Lie #1:
'Make more phone calls today than you did the previous day.'
~~~
If making phone calls really, actually works well for you, then I presume you should make more of them.
But most of the time, as I discuss in 'Guerilla Marketing for Hi-Tech Salesmen,' the phone calls aren't really turning out well in the first place.
And doing more of what already isn't productive is just dumb. Plus, unsolicited phone calls just irritate people.
Today when you listen to a motivational speaker getting salesmen all revved up to go make phone calls and bear the rejection, imagine this in your mind: one thousand soldiers with sticks and rocks in hand charge valiantly onto a battleground, where they are cut down with machine guns, tanks and artillery fire - dying in droves.
Actually a small handful of extraordinary, talented warriors will survive by strength, testosterone and wit.
But the odds are heavily tilted against them. Only the very best even survive, much less prosper.
If your only weapon in sales/marketing is your telephone and your ability to withstand rejection, you're battling tanks with sticks. Moreover, as the 21st century uncovers the trouble's going to get worse and not better.
Think about this for a moment: about 30 years ago, factory workers began to be replaced by machines and cheap foreign labor. The worker cost $12 per hour but the machine only cost $2.50 per hour. Is anyone ready to work for $2.50 per hour? Many salesmen are doing just that.
Today, salesmen are being displaced by websites and media. Imagine that
you were a door to door book salesman today, they were quite common hundred years ago, how would you ever contend with Amazon, or a bookstore like Borders or Barnes & Noble?
Impossible, you'd probably starve to death. And you couldn't possibly provide your clients a similar level of service or selection.
A vendor selling books door to door is only slightly different from somebody who sells insurance or telecommunications or any number of other products and services in todays world.
But the FACT is: IF you create a niche for yourself, I'll cover that in installment #3 and #9 and IF you utilize automated tools like your website and direct mail, you CAN increase the competence of your business and you CAN compete.
And you won't antagonize your clients in the process and you won't need those large doses of motivation.
Listen up: You MUST carve out a niche for yourself, and you MUST utilize your communication tools astutely.
Most corporations don't. Most websites are setup with no particular goal in mind. Most corporations don't have any idea how to setup a direct mail piece that makes the phone ring. That's why they assume direct mail doesn't work.
BOTTOM LINE:
1) You MUST have marketing tools that do the grunt task for you.
2) You must tweak those tools until they're productive.
Often you'll attempt something and it doesn't go well the first time, its normal.
But the good thing is, once it picks up, it will usually work for many YEARS to come.
That's why time spent on marketing is completely the best time investment you can make - IF you're well informed about what really works and what doesn't.
Here's a link to an article I wrote about how to sell online.
Do People Really Make Money Online? Tomorrow I'll talk about Lie #2:
'You've just got to get in front of more prospects.'
See you soon,
John Benjamin
Tired of spinning the wheel trying to make a buck online? Visit my site at
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