Never Cold Call Again: Achieve Sales Greatness Without Cold Calling (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The world of selling hasn't changed much in recent years, while the world of business in general has changed dramatically..." (more)
Key Phrases: profit justification, main business goals, leveraged systems, Information Age, Secret Excuse, Napoleon Hill (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"Cold calling is the lowest percentage of sales call success.  If you invest the same amount of time in reading this book as you do in cold calling, your success percentage and your income will skyrocket."- Jeffrey Gitomer, Author, Little Red Book of Selling

"You can never get enough of a good thing!  Read this book and USE its contents!"- Anthony Parinello, Author, Selling to Vito and Stop Cold Calling Forever

Salespeople everywhere are learning the hard way that cold calling doesn't work anymore.  Yet, millions of salespeople are stuck in the past, using twentieth-century sales techniques to try to lure twenty-first century customers.  There has to be an easier way to find prospects - and there is.  Today's most successful salespeople are using modern technology to bring prospects to them, rather than fishing for prospects over the phone or knocking on doors.

Never Cold Call Again offers practical, step-by-step alternatives to traditional cold calling for salespeople, small business owners, and independent professionals who are actively building a client base. The Information Age presents endless opportunities for finding leads without cold calling. In fact, Frank Rumbauskas’s system brings prospects to the salesperson, rather than the other way around. Readers will find unbeatable sales advice on effective self-promotion, generating endless leads, how to win prospects using e-mail, prospecting on the Web, networking, developing effective proposals, and much more.

Frank J. Rumbauskas Jr. (Phoenix, AZ) provides marketing consultation and coaching services to firms who wish to provide qualified leads to their sales force rather than have them spend productive work time cold calling. He is the author of the self-published hit Cold Calling Is a Waste of Time (0-9765163-0-6).

From the Back Cover

GENERATE MORE LEADS AND HIGHER SALES—WITHOUT COLD CALLING!

Salespeople everywhere are learning the hard way that cold calling just doesn't work anymore. Yet, millions of salespeople are stuck in the past, using twentieth-century sales techniques to try to lure twenty-first-century customers. But today's consumers have no patience for the sales pitch—that is, if they even answer the phone at all.

There has to be an easier way to find more and better prospects—and there is. Today's most successful salespeople are using modern technology to bring prospects to them, rather than fishing for prospects over the phone. In Never Cold Call Again, Frank Rumbauskas shows you how to move your sales program into the Information Age using modern marketing tools like e-mail, Web sites, and blogs. Based on interviews with top performers, proven marketing tactics, and his own sales experience, Rumbauskas shows you how to make more money in sales without the high-pressure tactics and closing speeches everyone is sick of. This cutting-edge guide will bring your sales methods into the future, without the cold call. Plus, you'll learn how to:

• Craft a unique message and get it out to the masses
• Use e-mail to land prospects you wouldn't get over the phone
• Use direct mail techniques that still work
• Build a Web site and drive traffic to it
• Maintain ongoing contact with prospects
• Use newsletters to get the word out
• Write a blog to attract qualified prospects automatically
• Get free publicity from the media
• Think like an independent consultant, not a sales rep
• Develop and deliver a powerful sales proposal

Cold calling isn't just ineffective; it's outdated. Never Cold Call Again will show you how to tap into the power of modern marketing to increase your prospects and boost your sales—without even picking up the phone!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (May 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471786799
• ISBN-13: 978-0471786795
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,935 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unimpressive Book From An Impressive Salesperson, September 24, 2006

By	AliGhaemi (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

Achieving sales greatness without cold calling might be a looked-for goal in sales circles - although greatness is hell of a subjective term - but Never Cold Call Again is ultimately contradictory in content, immaterial to enterprise sales and poorly written and constructed.
Setting aside the author's weak command of the English language, including but not limited to poor grammar, redundant and numerous superlatives and misuse of pronouns, what is more germane to the average reader is how Frank Rumbauskas begins with one premise and quickly proceeds to negate it. Firstly though, it is clear that Rumbauskas is better suited and more experienced at low figure sales. Some of his general advice might just be relevant to selling vacuums, low cost service or sub-$1000 telephone systems, but will not travel beyond to larger enterprise sales. One can cite his advice to include one's telephone number and e-mail address in fax-back forms on page 59 as one example. Who is this book aimed at? Furthermore, miscellaneous advice, like pretending to be in a prospect's area (naturally while calling the person on the phone as described on page 63) dressing up as a form of subterfuge or impersonating one's executive assistant (again on page 63 - the author suggests giving this script to a fellow or a telemarketer: "Good morning. I'm an executive assistant with the office of Frank Rumbauskas. I'm pleased to inform you...") is plain wrong and immoral.

