Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling Foreword ~ By Harvey Mackay
During the past 15 years, the World Wide Web has dramatically changed business
as we know it. Just as dramatically, the Web has changed the world for anyone involved
in sales and business development. Although there are literally thousands of books and
training programs designed to help people improve their sales effectiveness, very few if
any show how to take advantage of Web-based information tools to improve sales
performance. Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling is the first such book.
In 1988 when I wrote Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive, the
World Wide Web was just a curiosity for most businesses, and it certainly was not a
relied upon tool by sales and business development professionals. In the B2B space in
particular, most business was done as it had been done for decades: Companies produced
products or delivered services, marketing people tailored messages, and sales people
were largely successful (or not) based on their personal networks and their ability to
negotiate a fair price.
Exceptional sales people understood the lessons in Dale Carnegie’s breakthrough
book How to Win Friends and Influence People, a business and personal success “bible”
written in 1936. Top sales people succeeded because they were able to build meaningful
relationships based on getting to know a customer, their concerns, and providing relevant
solutions and value.
To help more sales people reach the “exceptional level,” I wrote Swim With the
Sharks and established the Mackay 66 Customer Profile—a tool for asking questions and
organizing information—to help sales people learn about and document their customers
inside and out. Get to know your clients, their needs, their industry, their customers, and
learn how you and your company can provide value by solving real business issues and
you can quickly differentiate your company.
Fast forward to 2007 and the while the rules for sales success are still the same,
the techniques are much more sophisticated and difficult to execute. Why? Because in
today’s hyper-information world, it is not as easy to get an executive’s attention and even
have the opportunity to practice Carnegie’s techniques. Unless an email message or voice
mail “breaks through the clutter” in the first few seconds, it gets prioritized to the bottom
of the pile, or often, prioritized to the digital wasteland via the one-click action of an
erase or delete key.
If I had to name the single characteristic shared by all the truly successful people
I’ve met over a lifetime, I’d say it is the ability to create and nurture a network of
contacts. Your network is your secret weapon for getting in doors and establishing
relationships with important people and business decisions makers.
However, in today’s information-overload world, dropping a name or getting a
referral might help get you a meeting, but it certainly won’t help you establish credibility
or make a great first impression. Your network might get you in the door, but when you
have the opportunity to meet with a decision maker, you had better make sure that you
have done your homework.
No longer can you “wing it” during your first communication with a new contact.
The precious time you have with a busy executive should not be wasted asking questions
like “what’s going on in your industry?” and “where do you see your company going in
the next year?” You’re expected to know that information. Unfortunately, although that
might be the expectation, knowing how to get that information before walking in the door
is not taught in business schools, and not even in three-day sales training workshops
costing thousands of dollars.
What Sam Richter has captured in Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling is not only
the theory of why having credible and objective information is imperative, but unlike any
sales training book or program, Sam also tells you how to gather the data. Sam’s “Fourth
R – Research” techniques opens up the incredible world of online information in a way
that’s easy to understand, and more important, easy to implement.
In 2006, Sam visited MackayMitchell Envelope Company and unveiled his
unique program to our staff. To say our team was amazed is an understatement. Even our
sales people who grew up using the Internet walked away shocked at what they didn’t
know, and stunned at the amount of information available online, accessible with a few
mouse clicks.
Sam’s system for organizing and applying information using his “Customer
Research Management System” perfectly complements the Mackay 66. Using Sam’s
techniques, we’re now able to answer many of the questions in the “66” before we even
walk in our prospect’s door. By having a good understanding of our prospects, their
companies, their industries, and the issues they face, we are able to make a great first
impression, and immediately establish our credibility. Our people are able to ask highly
relevant questions, and we’re able to get right to the heart of how our custom direct mail
solutions can solve what can sometimes be complex business and marketing issues.
If you wish others to believe in you, you must first convince them that you believe
in them. If you believe that your growth is predicated on your ability to help others
achieve their goals, then what Sam provides in the following pages is the jump-start to
helping you achieve yours.
Harvey Mackay
www.harveymackay.com