I read this book sure I'd hate it. I didn't. I don't recommend it, it's a very light read and can be finished in less than 2 hours. (Its in the library) But there are some insights, and the gems in this book have nothing to do with cold calling.
Franks starts with a basic definition of sales as "convincing another that they want or need your product regardless of whether they do or not. That is insulting to a professional salesperson. Then shares his career misadventures with cold calling. He talks about his repeated loss of employment, which points out he doesn't know how to do it correctly. He makes another false assumption that salespeople starts out monthly with zero in the sales funnel.
True salespeople don't start each month with zero in the funnel. True salespeople build trust and relationships with their clients and would never think of shoving unnecessary product on them. True salespeople understand their self promotion efforts might include cold calls, and they should include more.
There are other contradictions. Such as don't cold call yourself but if you hire someone to make your cold calls, its called marketing. OKkkkk. Drop off (cold) brochures in offices and hope they send back a fax reply card. It's all choice of words --a cold call is a cold call.
The parts of the book that are good are his self promotion techniques. And he goes into length about preparation for a sales presentation--researching your client before the call, all solid advice. Info on shift of power are good and bad. I don't believe me, as salesperson takes immediately a subservient role to a buyer--I believe I have information of value. His info on value propositioning is right on too. The law of compensation is also right on.
This really isn't a book about "no cold calls". A cold call is a cold call. It's a book about self promoting yourself to create leads-- which should be part of any good salesperson's toolkit. Rather, if you are having cold call reluctance, I have several books on my website from Amazon I recommend to get yourself additional training. Or, book a sales coach (like me) to help you where you are stuck. Not a life coach, but someone or the right book to give you specific specialized training.
Comments