The Myth and the Magic:
Reach out and touch someone!

An article about sales and telesales

by Jeffrey Hansler, CSP

The words selling and salesperson conjure all kinds of emotions for speakers: some positive, some exhaustively painful. I would love for you to be a believer that you are your greatest asset in speaking by becoming a salesperson.

Myth #1: We should love sales, including telesales.

I dislike sales. Let me repeat: I dislike sales – bad sales that is. I dislike people that talk at me; I dislike companies that have people call me with scripts that let me know I’m just a name and a number; and I dislike the companies that buy my name and call me about something I already have.

The Magic: If you’re a speaker and feel this way, I have good news for you, I love cold-calling and you might find you do too.

Myth #2: Some are just born salespeople.

Sales is a disciple that you learn through the belief in its power. Maybe it was timing. I grew up during the time when the Bell Companies had to sell people on using the phone. The commercials always ended with …reach out and touch someone today.

The Magic:  Believing the phone is a great way to reach out and touch someone is a powerful belief system that will help you find reasons to cold-call.

Myth #3: Only new and struggling speakers cold call.

If a CSP or a CPAE or a Cavett Award Winner (I’ve left out names to protect the highly successful) wanted to meet someone new, how would they do it? Why they’d send a letter, bump into them in the grocery store, send them an email or CALL THEM ON THE PHONE. In my instance, I’d call them on the phone (my wife would prefer I tried the grocery store approach more often) and then I’d follow-up that with an email or letter.

The Magic: Cold-calling is not a frightening drudgery; cold-calling is ONE of your options.

Myth #4: We have to learn a phony sales script to be successful

All my success (compared to Bill Gates the word success should be eradicated from any association to my name) is a result of cold-calling in one way or another. Not the cold-calling you normally get…a painful example of self-centered prattle.

For me, effective cold-calling is being direct: I’m pleasant and I let them know their time is as valuable to me as it is to them. I know exactly what information I need and get to it as quickly as possible while leaving the door open for a business relationship. There are 6,222,572,459 people in the world (oops, lost one, there’s one…) and I want to meet them all just to say hello and learn something from them (and yes do business with just a few of them).

The Magic: Your interest in what they are doing and what they need is the key to your success – a phone call gives you a chance to participate in this process.

Myth #5: I can sell myself [when they call] so I’m good at sales [and don’t need to call out].

I have a system at sales and when I don’t use it I pay for the error of my ways. Not immediately, but six to nine months later. Each speaking opportunity I miss because I waited for them to call me hurts three times over because of the lost referral opportunities. Good sales isn’t knowing – good sales is doing.

The Magic: Each opportunity you find brings three new opportunities.

Myth #6: In the words remaining in this article, you can’t learn the keys to successful selling.

The Magic: 90% of successful telesales is not about sales skill; It’s about effort. How do I know? Because what I now know about sales dwarfs what I knew about sales before, and I was successful before (see previous reference to Bill Gates).

Make a chart for yourself of 5 columns and 23 rows. At the top, head the columns as date, # calls, # contacts, # prospects, #sales. In row #1, skip the date and list your daily target for # calls per day, # contacts, # prospects, and # sales. These targets become your objectives, and the remaining rows represent the next 22 days of calling.

The Magic: It doesn’t matter if you put three calls or thirty calls as your daily target. It only matters that you focus on reaching out and touching someone. If you do, I guarantee you’ll begin achieving results in #prospects and # sales no matter what, if any initials, you have after your name.

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Jeffrey Hansler is a professional speaker, author, and consultant. He is a frequent speaker at association events and is the author of Sell Little Red Hen! Sell! He can be reached at jhansler@oxfordco.com.

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© 2004 Jeffrey Hansler  All rights reserved