Are You On Your Way Home?

📅 18th June 2020 | 2020/21 Sales Book Reviews

This week’s review is Bob Etherington’s ‘Cold Calling For Chickens’. At first glance, it reminded me of that classic ‘get rich quick’ tome, The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches by the legendary Joe Karbo. You see, CCFC isn’t so much of a how to do cold calling manual but more a ‘boot up the backside’ inspirational read. Yet this book, like others I’m reviewing throughout 2020, does come with a bit of a COVID-19 warning. Some of the techniques and sales wisdom expressed may have to be tempered, altered or adapted until we’re into some sort of ‘normal’ sales activity. The temporary adaptions, of course, may become permanent.

The Good

I may be upbraided for reviewing another cold calling book in relatively quick succession but I do love the ‘first thing in sales’. The author makes this quite clear in ‘Marking Out The Chicken Run’ (or the basics of successful selling) with this “The most effective way to initiate sales is to pick up the phone and do it yourself”. I love the way this point is expanded. We’re told to meet as many strangers as possible (well in normal times) in public. Asking someone on a plane, I guess it works on train too, “Are you on your way home?” can prove profitable. I can bear witness to that too.

In the section “Telling Isn’t Selling”, Etherington shows the reader, almost word-by-word, how to deliver a script and overcome those difficult objections like “send me a brochure”. A certain colleague used to reply with this: “I’m sorry Mr Prospect I can’t do that. You see we’re not a public information service”. He never did send out brochures. Ever.

Leaving a voicemail message is easy. Leaving a message that will be returned with a call is quite another matter. Etherington’s answer? Less is more.

We all know A.I.D.A. don’t we? (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action – just in case you didn’t know) It’s the foundation for all of those “selling techniques” one is taught over the years. Etherington shows us his adaption. It’s called I.K.E.A. The K stand for “knock-on effect” – this is somewhat similar to the implication questions as invented in Neil Rackham’s “SPIN”.

Many pages are devoted to goal-setting, time management and possibly the most important characteristic in sales people – attitude. Etherington maps out some simple, easy-to-follow steps for the reader to digest and follow. Again, nothing earth shattering about this. Just plain and simple common sense guides (including Pareto’s Law) on how to achieve sales stardom.

The Bad

One too many references to the debunked 7%, 38% blah, blah of the Mehrabian Myth

The author has a page or two about selling over the telephone. As in tele-sales where you are selling products (advertising, widgets). This deserves a book in it’s own right. Getting an appointment by tele-marketing or cold calling is a different animal which is what CCFC is all about. I would have preferred there to be no mention of tele-sales instead of the scant two pages worth.

The Ugly

Maybe I should change the ugly section to “grind”. A full thirty pages are devoted to getting appointments on the phone. The objective of any cold calling session. There are some wonderful scripts, phrases and a bit of psychology. I would recommend anyone in the sales business to review what and how they say to prospective customers when trying to obtain appointments. The ‘concern’ questions e.g. “how much hassle does it cause you when…..” are particularly good.

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This book which one can obtain for under £10.00 from Amazon is an absolute steal. But like any other sales guide, nothing will happen unless you take action on a daily basis.

Tags: cold calling, Learning, sales training