Smart Calling, 3rd Edition

Smart Calling, 3rd Edition

by Art Sobczak
Released June 2020
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781119676720

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Book description

Master cold-calling and eliminate rejection forever

In the newest edition of Smart Calling: Eliminate the Fear, Failure, and Rejection from Cold Calling, celebrated author and sales trainer, Art Sobczak packs even more powerful insight into what many people fear: prospecting by phone for new business. This best-selling guide to "never experiencing rejection again" has consistently found its way into the Top 20 in Amazon's Sales category, because its actionable sales tips and techniques have helped many minimize their fears and eliminate rejection.

The newest edition builds upon the very successful formula of the last edition to help sales professionals take control of their strategy and get more yeses from their prospects. With new information, this info-packed release provides powerful sales insights, including:

  • The foundational concepts of cold calling, featuring real-life examples you can carry with you into your sales career
  • Multiple case studies and messaging from successful salespeople across the globe, providing even more insight into what works and what's a waste of your time
  • New methodologies that are proven to push you past your fear and into the world of successful prospecting
  • Free access to Art Sobczak's Smart Calling Companion Course, where he builds on the many techniques and strategies in the book, and will update it with new material and tech resources so that you will always have the current best practices and tools.

If you're failing to convert your prospects into dollars, Smart Calling will help you push past the obstacles holding you back until you're an expert at taking a "no" and turning it into a "yes."

