Play the above video clip titled, "The Sales Meeting", and discover a new way to solve an expensive cost of sales problem.

It’s one thing to gold call your way onto your prospect’s calendar, and into their office. That’s just the beginning. Now that you’ve got an appointment set with your prospect, now it’s time to hit the road and get your  ‘day in court’. Just don’t forget to take your gold call, on the sales call!

"He who works the process awaits the result in peace..." - Old Proverb

 If you're familiar with the gold call you've probably noticed the semblance of a process at work with each and every gold call conversation you have with prospects. Process has everything to do with determining the final outcome of any effort, including the effort of building a closing dialogue with prospective customers.

I've heard plenty of so called 'sales closes' before.  Ones like the 'Ben Franklin' close, and the 'Alternative of Choice' close. I even remember one years ago called the 'Dinosaur' close. In this particular close, the salesperson would bring an order form to the meeting, and if he had trouble closing the sale, he would just sit there until he turned into a 'fossil', or until the prospect agreed to sign the order as a way to get rid of the 'fossil'.

I'd like to share a personal story with you. About 18 months ago I started working with a business advisor and wealth coach. My business advisor is Marilyn August. Marilyn is the author of an excellent personal development book titled, Wealthy U. Marilyn's book provides valuable insight, and offers profound solutions that help one to face up to the challenges of not having enough money, and what to do about it.

If your business success is largely dependent upon a telephone cold call to find new customers, you're facing a growing list of problems you may not be aware of.

Most people, including myself, have a difficult time with remembering people's names. I can recall many embarrassing occasions when no sooner did I let go of shaking the other person's hand than I completely forgot their name. It's a bad habit, and it makes me feel uneasy. In the past, to try and avoid embarrassment, I've made a joke of forgetting someone's name, and simply laughed off the fact that I had mistakenly called someone Fred instead of Frank. However, my jokes and apologies are starting to wear thin.

In reference to the article, 'Tech-Spending Looks Poised to Decelerate', that appeared in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, the authors, Pui-Wing Tam and Ben Worthen announced something that most of us tech salespeople have known for some time already. Except for the absolute necessities, enterprise technology spending has been softening since 9/11, and the outlook doesn't look any better for 2008.

We used to call them "fence-sitters". I'm referring to those sales prospects that take a year and a day to make up their mind about anything. There's always an excuse coming from them about the delay, and little clarity about when they will make the final decision. It's called the "waiting game", and I hate it.

Last week I had dinner with Tony Parinello, the author of the best selling sales book titled, 'Selling to V.I.T.O.' (Very Important Top Officer). Tony gave a speech to our CEO Club, and once again reminded us about how important it is to start at the top and call V.I.T.O. when we prospect for new customers.

How true!