How To THRIVE in Sales & Never Make Another Cold Call: The Fast, Easy, PROVEN Methods Guaranteed to Attract Your Time-Starved, Overwhelmed, Dream Prospects, with Zero Cold Calling.

By Shane Nichols

YOU WILL BURN YOURSELF OUT, FOREVER LIMIT YOUR POTENTIAL,
ALWAYS DREAD MONDAYS, AND NEVER GET RICH IF COLD CALLING
IS YOUR ONLY STRATEGY FOR FINDING NEW BUSINESS


And, if you can invest a tiny amount of time and read my book, here’s what I promise you:


You’ll realize new business development (due to various factors, mainly because of increased competition) now requires more effort than in the past, and cold calling (on its own) won’t get you to your goal. See Chapter 2.


You will also realize that getting a high-value prospect’s attention now requires marketing and specialized effort; smart employers recognize this and are adapting. See Chapter 4.


How? Those smart employers invest in lead generation marketing, and if you work for one who doesn’t, whose sole NBD strategy is to hire more salespeople and make more cold calls, eventually their growth will stall or slow to a trickle. And they’ll have an increasingly tough time attracting and keeping talented people like you! See Chapter 10.


If you don’t work for someone who invests in lead generation... it’s okay, don’t panic. You can learn how to generate your own leads and develop valuable skills that will turn you into a selling assassin for the rest of your life, and reading this book is a good start! See Chapter 11.


Also, you will discover at least one new book (I mentioned several that had a big impact on me) that will end up having a big impact on your future. See Chapter 20.


Just imagine, you will go from cold calling to following up or responding to client inquiries. While also positioning yourself as not just another salesperson, but as an authority in your field. You will not spend any of your precious time prospecting, rather, you will be implementing and testing different marketing campaigns. And most importantly, you will have more time to dazzle those clients already willing to meet with you and existing customers; which represents your greatest source of growth and profit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 8, 2024
• ISBN: 9798823021616

Book preview

© 2024 Shane Nichols. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Adobe Stock images depicting people are used with their permission and for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Adobe Stock.

Cover artwork by Arantxa Rosainz.

For permission requests, write to the author at: [e-mail]

ISBN: 979-8-8230-2160-9 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-8230-2161-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024902792

Published by AuthorHouse 02/05/2024

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CONTENTS

Part One

Realize Your Biggest Challenge in Sales Today Isn’t Selling

1.     Discover Why You Need More Than Just Sales Training Today

2.     What Sales Training Doesn’t Teach You (That You Need to Learn)

3.     How Your Employer Is Failing You as a Salesperson

Part Two

Why You Should Never Make Another Cold Call

4.     How Acting Like a Cat, and Not a Dog, Will Make You a Wealthier Salesperson

5.     How to Fill Your Pipeline Full of Warm Prospects Ready for Your Follow-Up

6.     How to Sell More by Working Less Hard

7.     How Apple Makes It Easy for Prospects to Avoid You

8.     The Biggest, Most Obvious, Yet Overlooked Secrets to Being a Successful Salesperson

Part Three

How to Get Appointments with Time-Starved, Hard-to-Reach Business Owners and Decision Makers

9.     How I Took Control and Stopped Cold Calling

10.   Whoever Can Spend the Most Money Attracting (and Keeping) Clients Wins

11.   How to Use Lead Magnets to Attract Prospective Clients

12.   How I Built My First Lead Magnet

13.   How I Built My Second Lead Magnet

14.   How I Replaced Cold Prospecting with Marketing My Lead Magnets

15.   Other People’s Clients

16.   The Secret Weapon to Reach Business Owners

17.   Email Marketing vs. Random Acts of Emailing Prospects

18.   Using Your Own Media to Market Your Lead Magnets

19.   Social Media—the Obligatory Chapter

20.   The Persistent Salesperson’s Way to Riches

21.   My Results Using Direct Response B2B Marketing at Ball State Athletics from 2021 – 2024

WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR?

This book is for B2B salespeople and the people who employ them, the ones who haven’t yet adapted (or even recognized) how technology and newer generations are buying – differently.

Because you will burn yourself out, forever limit your potential, always dread Mondays, and never get rich if cold calling is your primary strategy to land new business.

Why Cold Calling Is No Longer Efficient or Effective

Is your average sale in the thousands of dollars, and/or does each client represent a high lifetime value?

Are you a great closer, but having trouble getting appointments?

In fact, do you hate prospecting? (Don’t worry, you’re not alone).

Do you work for an employer who provides you with zero leads? AND they still expect you to generate new business, reliably?

Aren’t you SICK and TIRED of cold calling?

Make no mistake, it has become way more difficult to generate new business (reliably) through cold calling, and cold emailing strangers. Used to be, selling was about hitting the streets, pounding the pavement, face-to-face, one-on-one. Around 80 years ago, salespeople went door-to-door selling everything from sweepers to encyclopedias across our country.

Technology, like the telephone and the automobile, changed selling then. It exposed door-to-door selling as less efficient.

Sales efforts shifted from door-to-door to over-the-phone.

Would You Go Door-to-Door Selling Today?