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. More Praise for Smart Calling
  3. Preface
    1. The Backstory
    2. Who Will Benefit from Smart Calling?
    3. Taking Action Is Required
  4. Part One: The Smart Calling Concept
    1. Chapter 1: Cold Calling Is Dumb, but Prospecting Is Necessary: Smart Calling Is the Answer
      1. Why Telephone Prospecting Is Both Essential, Profitable, and Still Works
      2. Cold Calling Myths, Smart Calling Truths
      3. Still Think Prospecting Doesn’t Work? That’s News to Sales Pros Doing It
      4. The Answer: Smart Calling
      5. Smart Calling versus Cold Calling
  5. Part Two: Pre-Call Planning
    1. Chapter 2: Creating Your Possible Value Proposition
      1. Don’t Talk About Your Thing
      2. Understanding Your Prospects and Why They Might Buy from You
      3. Pain and Gain
      4. The Easy Way to Provide Possible Value
      5. Are You Able to Help Cut Costs?
      6. How Are You Different?
      7. The Value You Have Already Provided for Others
      8. Do You Help Inadequacy?
      9. Value Is Not the Same for Everyone
    2. Chapter 3: Intelligence GatheringMaking Your Calls Smart
      1. What Information Do You Want about Your Prospects?
      2. Identify and Look for Trigger Events
      3. Getting Personal
      4. He Won This Sale
      5. Where to Find Your Smart Information
      6. How to Steal Business When Your Competitor Undergoes Changes
      7. Social Networking—or Social Not-Working?
    3. Chapter 4: Using Social Engineering to Gather Intelligence
      1. With Whom Should You Engage?
      2. What Questions Should You Ask?
      3. More Social Engineering Tips
      4. An Example of Social Engineering in Action
      5. Social Engineering Feedback, and an Answer to an Objection
    4. Chapter 5: Setting Smart Call Objectives and Never Being Rejected Again
      1. Primary Objectives: Thinking Big Gets Big Results
      2. Secondary Objectives: How to Never Be Rejected Again
    5. Chapter 6: More Smart Ideas for Prior to Your Call
      1. Don’t Let Sales Statistics Affect Your Calling
      2. Best Times to Call?
      3. Ritualize Your Phone Time
      4. When You Are on a Roll, Stay in the Zone
      5. End with a Positive
      6. Great Days to Call: When Others Don’t
      7. Other Unconventional Times to Call
      8. Best Times for Follow-up Calls
      9. Combo Prospecting
      10. Warming Up a Smart Call
      11. Emailing before a Call
      12. Multimedia Messages
      13. How about Sending Unusual Items Prior to the Call?
      14. Get Direct Numbers
  6. Part Three: Creating and Placing the Smart Call
    1. Chapter 7: How to Be Smart with Voicemail
      1. The Goal of Your Smart Calling Voicemail
      2. Be Prepared
      3. Say You’ll Call Back
      4. How Many Messages to Leave?
      5. Should You Vary Your Message on Repeat Calls?
      6. Listen to Their Entire Voicemail Message
      7. Listen for Their Tone on Voicemail
      8. Put the Directions in Your Notes to Save Time
      9. Opting for a Live Voice
      10. Use Your Prospect’s Electronic System to Gather Intelligence
      11. Call Back Immediately
      12. Call at Different Times of the Day
      13. Give Your Number Twice, Give Your Number Twice
      14. Review Your Message, but Don’t Assume You’ll Always Have the Option
      15. Make Your Voicemail Message Stand Out from the Clutter
      16. Before You Give Up, Use a Last Resort Message
      17. “Just Hit Reply”
      18. Handling Unreturned Voicemail Messages
      19. Shady Voicemail Tactics to Avoid
    2. Chapter 8: Working with Assistants
      1. Gatekeeper and Screener Myths
      2. What to Do
      3. Be Prepared to Sell the Assistant If You Need To
      4. Tips for Working with Assistants
      5. Getting Your Messages to the Buyer
      6. Will You Help Me?
      7. Go to the Highest Level
      8. Being Hesitant Can Help You Move Forward
    3. Chapter 9: Opening Statements: What to Avoid to Minimize Resistance
      1. “Can You Help Me?”
      2. Don’t Apologize for Wanting to Help Them
      3. Asking for a Decision, or Even Hinting at One
      4. Being Assumptive in the Opening and Using Declarative Statements
      5. Reacting to Unusual Names
      6. How Are You Today? Use It or Not?
    4. Chapter 10: Creating Interest with Your Smart Call Opening Statement
      1. The Jim Furyk Theory
      2. Two Objectives for Your Openings
      3. Scripting
      4. The Smart Call Interest-Creating Opening Statement Process
      5. Putting It into Action
      6. Does Length Matter?
      7. The Time Issue
      8. Weasel Words
      9. A Unique Addition to Your Opening
      10. Using “Status Alignment” in Your Messaging
      11. Create Your Smart Voicemail Message
    5. Chapter 11: Handling Early Resistance on Your Smart Calls
      1. Use a Pattern Interrupt
      2. The Softening Statement
      3. Sound Dumb
      4. Responding When They Are Happy with Their Present Supplier
      5. How to Answer “Send Me Some Literature on That”
      6. “Why Should I Consider You?”
      7. Responding When They Try to Rush You
      8. Simple Response to a Quick “Not Interested”
      9. What to Do When They Hang Up on You
      10. Handling the Early Price Question
    6. Chapter 12: Using Smart Questions
      1. Use Your Possible Benefits to Create Questions
      2. How to Use Assumptive Problem Questions
      3. How to Create Assumptive Problem Questions
      4. The Loaded Benefit Question
      5. Practice the Iceberg Theory of Questioning
      6. More on Quantifying Needs, Pains, Problems, and Desires
      7. Avoid Questions That Scream “I Just Picked Up an Old Sales Book”
      8. Personalize Questions for Greater Sales Success
      9. Questions about the Decision-Making Process
      10. Determine What Annoys Them
      11. A Questioning Mistake
      12. Clarify the Fuzzy Phrases
      13. The Quality of Your Question Determines the Quality of Your Answer
      14. Don’t Ask What They Like Best about Their Present Supplier
      15. Use Benefit Questions Instead of Inane Leading Ones
      16. To Get More Information, Tell, Don’t Ask
    7. Chapter 13: The More Important Side of the Question: Listening
      1. Your Most Powerful Listening Tool: The Pause
      2. Listen for Their Key Terminology
      3. How to Make Eye Contact by Phone
      4. Practice “Extreme Listening”
      5. Listen When They Lower Their Voice
      6. What Is Your Listening-to-Talking Ratio?
      7. It Would Be Tougher to Listen Your Way out of a Sale
    8. Chapter 14: Recommending the Next Step
      1. Pitching Is for Sports Only: Recommend Instead
      2. The Smart Call Recommendation Process
      3. Use the Words of Others to Be More Persuasive
      4. Using the Principle of Consistency
      5. In the Sales Recommendation
      6. You Are Absolutely Going to Love This
    9. Chapter 15: Getting Commitment for the Next Action
      1. The Commitment Phase Validates What Has Happened So Far
      2. Your Attitude Is More Important than Your Technique
      3. Get Commitments on Every Call
      4. Get Commitment with Nonthreatening Words
      5. Why Not Try This Question?
      6. The Perfect Close
      7. Help Them Realize They Have Nothing to Fear
      8. Asking for More Gets More
      9. Ask for Action, Not Permission
      10. Be Like a Waiter and Ask for the Order
    10. Chapter 16: Wrapping Up Calls and Setting Up the Next Action
      1. The Success of Your Follow-Up Call Is Determined on the Previous Call
      2. Summarizing the Call
      3. How to Set a Specific Time for the Follow-Up Call
      4. What to Put in Your Notes to Ensure a Great Follow-Up Call
      5. Use a Last-Resort Question Before Giving Up
  7. Part Four: Putting It All Together
    1. Chapter 17: How to Sound SmartEffective Telephone Communication
      1. Don’t Sound Like a Salesperson
      2. Record Your Calls and Review Them Regularly
      3. Legalities of Recording Calls
      4. Stand for Sales
      5. Voice Improvement Self-Study
    2. Chapter 18: Getting and Staying Motivated
      1. To Do, We First Need to Be
      2. Never Get Rejected Again
      3. Overcoming the Fear of Calling
      4. Remember the Wins, Forget the Losses
      5. Size Does Matter as It Relates to Your Thinking
      6. Change the Stories You Tell Yourself
      7. Will You Go for the Big Jump?
      8. Sell More by Being a Kid
    3. Chapter 19: More Smart Calling Success Tips
      1. Send an Email to Find the Buyer
      2. Easy Way to Find More Buyers
      3. Use a Calling Card
      4. Draw a Decision-Making Organizational Chart
      5. Follow Your Buyers
      6. Be Ready When You Are on Hold
      7. Get Referrals from within Their Company
      8. Give Information on Your Voicemail Greeting
      9. Smart Calling Fellow Alumni
      10. Include a Compliment in the Referral Opening
      11. Let It Ring Longer to Make More Contacts
      12. Does That Sound Familiar?
      13. Don’t Create Interruptions
      14. Take Notes on What They Say and Mean
      15. It Takes PAP to Be Successful
    4. Chapter 20: Smart Calling Reviews, Case Studies, and Makeovers
      1. How One Rep Used the Smart Calling Process to Craft an Effective Opening
      2. An Opening Statement Review
      3. A Voicemail Statement Makeover
      4. Another Opening Reviewed and Enhanced
      5. Two Voicemails Reviewed
      6. Review of an Opener to Small Business Owners
      7. A Freight Broker Opening
      8. An Opening Makeover
      9. Beware of the Bad Information Floating Around
    5. Time for Action!
    6. Resources for Smart Calling Success
    7. Recommended Reading
    8. About the Author
    9. Index
    10. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: Smart Calling, 3rd Edition
  • Author(s): Art Sobczak
  • Release date: June 2020
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781119676720