Chapter 2) new qualified sales opportunities from cold companies (ones at which we had no activity or interest) and passing these qualified opportunities to quotacarrying salespeople to close. The team only contacted cold new business accounts at which we didn’t have a relationship or current interest, and past accounts which had gone cold for at least six months. The team didn’t receive any new inbound leads generated by word-of-mouth or by marketing (these leads went specifically to a separate Market Response team to qualify and pass to Account Executives). This sales lead generation process involved no cold calling, which I regarded as a waste of time after experimenting with making cold calls myself. In addition to hiring great people and creating a proven, repeatable process, there were two other very important keys to the team’s track record of year-after-year- after year of success: 1. Predictable Results/ROI: We had a simple sales prospecting process that was highly effective, repeatable, and very predictable. Our process and training system made it easy for sales reps to succeed, and 95% of them beat their numbers while ramping up. After about 12 months of results and data, we could predict the future results of new hires on my team. For example, I knew that if we hired someone costing $100,000 per year (including all their overhead), that person would generate per year as much as $3,000,000 in total contracts. I could also predict how long it would take for that person to ramp up and become cash flow positive to the company. 2. Self-Managing Systems: Everything was a system. I didn’t want myself or any single person to be a bottleneck to the success of the team. What if I was hit by a bus? The team had to be self-managing so that it could grow and succeed. Your sales results are only as scalable to the extent the CEO and executives are designed out of the process. Too many companies are dependent on the CEO or