The Client Letter
April 8, 2013
The Northland
Wet 28 Degrees
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Back during my car days, I spent probably about 1 hour in the phone room. I don’t even think I made a phone call. I may have dialed one or two numbers, but I don’t think I actually spoke with a human being.
The “phone room” was the deserted room at the dealership with some phones, chairs and a few ripped up phone books.
Every now and then you’d see a salesman sit down for what can only be called the dumbest waste of time in history.
He’d look through the phone book, pick a name, and call it.
He’d call someone he didn’t know, to ask them about buying something they didn’t want, at a time they most definitely weren’t interested in talking.
But they had another name for it. Oh yeah, they called it cold calling.
I imagine the General Manager didn’t mind these guys and gals resorting to this kind of behavior. After the first few months, they were commission only. So it really wasn’t any problem for him if they wasted their time.
Oh… except for the multi-week (paid) training that the dealership sent each new salesperson to. Oh… and except for the first few months where you received a paid draw.
That money pretty much got flushed down the toilet when the cold calling started.
You know what happens to a car salesman when he doesn’t sell any cars?
Well, no one actually knows what happens. One day he shows up to the lot, the next day he doesn’t.
That’s about how it goes.
If the front end of your business has no leverage, you are at a distinct disadvantage.
Talking to one prospect at a time is a zero leverage activity.
This is why cold calling is not worth it in any capacity.
One to many, one to many, that’s how you start the ball rolling.
Look at your marketing funnel. Are you talking to MANY?
How many potential clients are you “speaking” with on a consistent basis.
1? 1,000? 10,000?
If you don’t have the number or quality of clients you want, I guarantee I can trace that back to the number of people who are entering your “funnel.”
Want better clients? Want more clients?
Then concentrate on kindling relationships with 100X the people you are currently doing that with.
More, more, more.
That’s how you get what I call Kick-As* Clients. More on those folks can be found here.
Like the cold calling guys always said, it’s a numbers game.
They just thought that numbers meant you actually had to sit in a chair for 30 hours and dial the phone.
Oops.