If you want sustained success — and if you want to maximize your income — you’ve got to interrupt customers. You have to pick up the phone, walk in the door, or send an email or text message.
You have to interrupt a customer who is not expecting to hear from you.
No matter the circumstance, the fact remains that you’re interrupting their day to talk about something you want them to hear, do or buy. You don’t have a scheduled appointment and they are not expecting you to call, write or make a personal appearance at their office.
Willingness to interrupt
The success of cold calls is always dependent on the willingness on the part of the salesperson to interrupt. The customer’s initial reaction to being interrupted — usually a brush-off or reflex response in a not-so-friendly tone of voice — may feel like rejection.
But interrupting your customer’s day is a fundamental building block of robust sales pipelines. No matter your prospecting approach, if you don’t interrupt relentlessly, your pipeline may be anemic.
Balanced prospecting
The foundation of a winning prospecting strategy is balance. Balance means that to get the best return from your prospecting time investment. There should be a mixture of telephone, in-person visits, email, referrals, networking activities, trade shows and cold calling.
Adapted from: Fanatical Prospecting by Jeff Blount, a sales consultant and acceleration specialist.
