“It was the day my grandmother exploded.” That’s how The Crow Road by Iain Banks opens. The narrator has returned home for a funeral; Chapter One begins in the chapel of a crematorium in Scotland. Although this is from a novel and not a commercial, it’s a great example of an opening line that compels the reader […]
There’s one sales approach more effective than a phone call. Not long ago I told the story of my attempts to book a hotel room near the airport in Lexington, Kentucky. You can read the full tale here, and you should. The sales lesson of the story was that a phone call is often much […]
“Nobody answers a phone that doesn’t ring.” — Jeb Blount Blount, author of Fanatical Prospecting, is a proponent of cold calling. Mostly on the phone, but he’s not against other methods. The key, he says, is to interrupt: If you want sustained success in your sales career, if you want to maximize your income, then […]
How do you motivate yourself to make sales calls when you just don’t feel like getting on the phone? When someone signs up for my mailing list, I send them an email asking what they’re struggling with. These two responses echo many: From a radio AE in the Midwest: Call reluctance. Not because I lack the tools […]
How well do you listen on a sales call? You’ve heard sales coaches like me preach the value of effective listening. You’ve heard the same thing from your managers. You’ve read it in books. So how good are you? And how do you measure it? Here’s a simple, low-cost way to make sure you’re listening rather […]
