MPrince's Blog

I love to Cold Call. It energizes me!

Cold Calling 101!

I love to Cold Call. It energizes me whether I get a yes or a no. I am not talking about Cold Calling on the phone. I am talking about grabbing a hand full of business cards and doing it the old fashioned way, face to face. For me visual works best. I need to see the hustle and bustle, or not, going on at the business I am calling on. I need to see the reaction and body language of my prospect. There are thousands of Cold Calling ideas out there. Some are good ones and some not so good but after twenty-five years of Sales and Cold Calling face to face Cold Calling has worked best for me. The prospect can see I am a living breathing person; not just a sales voice on the phone. It is also harder for the prospect to say no to an appointment when he is looking me in the eye. Another advantage in face to face Cold Calling happens if the prospect is not there. It gives me a wonderful opportunity to begin a relationship not only with the gatekeeper but other employees. I cannot stress enough how important it is to get to know the employees of the business you are calling on. They can be your most important advocates. Gain their trust and you are that much closer to closing the deal. These advocates can tell you What, When, Where and How about your prospect. They many times offer up important information you will need to know about the person that holds the purse strings. Never underestimate the influence of theses people, the gatekeeper and other employees.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that you never make a Cold Call over the phone. You should use the phone and use it often. As a matter of fact you should use every tool in your sales tool box, the phone, internet, referrals, networking, face to face, even a megaphone on the street corner as long as you are not arrested. For many sales people the telephone works best. We just need to find and develop the sales tools best suited for our personal skills and use them often and with ATTITUDE!.

Martha Prince

Sept 1, 2009

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I love to Cold Call. It energizes me!

Cold Calling 101!

I love to Cold Call. It energizes me whether I get a yes or a no. I am not talking about Cold Calling on the phone. I am talking about grabbing a hand full of business cards and doing it the old fashioned way, face to face. For me visual works best. I need to see the hustle and bustle, or not, going on at the business I am calling on. I need to see the reaction and body language of my prospect. There are thousands of Cold Calling ideas out there. Some are good ones and some not so good but after twenty-five years of Sales and Cold Calling face to face Cold Calling has worked best for me. The prospect can see I am a living breathing person; not just a sales voice on the phone. It is also harder for the prospect to say no to an appointment when he is looking me in the eye. Another advantage in face to face Cold Calling happens if the prospect is not there. It gives me a wonderful opportunity to begin a relationship not only with the gatekeeper but other employees. I cannot stress enough how important it is to get to know the employees of the business you are calling on. They can be your most important advocates. Gain their trust and you are that much closer to closing the deal. These advocates can tell you What, When, Where and How about your prospect. They many times offer up important information you will need to know about the person that holds the purse strings. Never underestimate the influence of theses people, the gatekeeper and other employees.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that you never make a Cold Call over the phone. You should use the phone and use it often. As a matter of fact you should use every tool in your sales tool box, the phone, internet, referrals, networking, face to face, even a megaphone on the street corner as long as you are not arrested. For many sales people the telephone works best. We just need to find and develop the sales tools best suited for our personal skills and use them often and with ATTITUDE!.

Martha Prince

                                 Are You Selling Ideas?

Never more than now do I realize it is a time for selling ideas.  Prospects are smarter, well read, and in the know.  You can no longer walk into a prospects business and say let me sell you an advertising schedule.  You have to walk in prepared.  Prepared to fulfill a need and give the prospects ideas he hasn't heard before and will not hear from the next media sales rep coming in behind you.  The days of order taking are gone and if you plan to stay in the game you had better learn the new rules.  In this day of business we have got to be quicker, smarter, tougher, stronger and more creative.  

Take that extra few minutes and research your prospects industry.  Look for ways that may have worked in the past.  Be bold with your suggestions, and do not be afraid to try new ideas.  Brain storm with your prospect and get his ideas.  Lets face it, no one else will know his business better than he does.  Get him involved with his commercial ideas by revving up his own creative juices.  This will give him ownership to what you are doing.  I am a believer in allowing the client face time in the commercial.  This also gives him ownership and branding.  I cannot STRESS enough how absolutely vital it is that you Listen, Listen, Listen to what your prospect is telling you,  If you are listening and giving him what he is telling you eh wants then he is not longer a prospect but a client!

