Are You Making The Calls?

What is the conversation you have with yourself about prospecting to find potential new clients?
Have you convinced yourself you don't have to call to make the revenue goals you have set for yourself?
Have you concluded that new clients will mysteriously surprise you by calling and asking for your products or services?
Have you allowed yourself to be convinced that a better brochure or a faster website will produce all the clients you need?
Have you allowed yourself to settle for mediocrity when you know you could be excellent?

If we took all the mystery away, if we acted as if we would only have clients when we went prospecting to find them, how would our behaviors be different?

Do you have goals that are attached to sales revenue targets? How committed are you to achieving those goals? Can you achieve them without hitting your numbers? What if you were to "burn your bridges" and create a scenario where you had to make the sales in order to meet your needs. Necessity is the mother of invention. Most of us are strong enough to make a way when others tell us there is no way. I am wondering how much we believe we really "have to" accomplish our goals. If we tell ourselves we don't really "have to," would you agree that the probability we will achieve our goals diminishes? 

Now what about the connection between the number of calls we make and the number of prospects who buy from us and become clients? Have you found a royal way to mystically find clients with no real effort? I know there are plenty of people who want to convince us that leads groups, or networking or strong referrals will produce all the clients we need. Maybe so, however I haven't found that to be true. There are good referrals. There are networks to help us, but at the end of the day, the effort we extend in searching for potential clients -- prospecting -- whether it is by the telephone, face-to-face, in an office building or at a networking meeting -- that effort is what generates clients for us.

Now maybe you are not convinced that you have to ask lots of people, after they hear themselves describe their pain and after they hear what you do, if it makes sense to get together to talk more. Sometimes I find myself losing that conviction. But I am drawn up short when I look at my revenue numbers. When they don't meet my expectations, I can always trace the results back to my efforts.

The real question at the end of the day is: Are you making the calls? If you are not, don't tell me why not. Don't tell me what is broken. Don't even tell me how you are going to fix what is broken. Just tell me what you are going to do different so you are making the calls you need to make. I might be willing to help if you could tell me what I could do to help. But, for all of us who want to increase our revenue the question is: now that you’ve read this, are you going to finish this quarter strong and make the calls?

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