When I started my career in sales, it was hard. No, it was brutal. Every morning for two years, I’d do the same thing: I’d make cold calls by the phone from 8:30 – 9:30, and then I’d make cold calls in person until noon. When I scheduled a demo, I had to ask the decision-maker if there was any reason they wouldn’t move forward with buying our system after showing his team that we can meet their goals. If they objected, I had to overcome their objection before starting into the demo.
It was brutal, but it was predictable. As long as I followed my routine, I was successful.
In today’s world of b2b sales, it’s not nearly as brutal, but it’s a whole lot more complicated. If you’ve read any of our material, you know that we’re constantly beating the drum of the modern-day buying process, and how the old methods of selling don’t work well anymore. In this world of waiting for prospects to contact you to schedule appointments, sales people have moved further and further away from the decisions. Today, many sales people rely on their company’s inbound marketing to generate all their leads – the weaker performers. The more successful ones combine cold calling, social media work and personal networking to grow their funnel, but they still have to wait for their prospects to call them. Cold calls today are simply a creative way to share intelligent content and illustrate your expertise. It’s a whole lot different than it was twenty years ago, and a whole lot less predictable. The new way of selling has created a feeling that one is not in control of their success … and that’s led to the loss of an old-school idea that is more relevant than ever …
The sales person can make things happen.
Yes, you can make things happen… and you must. If a sales person didn’t generate their own leads twenty years ago, they’d starve. Today it’s worse – they become mediocre.
Every week I reach out to ten prospective customers, and every week I schedule some type of activity with at least two of them. Here’s the secret: those two appointments that I’ll schedule next week hardly ever come from the contacts that I’ll make next week. Nope, they come from work I did months ago. I know that reaching out to ten prospective customers a week and sharing helpful content with them will inspire them to contact me when they’re ready. I’m not as close to the decision, but I’m still in charge of making it happen! BTW, I’m writing this post on a Friday afternoon. Do you know how powerful I feel knowing that there are at least two companies out there that have no idea that they’re going to start discussing a project with me because of an email, voicemail or social media message that I send next week? It’s pretty cool.
You can make things happen. Don’t buy into the hype. You’re in charge. All I do is teach the modern way of selling, and I’m here to tell you – I’m here to shout if I have to – you can make things happen… more than ever.
