By mistake I just clicked on an ad that features some new cold calling guru. His pitch is ostensibly unique, but its really as old as quackery, itself. He says: (1) Dont use a Large Numbers technique of making lots of calls; and (2) Dont use a script. To me, this is like telling a disease sufferer to avoid all medical help and to rely instead only on hope. Does hope work? Sometimes. Is medicine better? Usually. But this quack will earn business because hes not selling sales training or even success. Hes selling LAZINESS, and negative inertia. Hes telling people to not change anything. They dont want to work hard by working the numbers, calling loads and loads of folks. And they dont want regimentation and self-discipline, something that scripting provides. They want to keep doing what theyve been doing, yet get better results. (Thats one of the definitions of insanity, by the way.) Tell these fools I love you exactly as you are! and theyll follow you anywhere. There was a classic book written by Joe Karbo, a tremendous advertising copywriter and self-promoter: The Lazy Mans Way To Riches. Karbo knew how to get the attention of most success seekers. Tell them what they want to hear, and theyll love you for it. As long as people are this way, there will always be quacks to serve them. |