My career as a salesperson has always included a constant desire to be better. Try, fail, try something else. Try, succeed, repeat, refine, repeat… I have always sought feedback from more experienced salespeople to accelerate the process of continuous improvement. Many gave me interesting ideas, but many gave me a common response when I shared my goal of greater achievement: work harder.
Candidly, I disagree. If what you are doing is not providing the level of success you seek, doing it more often for more hours is not a long-term solution. If you are cold calling an hour per day and need more appointments, calling for two hours might solve the problem this week. But do you want to incrementally increase your cold calling hours each year as you expect to increase your income each year?
Instead of working harder, work smarter. Instead of calling twice as many people, try a new script or a different time of day. In my case, I rarely cold call at all. I only make warm calls to people who have shown an interest in the concepts and solutions we offer via our eMarketing or web seminar campaigns. The only cold calls I make are to organizations I know are firmly in the bulls-eye of our prospect profile, and who I believe are in need of our services.
Smarter – and my calling efficacy reflects that.
So next time you decide you want to a better manager, salesperson, or employee – search for a way to complete your task in a more intelligent fashion. Instead of throwing 60+ hours per week at the problem, invest 45-50 high quality hours. If every day you are a little smarter, you will continue the upward climb toward the success you desire.
Originally Posted on September 9, 2013 by John Scranton