313-8338 and let’s get to work!
Oh, and don’t forget the buttered popcorn.
