Tweet

Right Brain Cold Calling - What is it?

Written by: Ari Galper

Article Overview: You know the feeling you get when you hear the rhythm of a song and it feels as if you’re grooving with it?

Right Brain Cold Calling - What is it?

You know the feeling you get when you hear the rhythm of a song and it feels as if you’re grooving with it?

That’s the feeling I got when I received this note from Gwen and Bob Baran.

They totally “get it.” They both studied the Unlock The Game Mastery Program carefully and quickly, and now they’re using their new selling insights every day in ways I never imagined possible.

A little about their business... Bob is a composer, performer, and producer of original music in a New Age fusion of solo piano and smooth jazz. He also has a hardcore background in traditional sales (quite an interesting “fusion”). Gwen, who has no background in sales, works with him to get retailers and other outlets to stock his music.

This is their story told by Bob.

Gwen and Bob's Story

Gwen’s and my discovery of your selling approach has had a remarkable affect on us personally -- and an almost-instantaneous positive effect on our bottom line.

What had become a grueling ordeal has become an exciting journey -- a relaxing ‘walk’ in which I encounter new and interesting people and find those who share a sincere interest in what we have to offer. Does this sound “Pollyanna”?

Let me just ask those of you who are reading this, “When was the last time you woke up excited about making cold calls and making them an enjoyable part of your day?”

I’ve been selling -- successfully for more than 30 years. I started out selling the Encyclopedia Britannica and in the 1980s was one of the top 5 multilevel marketing trainers in the US. Then I created a radio production company that’s still considered one of the top 50 in the country, with clients as diverse as Kroger’s and NPR. Clients sought me out, and I didn’t have to explain who I was or what I did.

So, how did I become afraid of cold calling?

It happened after I decided to live out my dream of putting my music out into the world. So Gwen and I launched our record label. She took on all the design and graphics tasks for our website and packaging while I “lost” myself in the creative process for a year. We launched our label with 6 CDs of my music in several different genres.

Then I had to face promoting and distributing them.

I found myself sitting at the telephone physically unable to make a call because fear had robbed me of all my old salesman’s “juice.”

I finally came to a frightening and painful realization. The creative process of making music had taken me so far into my “right brain” that I had become a different person. The guy who had always won the sales contests wasn’t who I was anymore. Something was missing. Learning to surrender to my creative self had made me a different person.

I couldn’t bring myself to make the cold calls needed to successfully distribute my music, so I did the only thing possible.

I made Gwen do it!

She had no experience in selling, but she was a natural salesperson with a fantastic personality. Of course, I “trained” her in all the standard sales techniques and strategies I had learned so well (we all know what they are). And the couple of times she asked me, “Why aren’t you making cold calls?,” I would tell her, “Because you need to learn this so down the road we can hire people to do it”-- and slither back to the safety of the studio.

The inevitable happened. Two or three days went by with her attitude and activity sinking like stones. I started looking around to see if there were any new answers out there. That’s when we found you, Ari. And in searching for a solution for Gwen, I found the solution for myself too.

You see, I had a mental block. I associated cold calling with the worst of what selling was all about -- the “going to war” concept where you put on your armor and play a word and mind game with someone you’ve never met.

But I couldn’t be that person anymore. I didn’t want to even attempt to be that person. But imagining that I’d have to do that again build my record label scared the hell out of me.

But we found your website and began looking deeply into what you had to say.

Frankly, yours was the third or fourth sales training website we looked at, but something was noticeably different about yours. You weren’t a “trainer.” You didn’t offer “closing secrets” or “opening lines.”

You were proposing a mind shift that turns all the old-style ideas of manipulating, turning, guiding, playing, and closing into one simple human act: building a relationship -- making friends and doing business with people you like and who like you.

It was the testimonials on your site that convinced me to order your Mastery Program. I heard the voices of real people who I knew intuitively were the real deal, and who weren’t so different from me. Like me, they wanted to find a way to be themselves and enjoy the journey.

As soon as your program arrived, we stopped making calls and immersed ourselves in it for the next five days.

The following week, Gwen’s sales exceeded all the sales of the previous 6 weeks put together. Plus, I added a new national client for Baran Productions and added a new artist with three albums to Gathering Wave, all in five days.

We’re both convinced it’s because we stopped being “salespeople”. We started to have fun, and we were amazed at how people responded to us. What’s more, at the end of the day we weren’t burned out. We were energized, and truly happy.

Just as I had to learn how to let go and surrender to the creative part of myself as a composer and musician, I believe you’ve accomplished the same thing in the art of selling. Thank you for bringing the right brain into selling. You are an artist.

Your friend,

Bob Baran

And here’s a note from Gwen:
Hi Ari,

I’m getting much more comfortable using your mindset and languaging. I can’t believe how much more relaxed I am now when I make my calls, and the great responses I get, like “I enjoyed talking with you. Thank you for your help” after people order, is amazing.

