Earlier this week many people celebrated valentine’s day, and with love in the air, I want to share why in my opinion cold calling is just like dating.
Now imagine if you will you are on a first date, now imagine how you would feel if the person you are with suddenly asked you to marry them, how would this make you feel?
Most people will say they would be put off, and many would say that they would reject this offer, and quite rightly, the reason I make this comparison is that right now as you are reading this there are hundreds, probably thousands of salespeople making the commercial equivalent of a marriage proposal on a cold call and guess what it’s being rejected.
Now imagine a different scenario, you are on a date and the date is going well, you enjoy the conversation with the other person and you’ve connected, what would be the natural outcome of that successful first date?
That’s right a second date, (shame on you if you were thinking anything else, this is a family show), this is why the comparison is so valid, the biggest problem with cold calling is that so many salespeople are trying to achieve far too much from an initial cold call, cold calling is a process it’s not a short term or quick fix exercise, yes sure you will get some quick wins along the way, but the vast majority of your wins are going to be medium to longer term.
Statistics show that it now takes on average between 9 – 18 points of contact to secure a sale and a cold call will be at the very early stages of that process
The long term benefits
Many salespeople come to me to ask for help with their prospecting and cold calling but it’s usually they’re approaching cold calling with the wrong mindset, usually, they are asking for help because they are struggling to generate new opportunities right now and they need an immediate return in the form of a sale.
The biggest challenges that salespeople need to overcome is this, firstly, they need to take a longer term view when it comes to cold calling, it is, without doubt, the most effective tool I have at my disposal and this has been the case all the way through my career and I’m yet to find anything that comes close to providing anywhere near the level of consistent results, but this takes me onto the second challenge which is having the discipline and making time for cold calling, these two factors are absolutely key to being successful at cold calling, discipline delivers consistency and it overcomes the challenge that virtually every salesperson faces at some point which is a consistent lack of quality sales opportunities in their pipeline.
So if you are still not convinced, imagine this, a few months from now coming into a new month, you fire up your CRM and your pipeline is not only healthy but filled with good quality opportunities you have been working on for the past few months and as you look ahead to the rest of the quarter the picture looks exactly the same a full pipeline or quality leads.
Now here’s the brutal truth, cold calling is extremely effective it will help you to fill your sales pipeline, it isn’t always easy but it is straightforward, it takes discipline, time management, focus, and a positive and resilient mindset to overcome the self doubt and excuses you will create to do something else, something easier rather than make your calls
However, if you can remain focused, and disciplined and maintain a positive resilient mindset, cold calling will absolutely deliver the consistent flow of leads your sales pipeline needs.
Until next time happy selling and successful cold calling!