Practice what you preach...

I always make cold calls in front of my clients -

If I'm training sales teams on how to improve a certain aspect of selling, the most effective way is to practice what I preach right in-front of them. 

A few months ago I was training a team of 8 salespeople & listened as they made calls & kept getting stuck trying to pass through gatekeepers. 

So I demonstrated my way & passed through a couple with relative ease. 

I'll never forget the face on one of the young sales guys...

He looked at me in disbelief.

'Surely you're not allowed to do that!'

'Do what?'

'Well...your tone, it was so direct & then not mentioning your company name or reason for calling.'

'What's wrong with that?'

'I don't know, the gatekeeper seemed to do exactly what you said, almost like a complete role reversal...but is that even professional?'

'Let me ask you a question - is it professional to keep getting told they're not interested or asked to send a generic email?

Or is it more professional to get through to the correct person so you can actually do your job?"

"Well...I can't speak to a person my parent's age like that."

"Who told you that?"

"I mean...I'm half their age!"

"Can you vote? 

And are you legally allowed in a pub?"

"Well yes."

"Then you're an adult - and after this training you're going to learn to behave like one, and to leave your little kid at home."

#sales #prospecting #sdr