Donnette

Like that scene from the horror flick, The Shining, when Jack Nicholson axes his way through Shelley Duvalls bathroom, telemarketing is just as dramatically asserting:

Im B A C K!

Taken for dead, this incredibly useful yet widely misunderstood and abused medium is assuming its rightful place in the pantheon of promotional tools.

And why shouldnt it?

The Web, for all of its sweeping grandeur and cascading impacts, simply isnt nearly as effective in SELLING as the humble, real-time, person to person phone conversation. As Ive said elsewhere, and as so many would-be dot com moguls can attest:

YOU MIGHT BUILD IT, BUT THEY STILL WONT COME.

This is to say INDIRECT marketing is problematic for a few reasons:

(1) Well, duh, its INDIRECT, for one thing. Wormholes aside, the shortest distance between two points is still a straight line. And if there was ever a medium filled with more curves, detours and dead ends, its the Internet. Hoping that the right clients will find us we do all kinds of bizarre, labyrinthine things, like seeding search engines with meta-tags, tons of articles, and anything else that will get is Googled at a high ranking.

Isnt it a whole lot easier to identify a qualified prospect and then to pitch him?

(2) Passivity doesnt pay; it costs a lot. Time is money, and while were hoping to be discovered, like an aspiring movie star sitting at a drug store soda fountain, others are beating the bushes and finding paying work to do.

(3) The phone creates clarity. You know whether you have a live one or have to cut bait in nanoseconds. If you prefer results over mere activity, then the phone is for you.

There has never been a better time to prospect or to cold call.

How come?

Fewer people are doing it now, proportionate to the population, than at any time in memory. Moreover, because of the Do Not Call Registry, eliminating tens of millions of names from telemarketers lists, the ones that do get called today have less sales resistance, at home or at the office, than ever before.

Given how cheap calls have become, landed and wireless, who can resist the call to REACH OUT & SELL SOMEONE for mere pennies?

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is the best-selling author of 12 books and more than a thousand articles. His seminars and training programs are sponsored internationally and he is a top-rated faculty member at more than 40 universities, including UCLA Extension, where he has taught since 1999. Dynamic, experienced, and lots of fun, Gary brings more than two decades of solid management and consulting experience to the table, along with the best academic preparation and credentials in the speaking and training industry. Holder of five degrees, including a Ph.D. from the Annenberg School For Communication at USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a law degree from Loyola, his clients include several Fortune 1000 companies along with successful family owned and operated firms across America. Much more than a talking head, Gary is a top mind that youʼll enjoy working with and putting to use. He can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com