Hey, Scott from The Sales Mastermind here.
Today’s edition can be read in 4 minutes.
When selling you are not in control.
“A sale is a lagging indicator of someone deciding to buy” (h/t to Gavin Tye).
You can influence buying decisions but you can’t control other people.
You are only in control of your inputs. Inputs like dials, conversations, emails sent, LI connection requests sent, meetings booked etc.
With enough inputs you’ll get to the right buyers. With enough of the right buyers you’ll close as many deals as you want.
Control the Controllable
In my first sales job, we had to generate most of our pipeline. Especially in the beginning.
As we don’t control the outcome, only the inputs, my manager urged me to always be generating pipeline.
I should prospect every day.
Some days a lot, 100+ dials in a day, other days a little. A rule I used was “never skip a day”.
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - James Clear
Prospecting is painful and disheartening. People hang up, they tell you “no” (a lot), there is constant rejection, it’s not a fun activity by itself.
Creating a habit means you are pushing yourself to keep momentum. Much easier than pushing yourself to face constant rejection.
That way, even on your worst days, you still do something to win the day.
Cold Calling
There are endless ways to prospect.
In this job we cold called. It’s fast, simple and effective.
Cold calling definitely has downsides, like longevity. Once you stop dialling the leads stop flowing. So make sure you’re also doing something long standing like content marketing etc.
But for almost everyone cold calling works.
Step-by-step guide
Every morning my habit involved writing CC, React and Email down one side of a post it note.
This stood for Cold Call, Reactivation and Email.
- A Cold Call was a dial to new prospect.
- A Reactivation was a dial to an existing prospect I hadn’t spoken to before.
- And Email meant emailing my late stage buyers to stay top of mind.
I would invest the first 30 minutes of the day marking off 5 CCs, 5 Reacts and 10 Emails.
Within 6 months of daily inputs I was the top rep, globally, for “Cold call” and “Reactivation”.
Make it your own
To make this your own think of at least 2 activities you could do every morning:
- What activity can you do to reach new buyers.
For example cold calling or sending Linkedin connection requests - What activity can you do to reach out to later stage buyers.
For example inviting them to a webinar or emailing an article about their pains
Once you have your two activities, commit to the habit of doing 5-10-20 of these each and everyday. Use a post-it note to track progress.
That way you’ll connect with more of the right buyers. With more of the right buyers you’ll sell more.
And that's how you can win every day. Until next time,
Scott Cowley
And that’s a wrap…. Let me know what you think! it to a friend
PS I help founders who sell, but aren't "sales"people. Typically this is two groups:
Early stage businesses when the founder has made a few sales, but are before having product-market-fit. Together we'll speed up the learning, make you more money, faster and hire a performing sales team. - Is this you? Reply "Early"
Or established agencies that have recently lost a major client and realised they need to learn how to sell to keep their current team employed (let alone grow the agency). - Is this you? Reply "Agency"