In 1991, Inc. magazine dubbed Chuck Piola the King of Cold Calls for good reason. His then five-year-old partnership had grown by leaps and bounds ranking in the Inc. 500 three consecutive years. There was no magic to the accomplishment just grit, determination, and a lot of shoe leather.
Piola disagreed two decades ago and he disagrees today with the notion that cold calling is ineffective. “Some accounting operation crunched those numbers,” he told Inc. Piola contended the data did not take into consideration the multiplier effect. “When you cold call, you maximize your opportunities. You meet people. You can thread a sale from one person to another, and you never know where it’s going to lead.”
By 1998, his firm had become an international publicly traded giant and Chuck Piola advanced to the next phase of life, retirement. Or was it? At 51-years-old, Piola was not ready to spend winters in Florida and summers in Maine. He wanted to revert to his first passion, teaching.
His story is not one of overnight success, rather a series of hurdles, which began with a childhood stuttering condition that subjected him to ridicule and forced him to recoil from peers. By the time he reached college,Piola was determined to conquer his speech impediment Piola was determined to conquer his speech impediment, to confront it head-on. So, he participated in variety shows and musicals; he took advantage of every speaking opportunity he could find. Was he fearful? You bet. But he charged forward like a bull.
Piola spent his first six years out of college teaching History, English, and Music Appreciation to junior high students. Having developed through his own experiences a unique sensitivity for students, Piola was a venerated teacher. “In every negative, there’s a positive,” he said. “When you’re going through the negative, it’s pure hell and you have no idea what the positive is. It may take 10 or 15 years to know. Stuttering made me very sensitive to the plight of the quiet kid in the classroom. I was able to back up and encourage quiet kids, and calm down the loud mouths. I told the quiet kids, “‘The only time you discover what you know is when you talk about it.’”
He could sell anythingAt age 28, with a wife and two children, Piola realized that he would never attain financial freedom on a teacher’s salary. Sales seemed like his most viable option. Piola figured that if he could sell knowledge to hundreds of children, he could sell anything. Once again, it was time for the bull to charge.
Career shifts present learning curves and challenges but entering sales, especially when the stakes are high (mouths to feed), is downright risky. Like so many self-made millionaires, Piola sweat weeks with no income. He held twelve jobs over a thirteen-year period, even pumping gas in the middle of the night just to support his family. Through it all he persevered, determined to make it. The fruits of Piola’s resolve began to snowball when he took that entrepreneurial leap in 1986.
Upon retirement, Piola returned to the classroom, so to speak, talking to audiences across the nation about entrepreneurship, leadership, and sales. He published Going In Cold | How to Turn Strangers Into Clients and Get Rich Doing It, an autobiographical guide to succeeding in business and in life. Most recently, Piola was recognized with a Doctorate of Humane Letters Honoris Causa from Thomas More College in Merrimack, NH and formally knighted by the Order of Malta.
A dedicated philanthropist and advocate, Chuck donates his time, intellect, and wealth to the following boards: The Chester County, PA Historical Society; Boy Scouts of America; Regina Coeli Academy; Waterbury, CT’s National Shrine to St. Anne; The Brandywine Battlefield Commission; and The International Institute for Culture, Philadelphia, PA.
When you overcome fear, your effectiveness increases daily, building your confidence and leading to positive results. -Chuck Piola
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