Talking with a stranger

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These rationalizations are foolish at best. Seasoned professionals know that cold calling is really easy and incredibly straightforward, it works beautifully, those who buy forget they bought via a cold call, it saves time, and opening deals is just as critical to sales success as closing them.

And, of course, they were doing us a favor at the time, but they were also sowing the seeds of timidity and aversion when it comes to sales practices. Where else, but through greeting and meeting strangers will we find our future sales and incomes? We can only up-sell, cross-sell and suggestively sell so much stuff to our existing clients, and while today's buyers, in theory should be able to give us unlimited referrals, they don't, for various reasons.

This leaves us to find new business for talking with a stranger ourselves by beating the bushes. Always speak to strangers! If you know what you're doing and put the best cold calling techniques to work, believe me, they won't be strangers for very long!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top trainer, conference and convention speaker, and sales, customer service, and negotiation consultant. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is also the best-selling author of 12 books, more than 1,000 articles and several popular audio and video programs. His seminars are sponsored internationally and he is a faculty member at more than 40 universities, including UC Berkeley and UCLA. Gary brings over two decades of sales, management and consulting experience to the table, with impressive academic credentials: A Ph.D. from USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a J.D. degree from Loyola Law School, his clients include several Fortune 1000 companies..