Then, about 40 years ago, new media and marketing options changed selling again.

Mail order, newspapers, TV, and radio moved to sell from one-on-one to a more efficient one-to-many opportunity.

And now, once again, technology and marketing are changing selling.

Now it’s the internet, email, smartphone, artificial intelligence, and companies like Amazon are changing how people buy – forever.

Gone are the days when calling people cold on the telephone or emailing them out of the blue and then trying to sell them something is an effective use of time and resources. In the same sense, also gone are the days when you could open a business, hang your shingle outside, and wait for customers to flock to your business.

The shift to automation, the growth in artificial intelligence, unprecedented competition, and consolidation (fueled by private equity and venture capital) have changed selling in every category of business.

The Most Successful Sales Organizations Don’t Waste Their Valuable Sellers Time With Prospecting

Think about this: There are salespeople today who’ve never had to make a cold call, never had to hit the streets, pound the pavement, and spend sweat equity chasing new business. This new breed of seller works for employers who’ve adjusted to change by embracing marketing and technology to generate leads.

These sellers are oblivious to the many sales professionals (like me) chasing prospects around with decreasing success and increasing fatigue.

Too many employers rely on this old-fashioned and flawed business development strategy: Hire more salespeople and make more calls.

A reliance on cold outreach alone breeds the need to micromanage salespeople, spur on their labor with call reports and sales meetings, and constantly identify winners and losers through sales contests, awards, and rankings.

This is the selling environment I’ve worked in during my entire sales career. And it’s no longer enjoyable … or tolerable.

Cold Calling Requires Micromanaging … Because Everyone Hates Doing It

Nor is a reliance on cold outreach sustainable for employers – who … if not already … will experience slow – then stalled growth, high turnover, and difficulty keeping (or attracting) talented young people.

I’m not saying cold calling doesn’t work. It does work, but seldomly and randomly, and the effort to make it work (today) has become a giant waste of a true seller’s talent.

And a waste of an employer’s resources.

I am saying a reliable new business development today recognizes there are two functions to the selling process:

1. Qualifying, then getting the attention of that qualified prospect and an appointment (qualified meaning worthy of taking up a salesperson’s time).

2. Selling them something.

The first part – getting their attention and agreeing to meet with you – has become the most difficult part of selling, and it now requires marketing and specialized effort to reliably succeed at it.

It’s time to recognize that these are different times, and developing new business requires a different approach.

So, I stopped chasing clients and figured out some ways to attract them. Or at least get their attention.

And if I can make it work, so can you.

How Marketing Made Me a Star Salesman

If you would like to learn how clever, low-cost marketing can turn you into a person who follows up with and attracts clients (rather than chasing them), read on.

Who This Book Isn’t For?

Grizzled sales veterans are stuck in the past and unwilling to learn!

MY BIG PROMISE TO YOU

This is not a long book; I am not a windy person – or anything close to a novelist. I’m just a simple guy trying to make some money in the sales world. It should take you only 30 minutes (or less) to extract the bits of this book that can help you elevate your selling game beyond cold calling. If you really want to speed-read my book, just skip Part Two and focus on Part One and Part Three. That’s where the meatiest filling is.

And if you can just invest a tiny amount of time, here’s what I promise:

This: You’ll realize that new business development (due to a variety of factors, mostly because of increased competition) now requires more effort than in the past, and cold calling alone won’t get you to your goal.

And this: You will realize (for reasons I cover in detail in Part Two) getting a prospect’s attention these days now requires marketing and specialized effort, and smart employers recognize this and are adapting.

How? Those smart employers invest in lead generation marketing. If you work for one who doesn’t, whose sole new business development strategy is to hire more salespeople and make more cold calls, eventually their growth will stall or slow to a trickle. And they’ll have an increasingly tough time attracting and keeping talented people – like you.

And this: If you don’t work for someone who invests in lead generation, it’s ok, don’t panic. You can learn how to generate your own leads and develop valuable skills, turning you into a selling assassin for the rest of your life.

Also: You will discover at least one new book that will have a big impact on your future. I mention several that influenced me.

Imagine: You will never have to make another cold call (or send a cold email) again. You will learn how to get the attention of your most time-starved prospects and quickly determine whether or not they are ready and/or willing to purchase your product or service.

Just think: You will transition from cold calling to following up or responding to client inquiries.

While also: Positioning yourself as not just another salesperson, but as an authority in your field.

And this: You will spend zero-time prospecting; rather, your time will be spent implementing and testing different marketing approaches toward you best prospects.

And most importantly: You will have more time to focus on retaining and upselling your existing clients – your greatest source of growth and prosperity as a salesperson.

PART ONE

Realize Your Biggest

Challenge in Sales

Today Isn’t Selling

In this section, I’m going to talk about the hardest task facing sales professionals today. It’s not the actual selling part; I believe you are good enough at sales already. The tough part today is getting in front of a qualified prospect.

Getting appointments has become the most time-consuming and tedious task for salespeople today, and yet very little sales training or support is provided in this area.

CHAPTER ONE

Discover Why You Need More

Than Just Sales Training Today

In my early twenties, as