1 Gee, Ma, Do I Have To?

No one was ever lost on a straight road.

—Indian Proverb

Most salespeople hate to prospect. They will do almost anything

to avoid it. They would rather eat dirt. They would

rather break a leg. They would rather see their in-laws move

in next door. They would rather . . . you get the idea.

If you are a typical salesperson, this fear and loathing of

prospecting is so engrained that you’ll never be persuaded to

love it. So we won’t try. Don’t worry, we won’t ask you to

chant, “I love prospecting, I love prospecting,” instead of

watching your favorite TV show.

What we will ask you to do is accept that part of your job

is to prospect for leads and close those leads. No, don’t say it.

We have heard all the arguments:

_ “I am a salesperson, not a lead-generation machine.”

_ “There are two types of salespeople: those who like to

prospect and those who would rather focus on working

current business relationships. I am one of the latter.”

_ “I’m just too busy to prospect. I have a ton of stuff to

do.”

_ “Should I prospect today or poke myself in the eye

with a pencil? The pain is about the same.”

Sorry, but none of that will wash. You don’t have to like

cold calling, but you do have to do it. And because you do,

why not learn to excel at it? We will venture to say that strong

prospecting skills are rarer than 10-karat diamonds. Therefore,

they are extremely valuable. If you have to do something anyway,

and if learning to do it well increases your earning power

and market value, then what the heck, let’s knock some socks

off!

While you don’t have to love cold calling, nothing in your

job description actually requires you to hate it, either, right?

Maybe you’d even concede that there are some positive things

to be said for cold calling. Think about it. A successful cold

call is a huge adrenaline rush, isn’t it? And because it’s something

you can never “master,” you can keep learning and improving

at it forever instead of growing bored. You might not

believe this yet, but prospecting actually can be fun. (Don’t

throw that brick! Read on.)

Excelling at prospecting and cold calling is as much about

dealing with your fears as it is about learning new skills.

Here’s a little secret: You had other opportunities to learn the

mental and tactical skills required to become a great prospecting

machine, but you have always stopped short because you

have been heavily conditioned to hate and fear cold calling.

Fear can paralyze. A friend of ours is a little league baseball

coach. He told us that at the beginning of every season

about half of the kids are afraid of facing a fastball, especially

one thrown by someone their own age. They can’t concentrate

on trying to hit the ball because they’re too afraid of being hit

by the ball.

The coach came up with a simple but effective solution.

“Typically, a kid practices two or three times per week, and

during a practice he will see twenty pitches in batting practice.

So that’s forty to sixty pitches per week—and most of

those are from the coach, because the kids are less scared

when a coach is pitching.

“What I am going to have these kids do,” he said, “is face

200 to 300 pitches per week in practice, and mostly from our

best pitchers, so they get used to it. The longer they do it, the

more comfortable they will become and the more confidence

they will have during a game. It’s confidence I’m after, not just

talent. You need both to get a hit.”

He tried it. It worked. His team brought home the championship

trophy! Sounds like he would make a great sales

manager.

With practice, you will learn to laugh at your cold-calling

fears. We’re going to show you how to prospect so that you

will be knocking your own socks off.

TIP: Practice your sales prospecting speech by

leaving it on your own voice mail. Then listen to

what you hear. You’ll be able to hear the message

you are leaving for others and make changes to it

so that it says exactly what you want it to say. Have

some other people listen to it as well and get their

feedback. Above all, practice, practice, practice.

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No one was ever lost on a straight road.

—Indian Proverb

Most salespeople hate to prospect. They will do almost anything

to avoid it. They would rather eat dirt. They would

rather break a leg. They would rather see their in-laws move

in next door. They would rather . . . you get the idea.

If you are a typical salesperson, this fear and loathing of

prospecting is so engrained that you’ll never be persuaded to

love it. So we won’t try. Don’t worry, we won’t ask you to

chant, “I love prospecting, I love prospecting,” instead of

watching your favorite TV show.

What we will ask you to do is accept that part of your job

is to prospect for leads and close those leads. No, don’t say it.

We have heard all the arguments:

_ “I am a salesperson, not a lead-generation machine.”

_ “There are two types of salespeople: those who like to

prospect and those who would rather focus on working

current business relationships. I am one of the latter.”

_ “I’m just too busy to prospect. I have a ton of stuff to

do.”

_ “Should I prospect today or poke myself in the eye

with a pencil? The pain is about the same.”

Sorry, but none of that will wash. You don’t have to like

cold calling, but you do have to do it. And because you do,

why not learn to excel at it? We will venture to say that strong

prospecting skills are rarer than 10-karat diamonds. Therefore,

they are extremely valuable. If you have to do something anyway,

and if learning to do it well increases your earning power

and market value, then what the heck, let’s knock some socks

off!

While you don’t have to love cold calling, nothing in your

job description actually requires you to hate it, either, right?

Maybe you’d even concede that there are some positive things

to be said for cold calling. Think about it. A successful cold

call is a huge adrenaline rush, isn’t it? And because it’s something

you can never “master,” you can keep learning and improving

at it forever instead of growing bored. You might not

believe this yet, but prospecting actually can be fun. (Don’t

throw that brick! Read on.)

Excelling at prospecting and cold calling is as much about

dealing with your fears as it is about learning new skills.

Here’s a little secret: You had other opportunities to learn the

mental and tactical skills required to become a great prospecting

machine, but you have always stopped short because you

have been heavily conditioned to hate and fear cold calling.

Fear can paralyze. A friend of ours is a little league baseball

coach. He told us that at the beginning of every season

about half of the kids are afraid of facing a fastball, especially

one thrown by someone their own age. They can’t concentrate

on trying to hit the ball because they’re too afraid of being hit

by the ball.

The coach came up with a simple but effective solution.

“Typically, a kid practices two or three times per week, and

during a practice he will see twenty pitches in batting practice.

So that’s forty to sixty pitches per week—and most of

those are from the coach, because the kids are less scared

when a coach is pitching.

“What I am going to have these kids do,” he said, “is face

200 to 300 pitches per week in practice, and mostly from our

best pitchers, so they get used to it. The longer they do it, the

more comfortable they will become and the more confidence

they will have during a game. It’s confidence I’m after, not just

talent. You need both to get a hit.”

He tried it. It worked. His team brought home the championship

trophy! Sounds like he would make a great sales

manager.

With practice, you will learn to laugh at your cold-calling

fears. We’re going to show you how to prospect so that you

will be knocking your own socks off.

TIP: Practice your sales prospecting speech by

leaving it on your own voice mail. Then listen to

what you hear. You’ll be able to hear the message

you are leaving for others and make changes to it

so that it says exactly what you want it to say. Have

some other people listen to it as well and get their

feedback. Above all, practice, practice, practice.

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