Cup of Joe

For those of you that know me or have read or listened to my work, you know that the core of my work is about focusing in on how individuals and organizations define themselves in relations to others.  I focus on self-definitions, and the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves—again, both individually and organizationally.

It has always been difficult for me to explain to those who aren’t familiar with my work how what I do is different from how most consultants work.  While my processes are fairly consistent, each client is unique and therefore must be approached differently.  

I have finally culled the essential and critical aspects of the process I bring to my clients in the simplest manner yet.  I’m excited to share this with everyone who is interested, as I believe it is the reason my consulting work has succeeded so consistently with so many different clients regardless of their respective challenges.

We have decided to devote an entire page on the website to explain the intricate and inextricable human sequence that drives all individual and organizational behavior.  It is the key to changing outcomes because it focuses first on meaning and definition, literally changing hearts and minds, before it provides solutions and recommends changes.  

This is the key:  Self-definition drives perception.  Perception helps create what something means.  We then behave to what we’ve defined, the way we define it.

My work starts in the beginning of this sequence, which I believe distinguishes it from what most consultants provide.  Once definitions and meaning shift, people naturally behave according to the new understanding.  Trying to change people’s behavior without changing the way they understand things will only bring a modicum of success, or more likely continuing frustration.  

To learn more, feel free to check out the page on the Caruso Leadership website: http://www.carusoleadership.com/index.php

You may also notice we have added a few cool new pages and a better navigation.

I am opening up comments for this blog post, as I hope to constantly improve the message. I wish all of you a very happy 2010 – make it an undeniable year!

Most sales people I know hate making cold calls as much as any of us hate receiving them.  Every year, companies invest millions of dollars on adopting better ways to prospect and sell in a cold calling model.  I see cold calling as inefficient, ineffective and outdated.

Tip #5: If you want more bang for your buck on the front end of the sales process, then convert cold calling to warm calling.  This is more than just a cute play on words. It is a critical distinction that can yield more business per 100 calls by more than you might believe.

For the sake of simplicity, I will use business-to-business rather than business-to-individuals as examples. The process of cold calling goes something like this:  a low-paid phone jockey is given a script and a list of potential customers.  They plow through the names and numbers racking up a very small number of successful calls.  This is more expensive than most businesses realize because the list of names and numbers the caller was given have often already been vetted and identified to have a high potential for a need for their particular product or service.  What a waste of opportunity!

Warm calling is different.  It goes something like this: the same vetted list is given to a sales rep who has received sales and communication training, including a few generalized scripted approaches that have proven to yield the best results.  They are also given a checklist of steps to take (research) for each prospect that could turn their cold call into a warm call.  They might visit the potential new customer’s website before they them call them.  They could determine five things about that company that can help make the call more customer-centric, like location or today’s weather forecast.  If it is unusually nice outside, they can refer to that in their greeting in order to help build rapport over the phone.  Additionally, they should be armed with a list of current customers sortable by industry or geographical location that they can refer to early on in the call in order to create a sense of relevance.

All sales opportunities are more valuable today than ever and shouldn’t be squandered during any part of the process.  These blogs about cold calls, the Psychology of the sale and turning customer service into sales are written in a sincere effort to help your company maximize these opportunities.  I encourage you to pass them on to those who can make the best use of the information.  It’s good for the economy.