Relax! You Have Unlimited Chances While Cold Calling

For all of you pet lovers out there, I beg your forgiveness for the analogy that I am about to make. Have you ever heard of Randy Johnson, the former Major League Baseball pitcher? If not, he cut an imposing figure on the mound, to say the least! Standing 6’11” tall, he seemed to be literally on top of the batters that stepped into the box to face him. Topping out at 100 miles per hour on the radar gun, if the batter blinked, more often than not, the ball would smack hard into the catcher’s mitt and all they would be left staring at is a vapor trail. With that in mind, imagine if someone kidnapped your beloved pet and held it in an undisclosed location, threatening to bring harm to the animal unless you could make contact with a Randy Johnson fastball. Now imagine that you are … [Read more...]

I fully expect the doubt, push back, and criticism every single time I answer the question. If I had a dollar for every eye roll, snicker, doubting glance, or outright “yeah, right”, I could retire right now! I don’t blame them for responding this way because, as sales professionals who have sometimes dedicated decades to their craft, my response seems to defy all logic and human sensibility. I tell them the answer is over 90% when they ask. That was the peak of my cold call success rate when I was in financial services prior to creating this business. In a world where the average cold call success rate is right around 10%, I don’t begrudge anybody for not believing me when I share this information with them. When I first started this business, all I had to go on was the courage of … [Read more...]

I will be the first to readily admit that I am a glutton for punishment. My life’s motto can be summed up thusly: if it ain’t hard, it ain’t worth doing. We are inundated in society today with how we should go after things that are easy. We can lose weight in five days without working out or changing our diets. Easy! We can attend one online seminar, take down some vital information, and be rich by the end of the month. Easy! Just because something is easy, does it make it worthwhile? Looking back on my life, I have grown more, both personally and professionally, from actively doing things that were hard. It is the hard that makes it good. If it is hard, I have to dig deep to try to figure it out. If it is hard, I have to use my ingenuity, creativity, and problem solving … [Read more...]

Low Cold Call Success Rate? Shake the Mental Fog! Have you ever had that experience of when you were in your car, driving to a certain location, and, although the drive was supposed to take you 15 or 20 minutes, you seemingly blink and you were there? You don’t quite remember how you got there, what happened along the way, or even making the turns that you needed to in order to arrive at your destination. It was almost as if you zoned out, were on auto pilot, and seemed to arrive safely merely on muscle memory. Have you ever had an experience like that? If not, it’s hard to put into words exactly what it feels like to go through something like that. Recently, I was mentally pre-occupied and was mulling over all of the thoughts that were on my mind that day, including what I needed to … [Read more...]

I am blessed to live within the same city as my brother and as often as possible he and I like to get together at our favorite breakfast place in town to catch up, swap stories, and laugh until it hurts. At our most recent breakfast this past Sunday, he mentioned to me that he and his wife watched “Creed” the other night, starring Sylvester Stallone in the latest installment in the “Rocky” franchise. Although I knew the movie was up for a handful of Academy Awards, I had to ask, tongue in cheek, if Rocky could still box given his advanced age, knowing full well that he was not the protagonist in this film. To my surprise, my brother told me how good the movie was, how riveting the script and screenplay turned out to be, and how captivated he was during the movie. That was surprising … [Read more...]

Like most people, one of the individuals whom I admire most in my life is my father. I have been blessed to have two wonderful, doting, loving parents that have sacrificed an awful lot for me and my brother during the course of our lives. They have sacrificed their time, comfort, and financial pleasure to ensure that their boys were put on the right path in life. In regards to my father, I will never forget the day when I was in middle school that I came home and found him waiting for me. He shared with me in the backyard that day while tossing a football around that he made the decision to enroll me at the local Catholic high school not too far from where we lived. At first, this was a shock to me, as all of my friends attended the local public school where I was currently at and I … [Read more...]

If you are a sports fan or if you have ever coached a sport of some kind, you will know that usually above all else the first thing that is taught and stressed with participants in that activity is success on the fundamentals. As it pertains to fundamentals, these are the building blocks on which all further skills and techniques can be learned and built upon. For instance, when it comes to football, in order for a team to be as successful as possible, each play on either the offensive or defensive side of the ball must be executed to perfection. On the offensive side, let’s say the coach calls for a handoff to the tailback to run the ball directly up the middle. If the offensive line and fullback cannot execute proper blocking technique, the tailback will have nowhere to run and will … [Read more...]

Think back to your dating days for a moment. For some of us, it was many, many years ago since our last date and we have forgotten all about what the dating scene was like. For others, perhaps those who are recently married, or are still single, we have fresh reminders of what it’s like to be on the hunt, as it were. What are your favorite things about that time of your life? What are the things that caused you stress, anxiety, and worry? The further removed you are from that time in your life, the more that time has dulled the acute nature of those feelings, but I am sure that we have some remembrance of what that time was like. Imagine two scenarios, if you would. In the first, you are on one side of the bar and a very attractive person on the other side keeps looking at you. This … [Read more...]

I am constantly amazed at how often sales training programs, especially those involving cold calling, fail. Not only do they fail, they often fail quickly and spectacularly. Think back to the last cold call training session you have attended. How did the training go? What activities did you undertake? How outside of your comfort zone did the instructor take you? Although he is not known as a bastion of intelligent quotations, arguably my favorite quote is from boxing champion Mike Tyson. Mike once said, “Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth.” A more appropriate quotation for life I cannot think of. This quotation is one of my favorites because I think it is applicable to all facets of our life. We have a plan for how our marriage is going to turn out, until … [Read more...]