What keeps you from prospecting regularly? A student in one of my classes once answered that question with “just about everything” and there was a loud laughter of recognition from the rest of the students in the class. I mean, they said things like laundry or dishes might even come first. If prospecting is something you’d rather not do, then you must not be having fun with it.
There are two types of prospecting. You can make cold calls or you can call people you know. The highest and best use of your time prospecting is with the people who already trust, know and like you. Yet, I find, most salespeople are not fully leveraging these contacts because they don’t want to be seen as pushy. Most of us abhor telemarketers and we think when we are calling to build our business we fall into that category.
Call the people you know and just check in with them. Call to connect, to deepen your relationship. They may not be ready to buy again but they likely have 250 people in their sphere of influence. Staying top-of-mind is the way for them to mention you when they hear of someone thinking of making purchase.
For fun, just try calling fifteen (15) people a day and have an authentic, friendly conversation. This is even a better exercise to do on one of those days when things aren’t going your way and you have crotchety unreasonable people you are dealing with. It will give you an attitude adjustment.
It’s the magnetic Principle of Attraction: When you enjoy what you are doing, you attract others by your energy and people want to be around you and refer their friends and family to you. When you are working to do the numbers and are serious about needing business, you repulse and turn people off.
Sometimes, it’s time to crank up business we need to stir up the cosmic dust BIG TIME. When that occurs, the more fun you can put in it, the easier it will be to focus and kick some serious butt. Let’s take a look at how you are going to approach it.
How about next time you prospect make it your goal to get 15 “no’s”. Just keep calling until you get those 15 “no’s”. Do you think if you did that with no attachment to how many “yeses”, you should be getting that you might actually get some “yeses”? Now, I don’t mean be sloppy about it. What I mean is let go of the outcome and don’t take it personally.
If they say “no” don’t internalize it as personal rejection. It is more about them and where they are at that moment. Your job is just to listen to what they really say and then give it your best shot rather than having your self-worth based on whether or not they agreed to see you. The other useful part of this exercise is honing your skill. So after each call, note in a journal what worked and what didn’t. Then on the next call, tweak your approach. Play this game today and realize you win when you get 15 no’s??
As Jimmy Buffet says,” Fun is about the best habit there is.”