MPrince
August 23, 2009

Are You a Sales Warrior

Sales people, we are warriors. We march into battle on the front line every day armed with our laptops, cell phones and brief cases and enough confidence to move mountains. Our fatigues are our pressed suits, white shirts and ties and women in our skirts and high heels. We walk with a prideful straight back, our head high with a focused, purposeful look in our eyes. We walk proudly with sales written across our foreheads. We have heart, true grit stamina and ATTITUDE! We fight every day on the front line for our companies, our products and our freedom! We live for the thrill of the chase! We face adversity; we face it and smile and go to the next sales call because we believe in our recon warrior heart the next big sale is just up ahead. You can spot us a mile away. We know when we make a cold call we are probably the seventeenth sales person that prospect has seen that day but we believe in our warrior heart that we are the one that can give this prospect what he needs to make his life better, make his business grow. All we have to do is "make him know that." We are creative warriors. We know we must never be run of the mill. We must be always learning, growing, and honing our skills, keeping our talents up to date. Our talents, oh yes, they are most important: honesty, truth, knowledge, knowing who we are and being that person at all times, knowing when you are in the presence of a prospect/client, that prospect/client is the most important person in the world to you, listening, giving, understanding, research that clients business so you can be an ad-visor, consultant, become the person the client comes to in your field. I didn't say being a warrior was easy. If it was easy then anybody could do. It is tough! Only those with Heart can be a Sales Warrior!

  I have been in media sales for twenty-five years and I have graduated from the "School of Hard Knocks of Media Sales". I want to share that knowledge. If there are young media sales people that need answers to their questions or if there are businesses considering media as an advertising investment I beleive I can answer your questions at least I can give you my opinion and we can work it out together. Maybe you don't understand what a rating point is or, if you are a business and, you do not know how much you should budget for advertising, I will share what I have learned over the years. I will share it and I will share it from my heart not from my pocket book. I will not charge for my advice because I believe the more I give the more I get. So let's blog! 

Look, I know every time you turn on the TV you hear all about the financial mess this country is in and how bad things are.  You are hearing about bailouts, layoffs, foreclosures, bankruptcies and more.  You are hearing how folks are holding onto their money because of the fear of spending.  I know many of us are having a hard time and I am in no way making light of our pain because believe me I have been there more than once.  No one knows what tomorrow holds for us.  What I do know however is this; if we allow this difficult cycle to break our character then we loose everything!   In the worst of times here in this Great country we live in,  we have it better than others do everyday of their lives in other countries around the world.  In our poorest families here in America you will find TV's, cars, gas to go in the cars, washers, dryers, heat  and even AC in most homes, we have clean drinking water, our children are free to get an education, we enjoy basic freedoms to worship our God the way we choose; there are so many wonderful gifts this country offers so that lack of space will not allow me to mention them all .  In 2009 please join me in choosing to be thankful for what we have not fearful for what we may not have!  ATTITUDE is EVERYTHING!

I just have to share this Christmas Story with everyone;

My daughter and her two children Isabella who is 3 years and Obediah who is now 3 months old are having a difficult time this holiday season so that there were no presents under their Christmas tree for Isabella to enjoy looking at.  She had noticed presents at other places and commented on how pretty they were but she had never mentioned the fact that she had none under her tree until her bedtime prayer on December 21st.  Here is her prayer:

Dear God, I need to talk to you.  Could I borrow Santa so he could bring me some presents cause I don't have any presents and I really need some presents.  Thank You God

Well, needless to say Isabella's Christmas Prayer has been answered because now she has wonderful presents under her very own tree that she can look at, touch, and wonder with excitement what could possibly be inside.

I have to give credit to all my wonderful clients who throughout the year generously trust me with their advertising budget here at WDSI Fox61 that allowed me to answer my Granddaughter's Christmas Prayer.

I haven't visited for a while but there is something I just have to share:  I spent a wonderful Thanksgiving with my son who is a Sr Chief in the Navy stationed in Virginia with my beautiful daughter-in-law and my two beautiful grandchildren.  I cooked turkey & dressing, mashed potatoes, candied yams, pumpkin and pecan pies and such;all the things that you normally cook for Thanksgiving.  We all gathered around the table each one grabbed the hand of the one sitting next to them to gave thanks for all our blessings throughout the year.  I have to say this year was a Thanksgiving to Remember.  You see my beautiful daughter-in-law has been fighting breast cancer for almost a year now and the scarest part is this was the "second" time she has fought this battle.  I have to say we have had some stressful days in 2008 with this fearful cloud hanging over us.  BUT LISTEN TO THIS! Due to Great Doctors using agressive treatments and the Prayers of Wonderful People my daughter-in-law was given the news one week before Thanksgiving she is cancer FREE!!!  Let me say that one more time.  She is cancer FREE!!!

