A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that, "Indeed, many in the financial-services industry thought the death knell would sound on June 27, 2003 -- the day the Federal Trade Commission initiated the National Do Not Call Registry, which allowed consumers to place their home and cell phone numbers off-limits to telemarketers. The response was swift: Within five weeks, more than 30 million numbers were registered. There are now 135.8 million numbers on the list."

The Do Not Call Registry would not have been needed had sales professionals who cold call and telemarketers been taught how to successfully connect with their prospects on the phone. If the skills of successful cold calling been given to these groups of professionals then consumers would now think as highly of sales professionals and telemarketers as they do their personal Financial Consultants. Cold calls would be perceived and welcomed, as vitally important information resources. Rightfully so.

There is a world difference between "telemarketing" and sales professionals who cold call prospects

No offense to telemarketers but, many who take those jobs unfortunately believe they can not get a job doing anything else. Because of that self-defeating belief, they gladly take a paycheck and put up with the burn and churn mentality of telemarketing company owners.

Telemarketing company owners should be ashamed to give employees poorly written scripts; inadequate training, and a decision-tree that removes all personal connection from the phone call. Because those systems, set the telemarketer up to fail. How? When a consumer asks an important question that is not addressed by the decision-tree the telemarketer looses footing and feels like a blubbering idiot, clueless as to how to respond. The company owner is ignorant as to the real skills required for successful cold calls; opts not to create systems that eliminate the pain of the telemarketers who have to deal with this day in and day out, shrugs his shoulders and says, "Oh, well it's just a numbers game. When this group quits, I'll just hire another."

Where's the professionalism and skill in that?

Sales professionals on the other hand, have tremendous knowledge having to do with how their products and services can bring desirable benefits to the lives of their prospects and clients. Yes, they may need coaching as to how to have consistent access to that valuable information that resides in their brains, and to stay mentally agile throughout a cold call. But make no mistake, these sellers are top notch professionals that prospects want and need to hear from.