On this week’s episode of The Cold Calling Podcast, Greg and Mike talk about how, if you are a business owner or a sales manager, you can instill a culture of cold-calling within your firm.

We cover the issue of realistic expectations, the “10/10″ rule, and a great way to incentivise salespeople to hit realistic calling targets.

We also announce the winner of our first competition, who won a Creative Zen MP3 player by sending in an excellent cold-calling tip (which we briefly explain but will probably cover in more detail on a future show). We now have a new competition, so listen in for details of how to win another Zen.

If you have any comments, questions or feedback, or if you would like to suggest a topic for a future show, please e-mail mike@coldcallingpodcast.com or greg@coldcallingpodcast.com, or call our audio comment line on 020 7193 1295 (from within the UK) or +44 20 7193 1295 (from outside the UK).

Listen Now:

 CCP026 - Promoting a Prospecting Culture [19:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (5512)

There are two ways you can subscribe to The Cold Calling Podcast.

First the easy way. Just send a message to mike@coldcallingpodcast.com with the word “Subscribe� in the title. We will then notify you by e-mail each time we release a new episode of The Cold Calling Podcast.

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Whichever method you uses, if you have any problems subscribing to The Cold Calling Podcast, please contact mike@coldcallingpodcast.com.

Q: What is a Podcast?

A:  According to Wikipedia, “Podcasting is the practice of making audio files available online in a way that allows software to automatically detect new files and download them.� Technically, this is accomplished using something called an “RSS� feed, to provide information about a collection of audio files in MP3 format. In common use, the term “podcast� is most often used to refer to an independent audio show that can be downloaded from the Internet.

Q: What’s good about podcasting?

A: Podcasting lets anybody with a microphone, a computer and an Internet connection publish audio shows that can be listened to by people anywhere in the world. Because the barriers to entry are very low, podcasting is rapidly becoming a popular way for people share audio shows. Podcasts are generally free and can be automatically downloaded to portable media players, so you can listen to them whenever it’s convenient.

Q: What sort of shows are available as podcasts?

A: There are already many types of podcasts, including audio books, music shows, news, humor and sports. Most podcasts are created by amateurs, but there are also commercial podcasts and independently produced podcasts. There are podcasts in Dutch, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Mohawk, Spanish, and many other languages.

Q: Do I need to have an iPod to listen to podcasts?

A: No. The first podcast “client applications� (also known as aggregators or podcatchers) were designed to subscribe to audio shows, automatically download them and sync them to iPods. As podcasting has evolved, podcast clients have become available that work with most portable digital audio players. Many podcast sites support downloading shows directly from the site, and many directories support playing podcasts directly.

Q: Do I need special software to listen to podcasts?

A: No. Many podcasts (including The Cold Calling Podcast) can be streamed or downloaded directly from the host’s website. However, podcasting clients (such as iTunes) make the whole process of downloading podcasts and copying them to portable media players much more streamlined and “user-friendly�.

Q: Where can I find podcasts?

A: The most popular places for finding podcasts are the directories at iTunes, Juice, PodcastAlley and Podcasting News. There are many other podcast directory sites. Many podcast applications also include a list or directory of podcasts.

Q: Who invented podcasting?

A: Podcasting is based on capabilities built into the RSS 2.0 specification, which was developed by Dave Winer. Adam Curry catalyzed the podcasting concept in September of 2004, when he released a script that automatically downloaded audio files referenced in RSS files.
While there are many precedents for Curry and Winer’s work, they put the pieces together and popularized the idea of podcasting. Because of this, they are generally considered the “podfathers� of the podcasting community.

Q: What hardware and operating system do I need?

A: You can create and listen to podcasts using Windows, Mac OS X and Linux podcasting software.

Q. What is RSS?

A. RSS files are text files that contain information about things available on the Internet. For podcasting, RSS files are used to syndicate information about a podcast “channel� (the show as a whole), and also individual podcast episodes.

Q: What can you do with a podcast?

A: A browse through a podcast directory shows the variety of podcasts that are available. Here are just a few things podcasting can be used for:

- On-demand versions of radio shows
- Personal audio blogs
- Audio books
- Music shows
- Audio tour guides
- Educational content that depends on audio (language, music, etc)
- Marketing for musicians
- Distributing sermons and other religious content
- Storytelling
- Sports coverage
- Distributing/synchronizing audio and video files for business.

This week, we have a special guest on The Cold Calling Podcast - Mark Whitehouse, Director of Channel Alliances.

We talk with Mark about how “indirect selling” (i.e. using partners) can help you increase your sales pipeline and close more business.

Mark explains why you should add channel selling to your arsenal, discusses some of the criteria for choosing the right partners to help you sell your solutions/services, and examines what your ideal partner might want from you.

More details on Channel Alliances can be found at their website at www.channel-alliances.com.

If you have any comments, questions or feedback, or if you would like to suggest a topic for a future show, please e-mail mike@coldcallingpodcast.com or greg@coldcallingpodcast.com, or call our audio comment line on 020 7193 1295 (from within the UK) or +44 20 7193 1295 (from outside the UK).

Digg this!

Listen Now:

 CCP025 - Channel Selling [24:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4125)