| I had no money when I started my consulting | | | | destiny. |
| business. | | | | You decide your activity level, and directly affect |
| But I had a phone, and that's all it took to | | | | your results. You set your salary. |
| transform myself from an Indiana professor with | | | | You don't have to wait for inbound calls to be |
| a church-mouse salary, into an independent, | | | | generated from expensive advertising, and |
| flourishing, nationwide practitioner within a matter | | | | because you are proactively reaching out to |
| of mere months. | | | | prospects, you're enjoying several advantages: |
| I contacted colleges and trade associations out of | | | | (1) You fly under the radar of your competitors. I |
| the blue, asking them to sponsor a new seminar I | | | | was at 35 universities and had six titles on the |
| had created, and within 18 months my program | | | | shelves of Barnes and Noble before my |
| had been successfully sponsored by 35 of them, | | | | competitors even knew there was a category in |
| which became my distribution network. | | | | stores for "sales" and "telemarketing." In other |
| I didn't know ANY of the people I called, initially. | | | | words, you're fast to the market, and that |
| Not one came from a referral. And there wasn't | | | | advantage can be amazing in its impacts. |
| a sponsor that came to me during that time--I | | | | (2) You can customize your offers to each |
| went to them. | | | | prospect, quickly market testing them until you |
| Still, I was able to increase my earnings by TEN | | | | sort out the best one, and then focus on it. Try |
| TIMES within a calendar year, buy my own home | | | | changing print ads or direct mailers with this |
| in pricey California, and start driving luxury cars | | | | frequency, and even if you did you wouldn't get |
| and taking European and Hawaiian vacations, at | | | | the instant, rich feedback a cold call gives you. |
| will. | | | | (3) There's no downtime. You can keep calling until |
| During my first few years of professional | | | | you strike gold, knowing that at any time you're |
| speaking, a major publisher noticed my programs | | | | awake, someone, somewhere in the world can be |
| and asked me if I wanted to write books. I did; | | | | reached by your call and say yes. |
| six in five years, and four went on to become | | | | (4) Cold calling is cheap and getting cheaper still. |
| business best-sellers. Later, I would publish my | | | | How many hundreds or thousands of unused |
| second six. | | | | minutes do you have left on your calling plans? |
| And these books, in turn, brought me millions of | | | | (5) Your competitors are afraid of the phone, |
| dollars of added business. | | | | busy taking to heart the wimpy appeals of |
| This harvest of success came directly from the | | | | so-called gurus who claim cold-calling doesn't work. |
| seeds I sowed with my cold calls. | | | | Don't even think your prospects are being |
| If not for those frosty calls, made during one of | | | | bombarded by multiple phone offers. It just |
| the coldest Midwestern winters on record, I | | | | doesn't happen, anymore, so you'll stand out |
| wouldn't be writing this article, and I might still be | | | | among all of the cowards who are trying to find a |
| stuck in that quiet hamlet of 7,500 souls, where I | | | | "lazy person's" path to riches. |
| was until I mustered the courage to dial my way | | | | I could go on. |
| out. | | | | Once you learn to cold call you join the ranks of |
| IN LIGHT OF THIS NARRATIVE, WHICH LOSER | | | | those who have tasted battle and savored hard |
| IS GOING TO TELL ME COLD CALLING DOESN'T | | | | earned victories. Everyone else may have an |
| WORK? | | | | opinion, but unless they've ventured where you've |
| When you learn to cold call, you control your | | | | been, they don't know what they're talking about. |