The Good, the Bad, and the Lessons of Prospecting

I hate cold calling. I don’t know a single person who LOVES prospecting, but I live by this Sandler rule when prospecting… “You don’t have to like it, you just have to do it”.  Just like anything else in life, prospecting can be both good and bad, but most importantly, it provides lessons.

The Good:

1. It builds your gut – I was right out of college with no sales experience.  My first and most important task was making cold calls.  It wasn’t my favorite, but I loved having something new to do.  With time, I learned that what I was actually doing was building up my gut - getting braver with my phone calls, so that by the time I sat in front of a customer I knew exactly what to do.
2. It helps you figure out what works and doesn’t work— Every cold call I ever made was different.  I would either change the pitch of my voice, my introduction, my 30 second commercial…just something. 
3. You CAN get somewhere with cold calls – One of my first sales came from a cold call, and I’ve been able to setup appointments by just picking up the phone and following a process.  

The Bad:

1. You sometimes will not feel good enough— After making a lot of cold calls, you will mostly get voicemails, and the few people that pick up the phone will tell you to jump in a lake. It is only natural to feel this way. 
2. You cannot be perfect—Even when you’ve mastered the perfect pitch, introduction, and time for your 30 second commercial, you will still find somebody who does not like any of it.
3. You will make a lot of cold calls…A LOT!— And you will mostly get somebody’s voicemail or get hung up on.

After cold calling and prospecting all day, it's important to not take mistakes too hard and debrief every call so you can develop a process that is repeatable. In the end, just keep up your efforts. You'll be glad you did. 

-Brisa

To learn more about prospecting and developing your own process, click here to check out our upcoming Sales Boot Camp.