I’m posting this because I’m a little annoyed.  I registered for a free white paper sponsored by Salesgenie.com or somehow got myself on a salesgenie.com mailing list. Maybe it’s just spam, I don’t know. All I know is I have no need to buy names, or worse yet have a need to buy unqualified leads.

Every week I get an e-mail asking me to buy something from them. Most times it some special. Nothing wrong with that per se, but you would think that a company that sells sales leads would teach their people how to sell? I can’t begin to tell you how many times each week I receive offers to buy something as a follow up to some information that I requested. Again, nothing wrong with that. But…

Has any number of these people ever thought that a phone call could actually begin a relationship with me? Perhaps a phone call to me to help uncover my true needs or even a lack of need. The first thing you have to determine whether you’ll ever get a sale out of someone is;

1.) Do they have the ability to buy?
2.) Is there a need? (You can create a need if your product truly will solve a problem, even if the prospect doesn’t realize it.)

I was recently reading an article, I think it was from The Harvard Business Review, that outstandingly said, one of things sales people could do in this time of crisis is get on the phone to qualify prospects and start the conversation. I guess marketing budgets are getting slammed, and salespeople are under constant pressure to meet quotas. So what might seem to be a novel way to make a sale these days is to talk to someone.

Sure we all want easy sales. Marketing fills the pipeline, salesman want to work the social network route, or they don’t want to work too hard on all the leads because marketing is doing their job (not knowing whether they are qualified or not), and figure if they send out enough e-mails surely something will drop in their lap and often times in a good economy it does.

I’ve seen it happen more than once over the past 30 years to salesman and businesses alike. They get a little going and leads start coming in, and they close sales, and they think, “hey I’m closing business on autopilot,” and they forget what got them their in the first place. Good ol’ fashioned selling., cold calling and prospecting. Then all of  a sudden, as it always does, the winds shift, the referral base quits referring, the purchasing agent moves to another company, their advocate in the company gets promoted, and so on. And guess what happens? Their momentum comes to a screeching halt and sales dwindle.

Professional athletes and coaches will tell you to win the big one; the Superbowl, the World Series, the Masters Cup or really even the weekend softball tournament, you have to perform the fundamentals consistently and execute the same every time.  When sales gets good we often times forget to prospect. Don’t let it happen to you. Set aside time everyday if possible, at minimum twice a week to spend uninterrupted time talking to someone that doesn’t come from your lead funnel or a referral source and you’re guaranteed to not have to worry about external forces writing your paycheck.

So why did I feel that I needed to vent?

For the third time, I tried to reply and unsubscribe and when I hit reply, the damn email came back as undeliverable. Seems the salesman doesn’t have a valid email address, even though it’s in his signature line. Go figure?

And here is the content of the email. Seems I haven’t been qualified, and I don’t have a need, but I am urged to pick up the phone and have my credit card handy! AND, I don’t belong to any Chamber so I couldn’t get that special discount anyway? I guess I wasn’t qualified properly would you say?

If you want to subscribe to the www.Salesgenie.com service, the price is only $180/mo with 13,000 credits or $1,800 annually with 15,000 credits, unlimited viewing and searching of every database. Also receive 15% off for being a member of the Chamber of Commerce!

Each prospect after the initial amount is only $0.10 per record to download thereafter.

We can also set you up with a one-time list purchase with a minimum purchase of $200. No contracts!

Please contact me at 888.999.0580 ext xxx with your credit card ready!

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