Michael Halper - The Cold Calling Equation: Problem Solved

Copyright 2013

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ISBN: 1468173545

ISBN 13: 9781468173543

eBook ISBN: 978-1-62111-740-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012900265

CreateSpace, North Charleston, SC

The Cold Calling Equation is both easy to understand and thorough. While Michael lays out winning tactics specific to cold calling, hes also framed these techniques within the fundamental principles of consultative selling. Those who adopt the concepts in this book are ensured of increased success in sales and improved peace of mind.

CRAIG KLEIN

CEO, SALESNEXUS.COM

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a practical and effective approach to prospecting. Michael covers all of the important tactics and strategies to achieve great cold calling results.

JEREMY ULMER

PRESIDENT, SALESCOACHINGHABITS.COM

If you want to transform your prospecting activity into high-performing executable results, you picked the right book. The Cold Calling Equation does a great job of articulating a core methodology, but most importantly provides an easy-to-use playbook and guide to take action immediately. The concepts and ideas in this book are sound approaches for sales professionals at any skill level.

MIKE KINNEY

EXECUTIVE VP OF SALES, ASURE SOFTWARE

Most books about cold calling just focus on tactics. In The Cold Calling Equation, Michael Halper digs further to address not only tactics, but also strategies, planning, and, perhaps most importantly, the mental state of the sales person. Most people will never enjoy cold calling, but that doesnt mean they cant be successful at it. Michael addresses the challenges of cold calling directly and shows how to make it a successful component of a sales strategy.

RUSTY SMITH

PRESIDENT, THE CENTER FOR GROWTH

The great thing about this book is that it can help anybody to improve results regardless of sales experience. This book would be great for the technical-minded sales person and entrepreneur.

COREY PRATOR

CEO, RENT YOUR CIO

A comprehensive yet concise framework that can help any sales person to immediately improve results. This book could be used to develop a corporate cold calling program or improve an existing one.

ANDREA NICHOLAS

-CEO, OPTIMIZE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TAKING THE FIRST
STEP FORWARD

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

LAO-TZU

T he great thing about sales, and more specifically cold calling, is that it truly is a skill. It is a skill because there are clear things that we can learn and do, or not do, to impact our results and effectiveness. We can consciously adopt different techniques, philosophies, and methodologies and likely see an immediate impact on our results. This is good news, as it means that we have a great amount of control over our results and our success. If we want to get better results, in most cases we can invest time and energy in learning and developing this skill and likely see a return on our investment in the form of improved sales performance and increased sales.

HARD WORK SALES RESULTS

There are many jobs where hard work and extra effort will typically lead to some amount of results. Digging a ditch, for example. If we were digging a ditch, regardless of how we positioned our hands on the shovel, or the type of motion and form that we used during the digging stroke, if we worked really hard for a period of time, we would likely see some amount of progress and productivity. Even if there is a more efficient method, the hard work will compensate for poor form and get us some amount of progress toward our goal.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on your point of view, this is not the case when working as a sales professional. In the world of sales, working hard alone does not always translate into success. This is not to discount the importance of hard work, as there can definitely be a correlation between top performers and hard work. But we can make 100 cold calls every day, and if we use the wrong form and technique, we could actually see zero results from all of that hard work. Sales is tough, and there are simply no points given out for trying really hard while not using the right techniques and processes.

To demonstrate this premise, if we are successful with filling our calendar with meetings with prospects, we would feel and look very busy and productive. But if the prospects whom we are meeting with are not qualified in terms of having a true need to purchase, having the authority to make a purchase, or having the ability to make a purchase from a funding standpoint, we could be working hard with prospects who do not have a real probability of purchasing. This means that all of our hard work and busyness might produce very little actual sales and, in this instance, all of our hard work will not be leading to an equal amount of sales results.

The good news in all of this is that if we use the right techniques and tactics, we can improve both our effectiveness and efficiency. This means that if we develop our knowledge and skills, not only can we stand to improve the amount of results that we get from the work that we put in, but when we get really sharp, we stand to find ourselves in scenarios where we exceed expectations with average levels of effort.

HOW THIS BOOK CAN HELP

This book is designed to help improve the form and technique that a sales person will use when making cold calls. The concepts in this book are very easy and practical to implement, making them adoptable by any sales person regardless of skill level and experience. The suggested changes in this book can lead to an immediate improvement in cold calling results, which can lead to both better quality and better quantity leads in the short-term. In the long-term, the impact from these improvements can be an increase in overall sales and improved sales performance.

RETIRE A TRADITIONAL FORMULA

Before we move to outline what this book will focus on, lets first look at one of the most common formulas for improving sales performance or cold calling results: the sales funnel concept.

The sales funnel is a formula that is built on the premise that you put in some amount of lead generation activity into the top of the funnel, like hours of cold calling for example, and out of that investment you will have a certain number of conversations. Out of those conversations, you will schedule a certain number of appointments. Out of the appointments that you execute, you will produce a certain number of leads. A certain percentage of those leads should close in the form of sales, and this is what comes out of the bottom of the funnel.

That is the sales funnel. The math and logic are all sound, but there are three pitfalls that we can easily encounter when we are only focused on the funnel:

1.Assuming effort = results

If we fully subscribe to the sales funnel concept, then we have the expectation that putting in some sort of activity into the top of the funnel will lead to some amount of results. The challenge with that expectation is that, as we already pointed out, effort alone is not guaranteed to lead to any results. If our technique, form, or messaging is off and we put an investment of lead generation activity into the top of the funnel, our expectation of results might not be met as very little or nothing could come out of the bottom of the sales funnel. As a result, the sales funnel concept by itself could be a poor model to use to improve results and establish sales expectations.