“I recommend Smart Calling to all my salespeople to give them more confidence in their ability to sell. By showing them how to sell more efficiently, honestly, and effectively over the phone, this book has reduced our sales training period from weeks down to days. By getting our salespeople up and over the sales learning curve quickly, we have been able to significantly reduce employee turnover while increasing employee satisfaction. This book delivers real sales results.”
—Mark Doggett, Owner, Batteries Plus
“I have been a top salesperson for many years in several industries but, as I have gotten older, I realized that I’m not prospecting like I used to. Reading and re-reading Smart Calling, and attending a live session with Art, has helped me improve and reinvigorate my prospecting. I have new confidence and a renewed passion for prospecting. I’ve got a solid track to run on, and the heart to become a top producer once again.”
—David Wiener, National Account Executive, CSS, Cost Segregation Services, Inc.
“If you want to learn to be great at basketball study Michael Jordan. If you want to learn to be great at golf study Tiger Woods. If you want to learn to be great at sales, study Art Sobczak. With an easy-to-duplicate, tried-and-true system for selling, Art systematically breaks down each facet of the sales cycle and reveals the small nuances that separate the amateurs from the pros. In a short time I went from being a newbie to being up for President’s Club. Knowledge is power and Art’s materials are powerful!”
—Michael Steinhardt, Sales Executive
“I am a fan of the Smart Calling approach. The book lays out specific, actionable tactics that make sense in the real world. In addition to the thorough step-by-step analysis of a logical sales process developed over the telephone, the book addresses the negative perceptions and responses that telephone salespeople encounter. Smart Calling is an incredibly valuable resource to achieving success in telephone selling.”
—Lee Folger, Sales and Business Development Executive, Progressive Business Media
“I have read many sales books and Smart Calling is the best on the market! I used the opening statement template/examples in the Smart Calling book to come up with my own tailored opening statement, which piques people’s interest and fills my calendar with curious and interested prospects wanting to hear more. People in my office ask how I book so many qualified appointments and close deals. I tell them four words: ‘Smart Calling Opening Statement.’ If you are looking for a sales book that will take your sales to the next level with no fluff and BS, this is it!”
—Erik Darnall, District Manager, California Chamber of Commerce
“Picking up the phone used to be my biggest fear … I did not know what to say. In my first seven years in sales I hardly reached my quota; this year, using Smart Calling, I have already reached it easily and will double it next year.”
—Juan Martinez, Sales Rep, Kaeser Compressors
“Your book changed my professional life. I have my Smart research down to a science and produce about three leads every hour.”
—Sam Shenker, Associated Global Systems
“I’ve been using the phone to sell for seven years, and before I picked up Art’s Smart Calling book I thought I knew it all. But after reading through the first few chapters I quickly realized that I knew nothing. Just the section on call openings and voicemails has transformed my career and skyrocketed my results to new levels. This book is a must for anyone serious about selling over the phone. Art really delivers.”
—Shane Varcoe, Regional Sales Manager
“Art Sobczak understands the difference between direct marketing and cold calling, which many sales gurus simply don’t. Smart Calling is a phenomenal resource for anyone that truly wants to excel in sales. The advice is obviously from experience, and Mr. Sobczak offers sound techniques that everyone could use.”
—Chris Lott, VP of Sales, DataTel Communications
“I love your book! In the first week of reading, I not only saved a one-location sale that was quickly being lost to (the competition) and ended up with an appointment with the COO for four locations.”
—Alida Ruiz, Sr., Account Executive, Integra Telecom
“Smart Calling may be the best book on using the telephone I have ever read. I recommended it to all of 100 + agents in my office.”
—Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, Keller Williams Realty Professionals
“I keep fewer than a dozen books on my quick reference shelf, and Smart Calling is one of them. After a seven-year absence from cold calling, I have found that done right, it can and does bear fruit. Thanks for your excellent coaching in the book.”
—Greg McDermott, The Reverse Mortgage Team, Leader One Financial
“I read it once over a week period. Implemented recommendations and approaches to Smart Calling. Result: my calling productivity has doubled! I am now getting the same number of appointments but with only half as many calls. The quality of my calls is much better! I now actually reach decision makers more frequently. What Art recommends does work! I have just finished my second reading of this book. Got even more out of it.”
—Terrence Manuel, Owings Mills, MD
Third Edition
Copyright © 2020 by Art Sobczak. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
First edition published 2010, second edition published 2013, both by Wiley.
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ISBN 978-1-119-67672-0 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-119-67673-7 (ePDF)
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Cover design: Wiley
When I wrote the first edition of Smart Calling in 2010, I had a feeling it would do pretty well. I had been teaching the same things in my training programs for years; it was field tested. Even so, the book’s reception blew me away.
The book hit number one in the Sales category on Amazon on the very first day and it stayed there for a while. It was named Top Sales Book of 2010 by Top Sales Awards, beating out some other very fine books by big-time authors. It continued to sell well, and the process was embraced and implemented by individuals and organizations worldwide.
Three years later, Smart Calling continued to thrive, so it was updated. The second edition included success stories from Smart Callers using the process.
