I am working this week and next with a large, well-established company that is asking the following of their salespeople

• make 250 prospecting calls a day
• have 5 appts/day
• make 3 renewal sales and 1 new sale a day
• and do it the old fashioned way, with brute force

The resistance to change is remarkable. I expect it from old- timers (and there are plenty of them) but I am getting the same resistance from people who have been in the job for 4 months and average 23 years of age. Here is what they have been taught:

• make 250 calls a day
• don't give them any benefits or reasons to meet. Just say you are a specialist in their industry and geography and you want to meet with them
• ask them a series of questions to uncover a requirement
• "sidestep" any objections to get the appointment
• just call people off the list you are given without any filtering, prioritizing, etc

We are trying to warn them that they wont get as many appointments, or good appointments as they need doing it this way, and they might suffer other serious side effects, including:

1. arthritis, especially in their dialing finger
2. chipped nails
3. back problems from sitting and calling
4. broken fingers from slamming the phone down
5. high blood pressure from too much Red Bull to keep up the pace
6. customer complaints are increasing
7. competitors are rejoicing and dancing in the streets
8. new world records for time being wasted are being established
9. really good prospects being ignored or marginalized
10. communications costs reaching new highs in their company with all the phone calls being made
11. "Death of a Salesman" is becoming a must read

Here is what we are teaching them:

1. You can have high volume and quality by defining your sweet spot and using social media more effectively
2. You will have more appt's that are pre-qualified and thus have higher close rates
3. You will cover your territory better by focusing on the best deals and using email, social media, networks and more to cover the rest
4. You can reach as many people as you want at one time by using Linkedin, Facebook, email and running webinars
5. When you reach people, tell them the benefit to them of meeting so they will have fewer questions or objections, and those they do will have relevance
6. Try it in steps, not all at once so you can ease into this better behavior