My sales have increased dramatically and I'm making a lot fewer calls. I’m on the phone longer, but now I'm getting sales on my first call as well.

Something else I found with your “right-brain” approach is “what you say, you believe.” If I'm saying, “That's not a problem,” then I believe that there are no problems. I'm more relaxed on the phone and in my everyday life.

Thanks, Ari, for your intuitive “right-brain” approach to selling!

Your friend,

Gwen Baran

6 Strategies You'll Learn from the Mastery Program

Here are 6 key take-aways from the Mastery Program, based on Bob’s and Gwen’s experiences that will help you shift your sales mindset so you can begin tapping into the power of your right brain.

Because the right
brain is... Consider this...
1. Involved in process
(not outcome)...
* Before you make a cold call, think to yourself, “My goal is not to make the sale but to create a conversation based on how I can help the other person.”

2. Intuitive
(not calculating or
manipulative)
* Avoid changing who you are when you make your call. There’s no need to be on “stage” or to sound enthusiastic. Just be your everyday relaxed self, as if you’re calling a friend. People know when you’re being genuine, and when you’re not.

3. Flexible (not linear)
* Throw out your linear sales script and generate a spontaneous conversation based on the problems you can help the other person solve.


4. Concrete
(not abstract)

* Develop two or three specific problems that you know your product or service solves.

5. Holistic
(not compartmentalized)



* Let go of thinking “buyer-seller,” and view the person you’re calling as another person, not as a “prospect.”
6. Open-ended
(not rigid)
* Let go of worrying about driving the conversation “forward.” Instead, open your call with a problem statement that generates the response “What do you mean?” or “Tell me more.”

Related Articles
  How To Use Your Right Brain When You Cold Call
  Stop By All That Business Your Are Driving By If You Want to Increase Sales
  What Cold Calling Business Lead Management Can Do For Your Business
  Is cold calling right for my business?
  Cold Calling

Article Tags: 1980s, bottom line, cold calling, cold calls, composer performer, encyclopedia britannica, gwen, kroger, mastery program, multilevel marketing, new age, npr, ordeal, original music, packa, radio production company, record label, rhythm, smooth jazz, solo piano



Related Forum Posts
Re: How to develop sales contacts? - Everyone has the right idea here. Depending on your business, there are different techniques that you could use. For consultants and sales heavy businesses, there are three tactics that I have found especially useful in my business: 1. Attend Networking Events 2. Cold Calling 3. Referral Program 4. Affiliate Program (most successful) The affiliate program was successful for me, as I hooked up with a franchise consultant, and he gave multiple unit businesses that needed my credit card processing services. I highly suggest you hook up with a sales partner, and give him a cut of the monthly revenue.
Re: Direct Mail Postcards - Post cards would be really expensive to send from Japan...but one way to advertise that is not expensive from overseas is by Cold Calling using cheap VoIP equipment. I know Japan has a really good internet connection, so as long as you are willing to stay up late, it might be an option. I cold call from Thailand far, far away from any city using a CDMA wireless internet connection and have had pretty good results. I find tho, that cold calling works best for business 2 business (b2b), rather than b2c products. --matt
Re: Cold Calling - As long as people are out of jobs, you'll probably have a lot of people who say they want to work for straight commission, but if they don't get paid fairly quickly, they usually move on. We've run into that and went through about 500 people (whose resumes looked really good) until we found about 3 good resellers. People just don't want to work for anything. Or they do a good job getting the business but don't do the follow up necessary to make the sale......so they move on thinking they need money NOW. Our business requires all cold calling as well. It's really tough for people to perfect that but there are a lot of good books out there. On is Cold Calling Techniques, by Stephan Schiffman
Re: Cold Calling - Cold calling is an extremely difficult job to do and unless one learns that being told no by people is not a direct refusal aimed at the cold caller but at whatever is being sold, it can be very soul destroying work to do. One needs to have absolute confidence in themselves and a pretty thick skin. MichelleJ
Cold Calling - Cold calling is tough, but it is possible. Its a shame that your employer doesn't seem to be giving you any help. I would suggest that you learn everything about the products you're trying to sell to the retailers. It wouldn't hurt to have them close at hand while you're on the phone with a potential buyer. Learn what is great about the items. What do they offer the consumer? Why should the retailer carry them? Who would be most likely to buy the items? Once you know these answers, learn about the companies you are calling. Its hard to tell a retailer that your product is something they need - if you don't know anything about their business and/or the customers. If they have a website that would be a great place to research. Shri


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

SEO – Link Building Secrets

The five pillars of internet marketing strategy

Resistance to Change and How to Deal With It

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.