Tweet

Brother can you Spare a Sale?

Guest post by: Tibor Shanto

Article Overview: Sometimes you have to look beyond sales and to unexpected sources to figure out what you have to do to succeed in sales; so be it if it can make a real difference.

Brother can you Spare a Sale?

Last year there was a major controversy in Toronto around panhandlers and others on the street and their impact on tourism and the like. All this was sparked by an unfortunate set of events. Of course, the solution proposed by the ever-enlightened leadership in the city was to ban all these people. As there was no rug on the street, I guess they were proposing that they be swept under the side walk. This of course stirred further controversy and debate on the street, in the papers and talk radio, my favourite media vice.

I know, you’re reading this wondering what this has to do with cold calling, but stay with me.

One caller into the radio had a great suggestion, they were joking, but I think they missed the brilliance of their suggestion when looked at from my perspective. The caller suggested that we should take all the panhandlers put them in suits, and give them all jobs as cold callers. They clearly had no issues engaging strangers; no fear of rejection; no call reluctance, and they seem to have the proper work ethic as they were putting in a full day of work every day without costly supervision. He was right; there was no flaw in his observation.

When you think about it, why do the people on the street panhandle? You would think that for the majority it is very simple, if they do not, they will not eat; simple straight forward. There are of course those few who are out there because they can make loads of tax free money, and they earn more net panhandling than others do at work. The question still stands, how do they overcome the fear of walking up to strangers and asking for money? As a sales rep we usually only have to ask for the appointment, they go right for the gusto and ask for the close! How do they find the discipline to do it day in day out 5,6,7, or even 8 hours a day? They understand that if you don’t initiate the process, there is little chance of reaching your objective. I wonder if they know their ratio of approaches to cash.

Unlike many sales people, they do not spend time trying to figure out who to call and who not to call. They don’t pretend to be clairvoyant and be able to divine if someone is a buyer or not just by looking at their business cards or faces. They just systematically and consistently approach everybody in their territory; they make the call and deal with the results and the rewards.

They also do not spend a lot of time planning and researching, or any of the other things that seem to consume the prospecting time reps set aside. Once they get to work, they make sure that they have what they need and then spend their time executing rather than rationalizing.

They also do not fool themselves that their “pipeline is full”, “I need to work on what is in the pipe and then I can prospect”, they are never too busy planning and hoping. They execute. They have a system and process and they execute. They don’t worry about interrupting or bothering their targets, they just approach, present their value proposition “need to eat”, and execute. If someone says no, they are that much closer to the next close.

I am not suggesting that we become panhandlers, (although I am sure some of the ones on the main streets of Toronto are making more than some sales people in Toronto), but I would encourage everyone to stop and ask why the panhandler can consistently act and execute.

Related Articles
  The Importance Of Making Connections
  Which Brother Are You?
  Lesson #4: Everything Happens in its Own Time
  Today's "rant" - it's just business
  The Most Successful Leader
  Monthly Dinner With My Brother
  Top 10 Questions to Ask Your Prospects Before You Ask for the Business
  When are you going to start enjoying your spare time?
  Lesson #2: Do Not Be Afraid to Go Against the Grain
  Crunching the Competition: Corn Flakes Take Off
  The Cereal King: How W.K. Kellogg Got His Start
  Duer's Painting of the Praying Hands-The Story
  Lesson #3: Be Ruthless and Rise to the Challenge
  See You on Venus...
  aneiPhone, Nintendo Wii show that consumers hunger for new gestural interfaces
  Snap, Crackle, and Pop to Success: How Kellogg Built a Cereal Empire
  Stress and the Sales Cycle
  Losing The Deal - Yeah, It Does Happen To All Sales Professionals too!
  New Car Sales Online - Benefits Of New Cars Purchase
  My Boss is not My Brother

Article Tags: cold calling, execution, sales, sales success



Related Forum Posts
Re: What's in a Name? - Sale or promotion relies a lot in name chosen for product/business.
I want to start a CARTRIDGE business Need help - Hi, I am 20 years old, and looking to open up a cartridges business. I would like to know the markup on say.. HP Canon, Brother and other cartridges. It seems that Staples, office depot and other big companies sell them at regular retial price, I have come accross several websites, that sell them for reasonable prices. I am in contact with Tech Data (probably will open an account) I just want to know the general markup on cartridges? Thanks
$200,000 in 91 days - Big Brother Africa reality show just ended on Sunday and a guy named Kevin from Nigeria came out of the house with $200,000. He was the last man in the house among the 25 people that entered the house three months ago. There were lots of backbiting, hatred and scheming all the way to emerge the winner. This got me thinking. With Internet marketing business and proper planing one can achieve the goal of $200,000 within 91 days without been confined to a house with other 24 strangers. Is this possible even with a newbie without a single list and no money for PPC? Please lets hear your views
Internet Users Hbk http://www.internetscamsanonymous.com - Current site for sale of our handbook as a Clickbank product Welcome any and all feedback: Sale page Content Handbook Content Pricing Too Big Considering braking it to 2 volumes: Avoiding Scams Online and Doing Business Online and maybe ad 3rd volume related internet technology Kind of like selling preventive medicine!! Thank you in advance for your interest and comments
Re: Internet Fax Services - any suggestions? - Yes Kevin... I've been through that routine. Almost bought one of those refill kits to save some money, but have decided to abandon this machine (Brother intellifax). Hi David, [quote:2izu9vop]Hey, why did you want to receive colour faxes - lucky you don't get any fax spam![/quote:2izu9vop] Well, we work with graphics programs and deal with color images - mainly logos - and I thought it would be useful. Turns out emailing is preferred by just about everyone we deal with. BTW, I did sign up with eFax and find the service working well so far. I figure costs of the monthly service @ 17mth will hopefully be a better value than total costs of ink cartridges, and fax machine. I expect it would esp if you are sending/receiving a lot of faxes. In my case I'm a borderline user, so it might pay off or at least balance out. Anyway, no more spam faxes printing out unless I say so...


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.

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 Tip Of The Day: HTML Validation

Setting Goals for your Home Based Business

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.