A consipiracy exists in the world of selling.  A cold calling 
conspiracy.

What I'm talking about is the requirement by most sales 
organizations to make cold calls on your time and at your 
expense.  They say that cold calls equal appointments equal 
sales, but that's not true anymore.  All sales managers are 
guilty of teaching it, believing it, and using it.  "Increase 
your activity and increase your income" are the mantra.  We're 
told to do the sales math to "motivate" ourselves.  Have you 
heard this one?  "If you make five hundred dollars commission per 
sale and it takes five appointments to get the sale and twenty 
calls to get an appointment, then each cold call is worth five 
dollars in your pocket." 

Did anyone ever really believe this?

Hey boss, put your money where your mouth is!  If that were 
really true, companies would pay us the five dollars per call! 
They don't because that equation never works in the real world... 
for anyone.  The simple fact is that we are only paid for 
completed sales, not for attempts.  Directing salespeople to make 
more calls and increase activity is a weak excuse for a sales 
manager or trainer to justify his or her job.  Cold calling is an 
expensive waste of your time.  The reason companies have you cold 
calling is because it is a waste of your time and your money, not 
theirs.  You only make money when you sell something, yet over 
eighty percent of most salespeople's time is spent looking for 
someone to sell to.

The bottom line is that we, as salespeople, cannot afford to 
continue fooling away our time on low-percentage activities like 
cold calling.  It's a way for companies to save money at your 
expense.  We must focus our attention on activities that get real 
results in this new Information Age economy, and the 
effectiveness of cold calling fell dramatically when we left the 
old Industrial Age and entered this bold new era.  Forget cold 
calling and learn how to market yourself intelligently, 
systematically, and automatically.  Self-marketing is the key to 
success in today's selling environment and the "secret" of all 
those top producers who obviously don't cold call and won't tell 
you what it is they're doing to make those huge numbers every 
month.  Remember, Napoleon Hill's great work is entitled "Think 
and Grow Rich," not "Work Harder and Stay Broke."  Don't become a 
victim of the Cold Calling Conspiracy - learn to market yourself 
successfully and join the elite club of top producers.  I did it 
and you can too. 

Frank J. Rumbauskas, Jr. is the author of "Cold Calling Is A 
Waste Of Time: Sales Success In The Information Age."  He is 
the founder of FJR Advisors, LLC, which produces training 
materials that teach salespeople how to generate qualified 
leads without cold calling.  For more information, please 
visit:  http://www.nevercoldcall.com