It is prose like this, which disparages the sales profession in the eyes of millions.

At its core, the author's assertion that individual cold calls are a waste of time and his advocacy for the concept of leverage are sane. He advocates a variety of marketing activities as a superior alternative to cold calling. These include e-mail newsletter, direct mail, fax blasts (when was the last time you were persuaded to make a large figure purchase based on a fax - the kind of which piles up on any company's fax machine routinely...) and flyering for executive lunches. Aside from snags like how that last technique again hints at the book's readers' target market (what sort of an executive will attend a roundtable in order to take advantage of a free $5 lunch? - page 93: your flyer should say, "ABC restaurant, compliments of us..." or page 92: "the free lunch was key" and more) some of the practices detailed go against the writer's own advice not to engage in one on one marketing. After all, flyers sent to cars or offices are presumably delivered one at a time as described by the author's `cold walk' technique (page 60 - "I'd walk through the door, hand my flyer..." - imagine getting an enterprise sale that way!!). That is the book's main paradox. Moreover, the author's assumption that all prospects and industries deserve a similar approach is plain asinine - which they do not in the context of sales larger than, say, $100.

Rumbauskas' book deserves kudos for focusing on the concept of leverage and time management, challenging conventional thinking and being forthright. His contradictions and less than honest advice lose him a star as does his digression into actual sales techniques and page after page of redundant and repetitious subject matter. Other reviewers have pointed it out, but it bears repeating that the author consistently contradicts himself and (hopefully) does not even realize it.

Ultimately, Never Cold Call Again: Achieve Sales Greatness Without Cold Calling would have been better as a magazine article which was also supported by some empirical supporting data. Yet, and despite that, Rumbauskas is still a good salesperson. Why? I purchased his book despite all that.

23 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Cold Calling is a waste of time..... , April 2, 2008

By	Marcus T. Brody (Tampa Bay, FL) - See all my reviews

Cold Calling IS a waste of time. I couldn't agree more. However, so is reading this book. One of the biggest pet peeves I have with books that make such incredible bold statements, are that they ALWAYS try to upsell you. Flip through the pages of this book, and you will see ads for other Frank R. (his last name is a joke) books, lectures, audio series, etc. It's like, come on man, you got my hard earned money for buying this book in the first place, now you want to wet my appetite enough so that you need more money from me? And he has the right to bash "sleazy" sales tactics in this book! The upsell is THE king of sleazy sales tactics! Whet the appetite, confuse the reader, then offer VERY pricey audio lecture series, alternate books, 1-on-1 training, and more. Ridiculous. This guy is the epitome of a snake oil salesman. All he wants to do is to confuse you, have you sign up for his newsletter, so he can SPAM the hell out of you!!

There is SOME good advice in this book. I'm not going to bash it completely. But some of his ideas are shaky at best, and of course, are SEVERELY lacking in proper application. He goes on and on in various chapters about how NOT to do something, then when it comes to doing it right, he'll offer vague advice. Once again, ridiculous, and sleazy.

I've tried applying some of the tactics in this book, and have received extremely minimal results, at best. Perhaps if this sleazeball went more into detail about how to actually apply his principles, rather than bash the heck out of everything else, I might have gotten something of value from this book.

I don't care for the author, nor do I care for this book.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Salespeople make your life easier..., November 3, 2006

By	Bryan Lenihan (Chicago) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have been a sales professional for 7 years and have read a multitude of sales books, the majority of which helped me in some small way improve my sales and the sales process. This is the first book which has really helped me to the hardest part of my job, that is to generate good leads. This book brings a clear and concise game plan for all sales people to follow. If your in sales you need this book!