I have spent the last ten years of my life working in the phone sales industry. Starting on the lowest rung of a sales team, I struggled for a long time to make sales, and just to keep my job in many cases. I thought that it was me, that I wasn’t cut out for a sales position. That is until I learned the truth about the number lists I we are given by employers.

The simple fact is that they don’t work. Most of the numbers are taken from general directories that have been bought, but not filtered. This means that while you think you have a viable page of, say, sweepstakes leads, you actually have a recyled list of numbers from people who are interested in other offers.

Not only that, but these lists have been given to entire other telemarketers, in other businesses, sometimes in other countries. You can be guaranteed an authentic list this way, and so are unlikely to make any sales. It’s like throwing darts at a phone book, for all the good it does.

Luckily, I ended up becoming friends with the top salesman on my floor, and I found out his secret: Internet leads. According to this friend, all you had to do to make sales was get the right numbers to send you in the right direction. I went online and found a list of sweepstakes leads for myself, and I was amazed by the results. These handwritten little miracles saves my job.