Now, 10 years after its original publication, it is humbling and gratifying that Smart Calling is more than a good read; it has changed lives.
This book has helped people who had been terrified to pick up the phone and talk with a stranger. Some readers find success on their very first call and others have become millionaires. This edition includes both kinds of stories.
I’ve had the opportunity to speak to hundreds of companies, groups, and associations, helping them implement and succeed with this common-sense way of prospecting—one that removes the cold.
While the fundamentals of the Smart Calling process have not changed much, it is time to share more of the best practices and success stories of Smart Callers.
Technology changes daily, so this edition also includes some updated Smart Calling tools and resources. To help readers stay current, this book includes access to the Smart Calling Companion Course. This is a free online resource where you will find additional content and valuable updates about the latest tech tools and other resources. Be sure to sign up for it free at SmartCallingBook.com.
If you are reading Smart Calling for the first time, welcome aboard! If you have read an earlier edition, welcome back.
To fully understand what Smart Calling is all about, let’s go back a few years. Okay, a lot of years. I wish I had had this book back in 1982, when I started my first corporate sales job with the old AT&T. It would have prevented a lot of grief and helped me make much more money.
There was no Internet and PCs were just making their appearance. Sales intelligence meant going to the library and finding a list of businesses that belonged to a trade association. Even without the benefit of today’s technology, the pure prospecting and sales process in this book would have worked 30 years ago, just as they do today—and will 40 years from now and beyond.
Back then, I knew that typical cold calling—phoning people I didn’t know anything about and giving a pitch—didn’t make sense and was quite painful. I always tried to find a better way, an edge that would get superior results. I was constantly reading, listening to tapes, attending seminars, studying, and tinkering with my own approach. I always did well in my sales positions, but I knew that I would never be satisfied and that there would always be more to learn. My quest continued through a couple of other corporate sales jobs and then at my own company, where I pounded the phones to acquire clients for my fledgling firm.
Eventually, I found a better way, a smarter way to prospect. My process makes sense, gets results, and does not require you to sound like some cheesy salesperson.
This book is a step-by-step guide that will show you how to call people you do not know, engage them in a conversation, and ultimately get them to take some action. And I will also show you how to avoid the morale-killing rejection that is usually associated with telephone prospecting.
I’ve built my business and reputation over the past 30+ years on delivering very specific how-to tactics and strategies. Many sales trainers and authors tell you what you should do on the phone: create interest, get past the screener, leave a compelling voicemail. But readers are left wondering how in the heck to do it. I’ll answer that for you and give you a precise recipe for success.
This book is long on practical how-tos and short on big-picture strategy. I’ve always been somewhat of a simple, get-to-the-point kind of guy, as you’ll soon discover. What I’ve learned from delivering more than 1,500 training sessions and studying human behavior is that people learn best when topics are entertaining and relate to their world. I try to do both by using real-life examples.
First, I will guide you through a telephone prospecting call using my Smart Call methodology. You will learn the same time-tested process and techniques that I present to my training clients. I’m confident these methods can work as well for you as they do for the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who already use them.
Unlike some gurus out there, I don’t claim to have all the answers and I don’t believe that my approach is the only way to realize success. That’s why I will point you in the direction of other experts when it feels appropriate.
You may not agree with everything I say. That is good because it means you are thinking about what you read and applying it to your situation. All I ask is that, when you disagree, you react as you should when you get resistance in a sales situation. Ask yourself, “How might this be true? How well am I doing this now? How could this work for me?”
Anyone in traditional sales—meaning anyone with sales or business development in their title—will learn a lot from this book. But anyone who picks up the phone to call a person they don’t know—with the objective of persuading that person to take some action—will learn from this book. For example:
Smart Calling primarily is focused on those who sell business to business, but the fact is that businesses don’t buy from businesses. People buy from people. If you are using a consultative sales approach, it doesn’t matter if you sell primarily to consumers. Insurance agents, financial advisors, and home improvement contractors all use the Smart Calling process very successfully.
Regardless of whether your career relies on regularly calling people to get new business or whether you have one person to whom you want to sell an idea and may never place a prospecting call again, this book will help you do what is necessary.
As much as I like to think my writing is enjoyable to read, I don’t want you to just read this book. I want you to do this book.
As I tell my training workshop participants, everything I will share with you is totally worthless—until you do something with it. I know this material works, but only if you do.
My friend Larry Winget—who is known as “The World’s Only Irritational Speaker”—says in his book It’s Called Work for a Reason—Success Is Your Own Damn Fault that many people are “spectators rather than doers.” I agree, and I have seen too much evidence of that among the ranks of salespeople who do nothing to improve themselves—even when the resources are provided to them. You have taken the first step by investing in this book. The payoff will come by putting in the work.
There are a number of exercises throughout the book that ask you to research, write, and practice. At the end of each chapter, I also ask what other action you will commit to as you act on the concepts.
Prospecting and sales are a lot like golf: You can read all you want to become knowledgeable about it, but you will become excellent only by practicing.
I’m ready if you are. Let’s begin making your prospecting calls smart!
—Art Sobczak
Scottsdale, Arizona
May 2020