It’s somewhat like the joke: Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. You could be BOTH paranoid and pursued.

But let’s get back to your brainpower for a moment. If you have made telemarketing, teleselling, prospecting, lead generation, outbound sales, inbound sales, order entry, or customer service your career, you may be a little bit off the grid, intellectually.

Peter F. Drucker, famed management guru and also my professor, was fond of saying you can judge the quality of an industry based on its “brain formation.” Are the best minds attracted to it, the high-flyers, or is it a backwater, an estuary of slower and denser ducks?

Look at the cubicle to your left, and now to your right. Gaze back one cube and forward one cube. See any superstars? Are you the exception?

Probably not, so accept that and stop fighting nuances, complications, apparent contradictions. As a practical matter, cold calling is what you make it, no more and no less.

I’ve seen my clients earn million dollar commissions from deals they started with a single cold call. The potential is limitless, providing you can simply dedicate yourself to the task.

It takes a certain kind of intelligence to appreciate how dumb we are, or at least how dumb we act. Don’t try to outsmart cold calling, claiming it doesn’t work.

As long as that’s your opinion, it won’t work for you. europa2004.