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Name of author Rick Baker, P.Eng.

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Then my sales guy says to me…

by Rick Baker
On Jun 7, 2011
“Aw c’mon boss, you know I love cold calling!”
 
I thought I had made it real clear…we won’t be doing any more cold calling.
 
We had instituted several programs designed to remove the need for cold calling and this stubborn fellow, my best sales guy, is pressing me to change our plans…all because he loves cold calling. In case you think I don’t have an open mind…in fairness to this sales guy…he has had tremendous sales success, using traditional methods, mostly cold calling. He keeps explaining that to me. Over and over. He tells me he has a sales system for generating sales. And, according to his story, a big part of his success can be directly linked to cold calling.
 
He tells me he has made a habit of keeping his eyes and ears open for people who may be interested in buying our products and services. He says he finds these people in the strangest places. He finds them everywhere. When he finds them he records their contact information. Then, he inserts the names into this thing he calls his sales funnel…and he begins the process of contacting those people. Cold calling. Right out of the blue…cold calling.
 
I happen to know, from personal experiences, cold calling is a real annoying and frustrating experience. Sure, I used to do it. But that was then. When I felt I had to. Now, I see cold calling for what it is…and I have come up with better ways to generate new business. We have built a nice website. We have written up some tremendous marketing pieces. We make sure we attend all the industry trade shows. And, we make sure we do a bunch of other stuff…including lots of social media stuff. We have our bases covered.
 
So, we do not need to do cold calling any more.
 
I’ve told our people that.
 
Then, as strange as I know it sounds, I have this sales guy who says to me…
 
“Aw c’mon boss…you know I love cold calling!”
 
And, you know what’s worse?
 
This sales guy goes on and on and on about how much business he can generate if he keeps on doing and loving those cold calls.
 
Some folks…you just can’t teach them.

Tags:

Sales

Sales Tweet #232

by Rick Baker
On Jun 7, 2011
Sales Tweet #232 When we are able to boil essences of things down to a single word we possess a tool of genius!
 
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
When we have that tool of genius we can apply it to our business thought and communication. We can benefit from creative thinking, putting it to use daily (in our marketing, as just one example); quickly get to the true root of problems…so solutions jump out at us; understand the Leader’s Role…and communicate it well, and expand Business Success.

Tags:

Beyond Business | Thought Tweets

Sales Tweet #231

by Rick Baker
On Jun 6, 2011
Sales Tweet #231 When Ernest Seller visits, Mr. Kaye turns down the lights…it reduces the sting of Ernest’s clothes.
 
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
Have you seen Herb Tarlek in the late 70’s/early 80’s TV show, WKRP in Cincinnati? Well if you haven't don’t worry…just Google-search ‘Herb Tarlek’ and get some images. Ernest Seller dresses a lot like that. Ernest’s favourite colour is plaid and he really enjoys a good plaid sports jacket…bright shirts…and paisley ties.

Tags:

Ernest Seller | Thought Tweets

The Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce celebrates 125 years of business leadership.

by Rick Baker
On Jun 3, 2011
I had the pleasure of attending last week’s kick-off event, celebrating our Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce’s 125th anniversary.
 
The kick-off event, held at our new Waterloo Region Museum in Kitchener, was a tremendous success. I particularly enjoyed the great venue, the great company, the to-the-point presentations and the video history story created by Modevation Media.
 
The video provided a list, a long list, of the contribution our Chamber of Commerce and its predecessor organizations have worked on to help our community prosper during the last 125 years. Also, of course, the video contained some great pictures.
 
I get a kick out of old pictures…the people and how they dressed, the historic community gatherings…all those hats, the historic cars, and the historic buildings.
 
I tried to picture what it would have been like in the 1880’s when our Chamber of Commerce was created.
 
So, I checked some statistics.
 
Here are some of the facts I found:
  • The British gifted the land of our community to the Six Nations in recognition of their support during the American Revolution just over 100 years before our Chamber of Commerce was formed
  • The Six Nations began to sell land to Colonel Richard Beasley 90 years before our Chamber of Commerce was formed…Beasley soon began to sell land parcels to settlers
  • Mennonite families arrived from Pennsylvania 80 years before our Chamber of Commerce was formed
  • The Town of Berlin was just over 60 years old when our Chamber was formed
  • The Grand Truck Railway had served our community for about 30 years when our Chamber was formed
  • The province we live in received the name Ontario 19 years before our Chamber of Commerce was formed
  • Canada’s 10th Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King was 11 years old and attending Berlin Central School when our Chamber of Commerce was formed
  • The Town of Waterloo was 10 years old when our Chamber of Commerce was formed
  • Alexander Graham Bell’s patent for the telephone was 10 years old when our Chamber of Commerce was formed
  • Thomas Edison’s patent for the light bulb was 7 years old when our Chamber of Commerce was formed
  • The Province of Ontario had approximately 2,000,000 people when our Chamber of Commerce was formed
  • The Town of Berlin [now City of Kitchener] had a population of about 6,000 people when our Chamber of Commerce was formed
  • The Town of Waterloo had a population of about 2,500 people when our Chamber of Commerce was formed
When the prescient business folks of our community gathered 125 years ago to create an organization to lead and help local commerce:
  • telephones and light bulbs were new and barely-proven technologies
  • there were no electrical utilities or natural gas utilities
  • they saw no airplanes
  • they saw no automobiles
Regardless, those business leaders saw in their minds a vivid picture of a prosperous future for our community.
 
And, together, they took the action required to help bring that future about.
 
PS: I am honoured to have had the opportunity to participate in our Chamber of Commerce, working to follow the amazing early footsteps taken by business people in our community 5 generations ago.

Tags:

Community

Sales Tweet #230

by Rick Baker
On Jun 3, 2011
Sales Tweet #230 "Old and adequate ideas, like old and adequate cities, come to polarize everything around them.”
 
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
This is a quote of Edward de Bono, from one of his early books 'The Use of Lateral Thinking'. The question to ask is, "Are adequate ideas good enough?" If your answer is anything but "Yes" then it is time to inject some fresh ideas…some 'New Things'. [As in - People only do 3 Things: Good Habits, Bad Habits, & New Things]

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Hero Worship | Thought Tweets

Sales Tweet #229

by Rick Baker
On Jun 2, 2011
Sales Tweet #229 Is it possible people are not inspired to 'play the game of work' because they think they cannot win?
 
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
Some very competitive people, perhaps most very competitive people, will only play games they think they can win. That applies to work roles too. So, it is important to ensure the right people are in the right roles working on the right goals and doing the right tasks.

Tags:

Leaders' Thoughts | Thought Tweets

Copyright © 2012. W.F.C (Rick) Baker. All Rights Reserved.