233New Marketing Reality 3If you’ve been in business or sales for more than five years, chances are you have
been trained in obsolete methods and strategies. If you are using the same old
marketing and sales techniques that might have worked in the past, you need a
refresher—because that old stuff doesn’t work any more.
Chasing customers isn’t the way to get rich today! Use a more
powerful tool — attraction!
Manipulation is out!
Cold calling is ridiculous in this economic environment yet there
are still books being published teaching you how to do it.
There is a new way to sell today. Look at the various aspects of the selling process
from finding prospects to closing sales, to customer follow-up, and you will see
that what might have worked previously no longer applies today. Yet there is no
shortage of seminars, coaches, books and ‘systems’ teaching people strategies that
neither understand the changes in the mindset of consumers nor the more effective
methods to create massive shifts in sales results.
Look at prospecting for example. Many people have been trained in the idea of
chasing prospects. We are told that ‘selling is a numbers game.’ The idea is that if you
just throw enough mud on the wall, some of it is bound to stick. We are told to be
strong and all we need is tougher skin. We should feel happy and just deal with
rejection. We need to get 99 ‘no’s’ and that—somehow—is a good thing because
we are closer to the ‘yes.’ Ridiculous.
They forget to tell us how long it takes to be rejected 99% of the time. They never
talk about the emotional cost of being rejected so much. No wonder salespeople
are constantly moving from company to company, industry to industry... thinking
that they should just be stronger. Tougher.