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More Praise for Smart Calling

“Smart Calling is the benchmark as the highest professional standard for effective

cold calling. Take the initiative to read and implement Art ’s rational principles

and you will sell much more and develop a prospect base of potential customers

that will call you when they are ready to purchase or graciously take your future

calls. This is the best sales text I have read in the past 20 years.”

— Rex Caswell, PhD , Vice President,

Sales Effectiveness BI Worldwide

“The book is tremendous, and I think you are brilliant. I probably highlighted

half of it! I am recommending it to my clients as a must-read.

— Mike Weinberg , Author of New Sales. Simplifi ed , www.NewSalesCoach.com

“Your book changed my professional life. I have my Smart research down to a

science and produce about three leads every hour.”

— Sam Shenker , Associated Global Systems

“I ’ve been using the phone to sell for seven years, and before I picked up Art ’s

Smart Calling book I thought I knew it all. But after reading through the fi rst few

chapters I quickly realized that I knew nothing. Just the section on call openings

and voice mails has transformed my career and skyrocketed my results to new

levels. This book is a must for anyone serious about selling over the phone. Art

really delivers.”

— Shane Varcoe , Regional Sales Manager

“Art Sobczak understands the difference between direct marketing and cold-calling,

which many sales gurus simply don ’t. Smart Calling is a phenomenal resource for

anyone that truly wants to excel in sales. The advice is obviously from experi-

ence, and Mr. Sobczak offers sound techniques that everyone could use.”

— Chris Lott , VP of Sales, DataTel Communications

“Art doesn ’t tell us what to do without also telling us how to do it. For sellers that

are trying to improve their success on the phone, Art Sobczak has written the

defi nitive book.”

— Tim Rohrer , SalesAndMarketingLoudmouth.com

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“I love your book! In the fi rst week of reading, I not only saved a one-location sale

that was quickly being lost to (the competition) and ended up with an appoint-

ment with the COO for four locations.”

— Alida Ruiz, Sr ., Account Executive, Integra Telecom

“ Smart Calling may be the best book on using the telephone I have ever read.

I recommended it to all of 100+ agents in my offi ce.”

— Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown , Broker,

Keller Williams Realty Professionals

“I keep fewer than a dozen books on my quick reference shelf, and Smart Calling is

one of them. After a seven-year absence from cold calling, I have found that done

right, it can and does bear fruit. Thanks for your excellent coaching in the book.”

— Greg McDermott , The Reverse Mortgage Team,

Leader One Financial

“I read it once over a week period. Implemented recommendations and approaches

to Smart Calling. Result: my calling productivity has doubled!!! I am now getting

the same number of appointments but with only half as many calls. The quality

of my calls is much better! I now actually reach decision makers more frequently.

What Art recommends does work! I have just fi nished my second reading of this

book. Got even more out of it.”

— Terrence Manuel , Owings Mills, MD

“I just wanted to thank you for writing such a great book, Smart Calling . I see

other people in my business struggling on the phone. I have put to use your prin-

ciples, and my sales have increased every week. Thank you again.”

— Marcello Medini , Logistics Consultant, PNG Logistics

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SMART CALLING

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SMART CALLING

Eliminate the Fear, Failure, and Rejection from Cold Calling

Second Edition

ART SOBCZAK

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Cover design: Paul McCarthy

Copyright © 2013 by Art Sobczak. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any

form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise,

except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without

either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the

appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA

01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the

Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons,

Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at

www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best

efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the

accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifi cally disclaim any implied

warranties of merchantability or fi tness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or

extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained

herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where

appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom.

For general information about our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care

Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at

(317) 572-3993, or fax (317) 572-4002.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some

material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in

print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the

version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more

information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Sobczak, Art.

