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 had wanted to follow them to the high school in our town where everyone was going to be attending. The thought of starting over at a new school and having to make new friends from scratch was daunting and was not something that I readily embraced.
Shortly after I started at my new high school, I saw why my father wanted me to attend there. I thrived in the spiritual atmosphere of the institution, was challenged more academically, and enjoyed the smaller class sizes, which allowed me to stand out and find my voice.
In order to make this education affordable, however, my father had to take a second job to cover the tuition. Ours was a middle class family that could not have afforded the substantial tuition increase otherwise. Accordingly, my father took a job as a paperboy and would work each and every weekend to assemble and deliver newspapers. In my opinion, it was not a job befitting someone of the talent and skill set that my father possessed, yet he never complained at the ridiculous hours he kept, or the physical demands the job required of him.
I remember one day telling my father that I was worried about him, due to the fact that he was working very hard in two jobs and that he should take it easy from time to time. I asked him, “Isn’t it hard to juggle two jobs and the needs of your family?” He looked at me knowingly, grinned, and said words that would forever change my life: “Paul, if it ain’t hard, it ain’t worth doing”.
Now, I realize that my father does not have a trademark on that phrase, nor is he the first human being ever to utter those words, but hearing that phrase from a man that I so respect and admire resonated with me and altered the trajectory of my life.
In college, I decided to be an orthopedic surgeon because it was hard. I majored in biology and minored in chemistry because it was hard. As a student in college, I worked for the Phonathon raising money over the phone from alumni because it was hard. When I got good at that, I dedicated my professional life to raising millions of dollars for non-profits that I cared about because it was hard.
Following the sudden death of my father-in-law, I got into financial services and started my own business because, although it is a valuable service, running one’s business is hard. Finally, based on my need to get in front of high quality clients regularly, I turned to cold calling in an effort to master this technique because it is hard.
Do you see where I am going with this?
It is the hard in life that makes it good. If it was not hard, everyone would do it and there would be no satisfaction in accomplishing something that everyone else could easily do. By working at something to master a skill, technique, or ability that is considered hard by the vast majority of the population, not only do you feel a sense of personal pride, but you give yourself a competitive advantage that your rivals can never touch.
The majority of sales professionals, according to national statistics, enjoy a cold call success rate of about 10%. That means that they are either closing business over the phone once every ten calls, or scheduling an appointment once every ten calls. As you may have noticed, my cold call success rate is 98%. Do you think that gives me a competitive advantage over my rivals?
That means that I am scheduling nine times the appointments that you are. That means that I am getting in front of nine times as many people as you are. That means, simply by the law of large numbers, that I am closing more business than you are. By the time you finally break through, get an appointment with your potential client, and sit down in an effort to get to know them better, I or one of my clients has probably already beaten you to it and gotten the business.
People will tell you that cold calling is dead, not because it actually is, but because they are trying to advocate an easier approach to prospecting. People avoid things that are difficult and pursue easier activities in an effort to avoid the stress, anxiety and rejection of doing something that is hard.
But, if it is easy to prospect via e-mail, do you think others are also doing it? If it is easy to send out mass mailings to entire neighborhoods, don’t you think others have already thought to do that, as well? How are you going to give yourself an advantage when yours is one of 80 postcards that your neighbor receives? How are you going to differentiate yourself via e-mail when yours is lost in a sea of others that can be readily deleted?
Because you are reading this, I know you are a person of big dreams, goals and ambitions. You are somebody who seeks ongoing professional development and wants to work on your terms and make as much money as possible. If you are honest with yourself, how many times have you deferred doing something hard in favor of something that is easy simply out of convenience?
By embracing cold calling, mastering the strategy, science, and philosophies that it takes to get very good at this technique, you will find that you are running more appointments, getting in front of more ideal clients, and closing business quicker than all of your competitors combined.
Wouldn’t that be worth a little training and practice? I say cold calling is not dead because, with a little discipline, hard work and tenacity, you, too, can master this skill and make more money than you ever believed was possible.
I believe in you, your dreams, and your goals for your business and would be honored to show you how well cold calling works and how alive it is today. Give me a call at 414-313-8338 and let’s get to work!
