Cambridge Business Association
Smart Calling
Book

Smart Calling

Eliminate the Fear, Failure, and Rejection from Cold Calling

Art Sobczak
Wiley, 2013
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Well Structured
  • For Beginners

Recommendation

Art Sobczak has been successfully selling over the telephone since he was 14. Now in his 50s, he seems to know practically everything about cold calling – make that, telephone prospecting – and selling. In the second edition of his manual, Sobczak shares his trade secrets. His original book reached number one in Amazon’s sales the first day it was listed and, in 2010, Top Sales Awards named it the year’s best sales book. Sobczak specializes in “Smart Calling,” a strategy that sales professionals can follow to turn phone prospecting into a positive experience for everyone involved. Sobczak offers compelling conversational methods that elevate prospecting into an activity requiring skill, intelligence and an agile wit. He transforms phone sales – an activity most salespeople avoid – into a rewarding or, at least, more tolerable and productive, experience. getAbstract recommends his program and commends his engaging outlines and explanations. Salespeople should relish reading these insights, which should be required texts for anyone who must use phone calls to convince strangers to do what they want them to do, including job seekers, freelancers, recruiters and fundraisers.

Summary

Stop Cold Calling; Start “Smart Calling”

Cold calling – phoning strangers and pitching them to buy something – is stupid and humiliating. Plus, it doesn’t work. Most salespeople don’t understand the nuances of prospecting over the phone. Many rely on sleazy techniques that are sure to anger prospects and that lead to rejection. Most salespeople don’t know how to cold call and, unsurprisingly, they hate and fear it.

Cold calling means you call prospects who don’t know you and whom you don’t know. You possess minimal – or no – information about them or their companies. You blindly phone them and – from the depth of your ignorance – try to sell each prospect with the same tired pitch. It should come as no big shock that this approach doesn’t work.

Telephone prospecting is different. It’s a vast improvement over cold calling, and it works. Growth in any business depends on telephone prospecting. Companies with something to sell shouldn’t wait for prospects to call them. Salespeople must initiate contact, and telephone prospecting is the best way to do that. Sales reps’ primary job is to speak to customers. The telephone should be their primary prospecting tool – ...

About the Author

Art Sobczak, the founder of Business By Phone, has taught phone prospecting and sales for more than 30 years.

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