Smart calling : eliminate the fear, failure, and rejection from cold calling / Art Sobczak. — 2nd

Edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-58871-0 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-63740-1 (ebk);

ISBN 978-1-118-63751-7 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-63738-8 (ebk)

1. Telephone selling. 2. Telemarketing. I. Title.

HF5438.3.S63 2013

658.8´72—dc23

2012049854

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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vii

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

SECTION ONE The Smart Calling Concept 5

CHAPTER 1 Cold Calling Is Dumb, but Prospecting

Is Necessary: Smart Calling Is the Answer 7

SECTION TWO Pre-Call Planning 19

CHAPTER 2 Creating Your Possible Value Proposition 21

CHAPTER 3 Intelligence Gathering: Making Your Calls Smart 37

CHAPTER 4 Using Social Engineering to Gather Intelligence 57

CHAPTER 5 Setting Smart Call Objectives and

Never Being Rejected Again 65

CHAPTER 6 More Smart Ideas for Prior to Your Call 73

SECTION THREE Creating and Placing the Smart Call 85

CHAPTER 7 How to Be Smart with Voice Mail 87

CHAPTER 8 Working with Screeners, Gatekeepers,

and Assistants? 99

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viii Contents

CHAPTER 9 Opening Statements: What to Avoid to

Minimize Resistance 109

CHAPTER 10 Creating Interest with Your Smart

Call Opening Statement 123

CHAPTER 11 Handling Early Resistance on Your Smart Calls 133

CHAPTER 12 Using Smart Questions 143

CHAPTER 13 The More Important Side of the

Question: Listening 159

CHAPTER 14 Recommending the Next Step 165

CHAPTER 15 Getting Commitment for the Next Action 175

CHAPTER 16 Wrapping Up Calls and Setting

Up the Next Action 185

SECTION FOUR Putting It All Together 195

CHAPTER 17 How to Sound Smart: Effective

Telephone Communication 197

CHAPTER 18 Getting and Staying Motivated 203

CHAPTER 19 More Smart Calling Success Tips 215

CHAPTER 20 A Smart Call Case Study and Makeovers 221

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 233

INDEX 235

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1

INTRODUCTION

When I fi rst wrote this book three years ago, I had a feeling it would

do pretty well. After all, I had been teaching the same things in

my public and in-company training programs for years, and the

process and material was fi eld-tested. What actually happened blew me

away.

We hit Number One in the Sales category on Amazon.com on the

very fi rst day. It stayed there for a while, and it continues to sell well three

years later, while hundreds of other sales books have died on the vine. It

was named Top Sales Book of 2010 by Top Sales Awards, beating out some

other very fi ne books by big-time sales authors. And the reviews and suc-

cess stories from people who use the process to get results have been both

gratifying and humbling.

If you are reading Smart Calling for the fi rst time, welcome aboard!

If you have been through the original, welcome back. While I ’ve added

some additional examples, tips, techniques, and success stories from read-

ers, the process itself hasn ’t changed. But the reason I wanted to do this

second edition is because of what has changed in the past few years: our

ability to Smarten up our calls, making it even easier to be successful.

You ’ll see many of these updates in Chapter 5 .

So, what ’s this Smart Calling stuff all about?

Let ’s go back a few years. Okay, a lot of years. I wish I had had this

book when I fi rst got out of college and into my fi rst corporate sales job

with AT&T in 1982. It would have prevented a lot of grief and made me

much more money.

Then again, some of it would not have made sense, since there was

no Internet and PCs were just making their appearance. And “sales intel-

ligence” meant going to the library and fi nding a list of businesses that

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2 Introduction

belonged to a trade association. However, even without the benefi t of

today ’s technology, the pure prospecting and sales process and techniques

in this book would have worked 30 years ago, just as they do today and

will 30 years from now and beyond.

Even in the numerous sales jobs I had in high school and college,

I knew that typical cold calling—phoning people I didn ’t know anything

about and giving a pitch—didn ’t make sense and was actually quite pain-

ful. I always tried to fi nd a better way, an edge that would get superior

results; I was constantly reading, listening to tapes, attending seminars,

studying, and tinkering with my own approach. I always did well in my

sales positions. However, I also knew I would never be good enough for

my satisfaction and that there always is more to learn. My quest continued

in a couple of other corporate sales jobs and then in my own company as

I had to pound the phones to acquire clients for my fl edgling consulting

and training fi rm.

