I probably receive more correspondence from salespeople who deal with long sales cycles, or what is commonly referred to as the complex sale, than from anyone else. They contact me because theyve seen my website or heard about my books and are skeptical about whether or not my lead-generation techniques can work for them, or if they only work for commodity products with short sales cycles.

Stop! Thats what I usually say as I hear their objections. Stop jumping to conclusions without considering the possibilities first.

The fact of the matter is that the self-marketing systems I teach work even better for complex sales than for simple sales! The reason why is quite simple: Rudimentary sales techniques such as cold calling will be more effective for simple sales. Something more sophisticated, however, will be required for the complex sale. To me this is basic common sense, but for some reason, people have a tendency to get it backwards. Nearly everyone I talk to says that my self-marketing systems are probably fine for commodity products, but that complex sales will require cold calling! Like I said, they have it backwards.

There are a number of reasons why this is so. Rather than elaborate on theory, here are some points to consider as to why self-marketing techniques work even better with complex sales:

1. If you are involved with long sales cycle products or services, you need to have more than a business card and brochure on your side. You need to have your own website. I dont mean your companys website I mean your very own personal website, just for your prospects and customers.

2. Since you are selling a complex product, its very important that your prospects are educated on it. Think about it isnt one of the biggest challenges in selling complex, or high-ticket products, the simple fact that most prospects fail to realize what the benefits are to them? By having a well-educated prospect base, you increase your odds of closing them. You do this through a good e-mail newsletter, not something that pitches them to buy from you every week or month or however often you choose to send it out, but rather something that benefits the prospect by educating them in areas either directly or indirectly related to your area of expertise.

3. In addition to educating your prospects, your e-mail newsletter serves to place you in the position of a leader and a recognized expert in your field. This is extremely important, because once you have accomplished this, your competition doesnt stand a chance! Everyone wants to deal with the recognized expert, not the amateur who wastes his time by cold calling.

4. From this moment on, your primary goal in making new contacts should be to get them on your newsletter list and visiting your website. Your job from now on is to get them into your system, which will keep them in your pipeline permanently and will establish your credibility as the recognized expert, and the only person to buy from.

As you can see, there is a lot more to self-marketing than the myth that it is nothing more than sending out mailers and hoping someone will call. The very basic steps Ive described here will do wonders for your sales you will amass a huge list of prospects who hear from you on a regular basis, automatically, but even better, they will look up to you as the undisputed expert in your field, and wont even bother talking to your competition!

Frank Rumbauskas

Frank J. Rumbauskas, Jr., author of the New York Times Best-Seller "Never Cold Call Again: Achieve Sales Greatness Without Cold Calling," spent several difficult years in sales, frustrated and convinced that there must be a better way than the familiar chants of "cold call more" and "increase your activity" so frequently heard from well-meaning but otherwise clueless sales managers.

While working as an account executive for a Fortune 100 company in the mid 1990s, Mr. Rumbauskas was mentored by another A.E. who went from entry- level sales to upper management in 3 years, something unheard of in this particular organization. This top producer revealed a very basic principle to Mr. Rumbauskas. He immediately applied it and suddenly began to achieve tremendous results. That simple principle forms the basis of this entire program. Mr. Rumbauskas has taken it, perfected it, designed systems around it, and is now able to apply it to any and all sales jobs. He went on to successfully start and run two sales agencies based on these principles before moving into sales training.

His biggest strength compared to other sales trainers and authors is the fact that he is now a business owner who meets with salespeople on a regular basis. He is careful to observe everything they do right as well as everything they do wrong, and his training materials reflect this firsthand experience.

Originally from Linden, New Jersey, Mr. Rumbauskas now resides in Phoenix, Arizona. He is actively involved with various community and civic organizations in the Phoenix area, and is an active entrepreneur - he owns a mortgage protection life insurance agency which uses the principles he teaches to generate business without cold calling, and is a major holder in an emerging wireless internet company. He enjoys reading the great number of success stories we receive from students of this program. If you have a success story you haven't yet shared with us, please do so!