The challenge with utilizing the phone, to generate sales, is that way too many reps, put pretty much ALL of their efforts into the phone with very little activity on other forms of outreach (with the exception of email).

You might be thinking “That’s because the phone works” and you’d be partially right!

You’d be partially right because snail mail, FedEx, drop ins and drop offs also work.

Referrals work too.

Creative approaches work.

Traditional networking works.

Building relationships via platforms like LinkedIn,Twitter, Google+ and Facebook work.

Demonstrating your expertise and creating a presence on SlideShare, YouTube and Instagram works.

Demonstrating your expertise via blogging, podcasting, creating white papers, eBooks, offering free webinars, writing articles, giving speeches etc works.

I could go on and on but I would only belabor the point which is . . .

They all work and they all work really well in a well balanced “Sales Mix” of approaches.

Why?

1) Because everyone has their preferred form of outreach. Many of your potential clients want nothing to do with the phone and before you get offended that I would dis the phone (I know, for some of you its like I just said “Your Momma” or something) many of your potential clients don’t want anything to do with the phone, others don’t want anything to do with email, some hate networking, others hate social networking but . . .

For every dislike, there’s something they prefer and if you only cling to any one form of outreach, you limit your results.

Oh, and stop saying stuff like “I don’t get this whole LinkedIn thing.” or “I don’t get email” and just to make it fair “I don’t get cold calling.” Nobody cares what you get! Your potential client never takes you into consideration when it comes to what THEY prefer.

2) The average rep becomes very predictable and tends to repeat the same tired message, over and over and over again via the phone (especially when leaving voicemails).

I look at the hunting process as more of a courtship.

You have to have the patience to court them but with the urgency to work at it regularly but;

Much like a real courtship, if all you’re doing, is the same thing over and over and over again, you’re going to bore the sh*t out of someone.

That’s when you basically have conditioned a potential buyer to not take your call the moment they see you come up on the Caller ID and delete your message quicker than you can say “Hi Tim, it’s Paul Castain from Castain Training Systems”

You do know it happens that fast, right?

3) I believe that sales reps aren’t wired to just do one thing and when we just do one thing (like just make phone calls) we’re not at our best.

I think this is where some of the call reluctance thing comes from. Yes, there’s fear involved for many, but for others, its a tedious and boring activity that would be better as part of a mix of many activities.

4) People aren’t picking up their phones all that much which typically inspires a rep to make even more calls.

5) The phone channel is flooded! How many calls do you think your prospect receives in a typical day?

There are several more reasons so I’ll spare you and get to the point.

Many of you are clinging, way too tight to the phone as THE ONLY FORM OF OUTREACH.

It isn’t and the sooner you understand that and take action to include additional forms, the quicker you’ll increase your opportunities.

One week from today, I’ll be sharing over 100 ideas on how you can use the social networks to generate opportunities.

Once again, many of you reject the newer forms of outreach because you feel someone is telling you to abandon the phone.

I’m certainly not!

In fact, I want you to know that I believe that sooner or later, it’s going to come down to a phone call but;

Wouldn’t it be nice, when you make that phone call, you did something to warm it up?

Some of you reject something like this because you are set in your ways!

That’s unfortunate because if you aren’t continually adapting, you’re handing your competitors business!

Here’s what you’ll gain by joining us . . .

In Session 1 We’re going to talk about brand YOU! I’m going to take you step by step, through an exercise to help you clearly define how you want to be viewed by the world. You do know that they judge you, right?

In Session 2 We’ll discuss the various platforms and how you can attract potential clients. I’ll show you several plays from my own playbook as well as several examples of how your peers are leveraging things like LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook just to name a few!

In Session 3 I’ll share how you can use “Social Listening” to learn about important buying signals as well as conversation starters. We’ll discuss how you can gather competitive data that you absolutely need to leverage!

In Session 4 We’re going to dive, head first into how you can approach potential clients, via social channels without the conversation getting “salesy” or weird! I’ll take you through my Communication Mapping process and show you specific examples of how I leverage this process to hunt and secure new business!

In Session 5 I’m going to show you how to do something that 99% of your competitors SUCK at! It’s a little something called “Transitioning online connections to offline clients” We’ll talk step by step action plans, suggested templates and as a bonus, it won’t be salesy or spammy!

In Session 6 I’m going to show you how to put it all together into a manageable daily, weekly and monthly routine. Oh, and I’m going to give you several options too! Some of you have the time to go all out with my lead generation system others only have a few minutes a day. My plan is to give you a system based on how much time you can dedicate to it. Fair enough?

Have you enrolled yet?

Why not?

Click HERE when you’re ready to acknowledge that there are things out there besides a phone that can help you generate opportunities!