Have you tried the "100 calls" method?

October 31, 2014 at 12:00 AM
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Struggling to makes those cold calls? The fear of cold calling can really hurt your sales career. To help you become a more confident salesperson, try the "100 calls method" which I developed over my long career selling a variety of different products and services.

The method is simple: Simply make a resolution to call 100 prospects as fast as you can. Combine this with the resolution not to care whether or not your prospects end up buying. Decide at the beginning that you don't care whether they respond in a positive or negative manner. Your goal is simply to make 100 calls as quickly as possible.

If you make ten calls per day, you can accomplish your goal within two weeks. If you make 20 calls per day, you can accomplish it in one five-day workweek.

Now, here's what will happen when you try this method. When you don't care whether or not you make a sale, most of your fear disappears. In fact, you begin to see prospecting as a game. How many people can you get through to and talk to, and how fast can you do it? What I've found is that the very best lead generation comes when you both care and don't care.

Of course you care about getting a positive result from your prospecting efforts. But if you decide not to care if the person likes you or not, is willing to see you or not or wants to buy your product or service or not, you can maintain a sense of emotional detachment which allows you to remain calm and positive no matter what happens. And that positivity will affect your results.

Here is the most remarkable discovery: If you make 100 calls as fast as you can with no concern about whether or not people are interested, you will actually start to uncover good potential prospects. You will start to make appointments. You will actually start to make sales. By caring—and yet not caring—you can break out of your sales slump. Don't believe me? Try it and see.

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Brian Tracy is the CEO of Brian Tracy International, which specializes in business training, and the author of the best-selling Psychology of Achievement. For more information, go to www.briantracy.com.

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