Sales Activity

You are in the middle of something important, the telephone rings, you have to drop what you’re doing, only to find that it’s a salesperson. This is one of those types that wedge their foot in the door and won’t give you a chance to push it back out. Some of you will be reluctantly patient with them and perhaps most will have little or no tolerance for being flogged.

I’m hearing more and more proponents these days of the belief that cold calling is dead. A host of modern-day teachers and guru’s are preaching that prospecting via the telephone is an old ‘technology’ and should be discarded in favor of email and other modes of more indirect, and perhaps safer, communication. The validity of their claims has yet to be proven.

Referrals can be one of the easiest paths to more appointments and sales. ‘Can be’ is the pivotal term in this equation. For some of you, the ease with which you ask for and receive a referral depends on the relationship you have developed with your client or prospect. For the rest of you, asking for referrals is uncomfortable regardless of the relationship you have with the folks you talk to.