Activity is the root of what drives our business. Without activity in the sales world, we don’t have a business. What this truly comes down to is making phone calls. Dialing those numbers that you don’t always want to make, but you know you must. This isn’t busy being busy. This is being planned, prepped and prepared about who you are going to talk to.
- Stop calling the same people repeatedly. Don’t hold onto this false sense of hope that someone might do business with you.
- You build your business through new people. Where do those new people come from? Referrals, Linked In, Past Clients, Current Clients, etc., etc.
- Set up a plan. Know the first 5, 10 or 20+ people you are going to call. Have it done the night before or in the morning. It will get you in the right mind set.
- Practice. It takes 2 minutes. Practice in the car, working out, in the morning, at night, take a walk, whatever it takes. Take that little bit of time to know what you are going to say. It will get you past the call reluctance.
- It’s just one call, to them. To you it’s 10, 20, 30 or 100. Whatever it is. But to them, it’s just one call. Don’t overthink it.
- If you are truly trying to help people you won’t think about getting rejected. They might say yes, they might say no, so what. You are helping them either way. It’s hard to be nervous when your heart is on service.
- Have fun. Phoning and activity doesn’t have to be hard. Stand up, sit down, dance, laugh, say something off the wall. It doesn’t always have to be straight to the point and serious.
- The people on the other end of the phone are people just like you. You aren’t going to close everyone, but you can still have a conversation. That will go a long way to calling them in the future.
- In most cases, no means “not right now.” Set them out a year, two years or even three. That’s okay, keep them in your system and in your pipeline for the future.
- Get after it. When you do the activity, it will breed results. When you make excuses, it will not. You can’t get mad at the results if you aren’t putting in the activity.
I hear so many people feel that they are above calling. They get away from what makes them successful. I was coaching a Managing Director the other day and he flat out said, “These are all the things I know I should be doing but I’m not, it’s like I’m a new rep again.” All that means is… we can’t get away from what got us there in the first place. It doesn’t have to be the 50 dials a day, maybe for you it’s 10. It will get you the results you are looking for.