I just want you to close you eyes and try for just a moment to imagine how it felt to give Thanks with my family on Thanksgiving Day with a cloud such as that having been being lifted from our lives.  It Was Truly a Thanksgiving  I will "ALWAYS" be Thankful for!

You could sure feel fall in the air this morning up here in Polk County.  It was almost shocking to suddenly realize it is the middle of September.  Where did the summer go?  Did I sleep through it?  It seems as if it has passed like a whirl wind.  Maybe it just means I need to stop now and then and smell the roses.   I'll have to wait till next year now because I missed their blooms.

 I like would like to announce, after a very difficult delivery and an emergency C-Section the appearance of my grandson Obediah Lee.  I have uploaded a couple of pictures.  His big sis Isabella hasn't decided if she likes him yet but she sure does kiss him alot.   She has yet to understand why she can't poke him in his ears and put her finger up his nose but other than that I think they are getting along pretty good.

Do you remember the toy called Jack-in-the-Box? It may still be on the market I'm not sure but it was a colorful tin box with a clown called Jack inside the box. The tin box had a handle on the side that turned round and round. As you turned the handle on the side of the box music would play until a clown called Jack- in -the- Box would jump out with a big clown smile on his face looking all happy to finally be out of that stupid box. Well, "I feel exactly like Jack." I feel like I have been stuck in that darn box for so long that now that I have made it out I walk around with a silly clown grin on my face looking just like Jack when he jumps out of the box. There is a sad part to this story however. Some of the people in my daily life who I thought cared for me are not happy that I am out of the box. I think maybe it makes them just a little uncomfortable. They felt much safer while I was still inside trying to get out. The saddest part to this story is that I'm sure that I have done the same thing to someone else when they may have made it out of the box too. This is not something I am proud to admit and it has taken much soul searching to get to this self truth. It had to happen to me again so that I could recognize it. It's not the first time I've been out of this box and I have even allowed others to put me back down before...but not this time!

Can you imagine what kind of world this would be if we, instead of pushing each other back down, we would reach across the way and turn the handle a couple of times for the wonderful people that are struggling to get out of their box so they are not fighting their battle alone.

I have finally learned what true friends are. They are these wonderful people that send you these colorful birthday e-cards, give you special gift cards and tasty a birthday cake and lovingly light only one candle. They know if they put all the required candles on the cake the first one would melt before they could light them all. It would certainly set off the smoke alarm. Plus 911 would have to be summoned due to the lack of oxygen when I tried to blow them all out. There is one ray of hope however, I hear  that fifty is now the new thirty and sixty is the new forty. If this is true then I would be thirty-something.and soon I'll be the same age as Jack Benny.

To all my wonderful friends which happen to be my co-workers, you know who you are...Thank you for being my friends. You all mean more to me than you will ever know.

Well, last night i had my very first experience with a sleep study. Before last week I had no idea there was such a study. You have to wonder what kind of motivation it took for another person to create such an experience.  Anyway, lately I have been feeling tired & sleepy during the day "who doesn't right?". It is also a safety precaution considering that I drive from Copperhill to Chattanooga to work most everyday. My Doc seemed to think it could be because I am not sleeping well at night and the only way to find out for sure if that is the problem is to watch me sleep. (This can't be happening to me)Not a very exciting thought having folks you have never met before hook you to wires and machines from head to toe just to hear all the "sounds" you might make during your nightly slumber. None-the-less I agreed. I even agreed to have a camera pointed at me watching every move I may have made during my rest-lessness. I have to wonder how anyone could expect you to sleep under such circumstances. Glad it is over...now I going home and take a nap.

As always the beginning of a new year brings with it a feeling of newness. A feeling that maybe you get another chance to do things better this year than last. I have to say it is going to be hard to top 2007. For me it has been a banner year. I have been here at WDSI Fox61 for 3+ years now and of course it has not been without it's ups and downs as is expected, especially in an advertising sales position. But I have been blessed with the best clients in the world.  It is because of these great business associates that I have been able to exceed my personal and professional  budgets and dreams. 

I am looking forward to 2008 with great anticipation...there will be a lot of changes in my little family. My only daughter is in the "family way" once more. It is  her first child  Isabella's picture that is posted on my About Me. My oldest son Scott is career Navy and looking forward to becoming Master Chief in 2008. My youngest son Matthew is a branch manager for BB&T and is engaged to be married in April. His soon to be wife is every mother-in-law's dream. My number two son Stace is cranking up his rock band "Sly Willie Down" after a short hiatus. I can look forward to his gigs once more. It seems all is well this Jan 2, 2008.