Make too many calls and you begin to sound mechanical and scripted. It can also burn you the heck out right quick. Consider blocking calling sessions that never exceed 2 hours. When the session is done, move on to another sales activity. You can always come back to it later.
Put all your eggs into prospecting and you limit your results. Consider making this part of an overall “sales mix” of activities. It amazes me how many organizations frown upon activities other than the phone. Oh and please stop telling me that when you started all you had was the yellow pages and a phone. When my great grandfather started all he had was a horse and a lot of horse sh*t which brings me back to your point.
For those of you taking the opposite approach which is putting all your eggs into social networking, blogging etc, you too are limiting yourself for the same reason.
Time Out! We all need to understand that sooner or later its most probably going to come down to a phone call. Let’s make sure we’re exercising these muscle groups regularly.
Another funny thing about prospecting is that we all get mad at ourselves for getting busy and not “hitting the phones”. So angry that we just keep rinsing and repeating and doing a really great job of never getting to it.
My advice . . . RESPECT yourself as in . . .
Get it on your calendar as an appointment and then RESPECT yourself the same way you do others when you make appointments with them.
There’s another funny thing about prospecting . . . we miss learning opportunities because we get caught up in the call!
This is why I recommend that all my clients tape their end of their calls. Most smart phones have a voice recorder or you can splurge and drop the 25 bucks on digital voice recorder.
Tape your end of the call and then review your calls later (during non money hours) the same way coaches review their game tapes.
Listen for things like your confidence level, energy and enthusiasm, ums, you knows. How about your message . . . was it compelling? Listen to how you overcame objections. And don’t you dare just listen to be hard on yourself . . . make note (preferably in your journal) of things you did right!
Perhaps the funniest thing about prospecting is that we often wait until we are seriously behind to try and play catch up, desperately trying to get some things into the top of our funnel.
At that point, it’s no longer funny . . . its actually quite sad!
Your turn . . . What are your thoughts about prospecting?
For more information on how Paul can coach you to levels that mere mortals simply do not possess, click here and just for the heck of it, check out the Castain Training Systems Capabilities Brochure
