Decoding Sales

I'm not the first to express my distaste for cold calling, and I'm most certainly not going to be the last. I can't explain the clammy palms and fluttering stomach that accompany even the suggestion of calling people out of the blue. The funny thing is, when I finally get down to it, people on the other end of the phone are quite friendly. Many have a good sense of humour and all but one have been encouraging and polite. I hesitate to even mention the one because I could almost tell by the stress in her voice that she was in the middle of something important to her and my timing simply was off. But I was sitting there being professional with my heart in my throat, so I'll choose to blame her for being snooty.

So the brilliance of working with Wendy Hue as my business coach is continuing to pay off every day in a different way. This posting is about sales, however, so I can tell you that the book she let me borrow "High Efficiency Selling" by Stephan Schiffman, is a real treasure. Thankfully he writes in a very matter-of-fact and non-judgmental way (which is the only way to get through to me). I'm looking at my version of his 'proposal board' right now and am floored at how there are FIVE (yes...5!!) new clients on there. I particularly love the 'at a glance' ability to see where I'm at with different prospects and what action needs to be taken to get them into the rapidly expanding 'sales' column. It's a terrific visual aid for keeping focussed on sales. And if I plan to keep the business growing, that's exactly what I need to do!