Eventually, I did fi nd—and continue to fi ne-tune—a better way. You

are holding it (or reading it on your screen): a smarter way to prospect.

A process that makes sense and gets results, and one that does not require

you to sound like that cheesy salesperson that everyone considers an

intrusive pest.

This book is a step-by-step guide that will show you how to call people

you do not know and who do not know you, engage them in a conver-

sation, and ultimately get them to take some action. And in the cases

where you do not accomplish that primary objective, I will show you how

to avoid the morale-killing rejection that is usually associated with tele-

phone prospecting.

I ’ve built my business and reputation over the past 30 years on deliv-

ering very specifi c how-to tactics and strategies. Many people—including,

unfortunately, sales trainers and authors—tell you what you should do on

the phone. You should create interest. You should get past the screener. You

should leave a compelling voice mail message. And listeners and readers

say, “Uh, okay,” as they wonder how in the heck they are going to do it.

I ’ll answer that for you and give you a precise recipe and ingredients for

prospecting success by phone.

This book is long on practical how-tos and short on big picture strat-

egy and fl uff. I ’ve always been somewhat of a simple, get-to-the-point kind

of guy—a style you ’ll see and from which you ’ll benefi t throughout this

book. What I ’ve learned from delivering more than 1,300 training ses-

sions and studying human behavior and learning styles, is that people

learn best when you relate to their world and entertain them. Therefore,

you will see many examples of stories as I make my points.

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Introduction 3

I will guide you through the logical creation and execution of your

own telephone prospecting call using my Smart Call methodology. You

will learn the same process and techniques I present to my training cli-

ents. These methods are being used successfully to initiate profi table rela-

tionships worldwide, and I ’m confi dent they can work for you, too, just

like the thousands who have already read this book and made it part of

their sales process.

Unlike some gurus out there, I don ’t claim to have invented sales, and

I certainly don ’t have all the answers. I don ’t believe that my approach is

the only way to realize success. That ’s why I will give examples from and

point you in the direction of others with expertise in some very specifi c

aspects of sales—and others with a more generalist view—throughout this

book.

You may not agree with everything I say. I don ’t care. Actually, that is

good, since it means you are thinking about what you read and applying

it to your situation. That is healthy. What I do ask is that when you do

disagree, react as you should when you get resistance in a sales situation

and ask yourself, How might this be true? or How could this work for me?

Who Will Benefi t from Smart Calling?

The primary audience, of course, is all people with “sales” in their title,

primarily those who sell to other businesses. But it ’s not limited to tradi-

tional salespeople. Anyone who picks up the phone to call a person they

don ’t know—with the objective of persuading that person to take some

action—will learn from this book. For example:

• Freelancers of all types

• Independent professionals

• Sports recruiters

• Writers looking to get published

• Job seekers

• Fund raisers

• Many others

Regardless of whether your career relies on regularly calling people to

get new business or whether you have one person to whom you want to

sell an idea and may never place a prospecting call again, this book will

help you do what is necessary.

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4 Introduction

Taking Action Is Required

As I tell my training workshop participants, everything I will share with

you is totally worthless—until you do something with it. I know this mate-

rial works, but only if you do.

My friend Larry Winget—who is known as an irritational motiva-

tional speaker—says in his book It’s Called Work for a Reason—Success

Is Your Own Damn Fault that many people are “spectators rather than

doers.” I agree, and I have seen too much evidence of that among the

ranks of salespeople who do nothing to improve themselves—even when

the resources are provided to them. I ’m hopeful that is not you. You have

taken the fi rst step by investing in this book. The payoff will now come

by putting in the work.

There are a number of exercises throughout the book that ask you to

research, write, and practice. At the end of each chapter, I also ask what

other action you will commit to as a result of that chapter.

Prospecting and sales is a lot like golf: You can read all you want to

and become knowledgeable about it, but you will become excellent at it

only by practicing. I know it sounds like a cliché, but you will get out of

this book what you put into it.

I ’m ready if you are. Let ’s begin making your prospecting calls Smart!

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S E C T I O N

ONE

The Smart Calling Concept

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