Ah yes – you know where that line comes from, don’t you?  While country music is not necessarily my go-to choice of music genres, I really love the song The Gambler by Kenny Rogers.  I love it for a couple of reasons, really.  Growing up, I can remember listening to it in my parents’ living room, on their 8-track player no less!  There’s a nostalgic factor to that song that can take me right back to that living room some 30 years ago.  I also like that song because I enjoy playing poker; Texas Hold ‘Em for me, thanks.  How does this relate to teleprospecting, though?  We’ve all had them, right?  MORE >>

Maybe you’re asking yourself, “Self, who should I follow on Twitter?&#  Maybe you’ve asked yourself that and have made your way here, to The CRAP Report. If so, you can check out two posts below to see who I suggested you follow two months ago. Maybe you’ve followed all of those folks and are looking for more. still think the Follow Friday blog post is a good idea. Here’s my list of B2B all-stars that I think you’ll find yourself glad to follow: @mvolpe – Mike Volpe, HubSpot’s VP of Inbound Marketing. Inbound marketing. Paul’s whole M.O. MORE >>

So I feel like there’s been a lot of blogs lately stating that cold calling is or is not dead , and today I read another one.  Matt Gethins , from B2B telemarketing firm Professional Prospecting Systems, wrote an article yesterday entitled Cold Calling Dead?  Not For B2B Appointment Setting.  Matt makes the common observation that all that is heard today is that all a company needs to do is focus on their inbound marketing and social media efforts, and they’ll be all set in regards to lead generation.  Matt’s response, “This is, in many cases, ridiculously bad advice and completely untrue.”  MORE >>

Did you ever have a Magic 8-Ball ?  You remember that, right?  You ask it questions, shake it up, and then look at the bottom of the ball to see which side of the twenty-sided die inside floated to the top.  There were answers like, “It is certain,” “Ask again later,” and “Very doubtful.”  I had one as a kid and always thought they were pretty cool.  If the Magic 8Ball said that I was going to win a basketball game, then of course it was going to happen, right?  If only predicting the future was as easy as shaking one of those things.  So what does this all have to do with teleprospecting?  MORE >>

So as I was perusing my TweetDeck the other day, I saw that my buddy, appointment setting guru Mike Damphousse wrote a blog entry last week that I missed (sorry about that pal!)  However, I did want to use this opportunity to spring board into another Point – Counterpoint on The CRAP Report.  Mike’s article, entitled Appointment Setting: Was I Duped? really struck a chord with me.  Mike shared with readers that he “fell victim” to an appointment setting technique, and one that had his own organization, Green Leads, used, would give them a tainted reputation.  He had me hooked right away.  MORE >>