While some sales people thrive on cold calling, others hate doing it to the point where they will procrastinate as long as they possibly can. When they realize they can no longer put it off, they spend a miserable day in front of the phone and often go home feeling as if they have “failed.”
Goals Can Be a Set Up for Failure
Pick up any business book on the market, and you’re bound to find a chapter about the importance of setting goals usually accompanied by the quote, “If you aim for nothing, you’re going to hit it every time.”
In order to benefit from setting goals, though, you need to be sure you are setting the correct goals. For instance, many people who are responsible for cold calling set a goals such as, “I will have 10 sales conversions today” or “I will arrange for 10 appointments next week.”
Those goals will lead you to grief, because they are not in your control. A potential client might decide against purchasing insurance from you for a number of reasons, no matter how well you make your case. Similarly, you can’t whether or not someone agrees to meet with you for more information.
Goals That Lead to Success
The best goals are the ones that you – and only you – control. Instead of setting a goal to achieve 10 conversions, it’s smarter to set a goal to make 10 cold calls each business day. This means 50 calls per week and over 200 calls per month. If you talk to over 200 people, the odds are well in your favor that you will find some buyers among them.
Other goals that can lead to success have to do with the quality of calls. For instance, you might set yourself the task of identifying one common interest that you share with a prospect. A common interest doesn’t have to be a big secret. It could be something as simple as gender, marital status, having or not having children, supporting a local sports team or enjoying the same types of entertainment. Identifying common interests is especially helpful, because you can use that connection to remind the prospect who you are the next time you call.
You may never fall in love with cold calling, but if you do it regularly and focus on realistic goals that are under your control, you’ll be more successful and relaxed the next time you reach for that phone.
