An elderly Floridian called 911 on her cell phone to report that her car has been broken into. She is hysterical as she explains her situation to the dispatcher: 'They've stolen the stereo, the steering wheel, the brake pedal and even the accelerator!' she cried.. The dispatcher said, 'Stay calm... An officer is on the way.' A few minutes later, the officer radios in 'Disregard.' He says. 'She got in the back-seat by mistake.'

You've probably heard it before. I started my business in 1986. I had no money and not a lot of brains. I'd been in the industry for less than a year, but I did know how to make cold calls. So, I started. 30 cold calls every morning before noon. Spend the rest of the day following up on the promises that I made and received on the calls. I made thousands of cold calls in the first year of my business, but I didn't make any in year 2. I learned how to ask for and get referrals.

I just saw a survey about on line civility.

I was talking with a 'former' client today and she told me that another 'former' client had asked her if I was OK. She asked what he meant and he replied, "He seems a bit grouchy." She said, "Come on! That's Rick!"

This is a very special article written by Greg Brown. Greg is Senior Enterprise Account Executive at HubSpot and according to every manager that he's worked with, it's almost embarrassing how badly he's always blown away his quotas. In his own words...

How many clients do you have?

Everyone has heard of the acronym AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action). It’s been around since the the turn of the 20th century when E. St. Elmo Lewis first described it. Over the years, many ‘experts’ have felt the need to modify, rename, or add to the basic steps, but seriously, do we really need a submarine version, a basebal version or an inbound marketing version? If a salesperson understands and follows the basics, they can do quite well.

So, taking a lesson from Star Wars, why start at the beginning when you can start in the middle? Let’s start with Interest. I know that the acronym means that we need to create interest within our client, but my question is, “Can you teach a salesperson how to be create interest?” Several years ago, I attended a conference in Rhode Island. One of the speakers reflected on advice that his father had given him as he set out to make his fortune. His father said,

Someone sent this email to me. I'm sharing it because I found it interesting. If you can't see the picture on your browser, send me an email and I'll forward the original email to you.

Yesterday, Pete Caputa’s article Sales People Can (and Should) Blog Too prompted me to make a rather long (for me) comment. I was simultaneously having a conversation on LinkedIn about some of the dumb stuff that we do and that resulted in this Homer Simpson-esque article titled 101 Sales/Marketing Mistakes (That I'm Never Gonna Make Again!). Then, this morning, Greg Brown posted an update to LinkedIn titled, 34 Must-Have Tools to Launch your Startup from Idea to Exit.

…and I found myself reflecting on the way I built my business and what I would do differently today. I also found myself thinking about all the Hubspot Partners that I’ve spoken with lately, whose prospects have built their businesses with cold calls (think hedge funds, telemarketers, time shares, credit card consolidators, etc.), networking/referrals (think CPA’s, lawyers, financial advisors, etc.) or trade shows (think home/garden contractors, banks, manufacturers, chamber/association members) and some claim that they do it all plus spend oodles of money on advertising and traditional marketing.

The rest of the title is "That I'm Never Gonna Make Again!".