It’s time to address the proverbial business coach elephant in the room… When it comes to truly be a successful business it really only breaks down to TWO simple facts. You’re either calling your leads, or you’re not. Plain and simple. Far too often has it been made abundantly clear that this fundamental idea is not only underappreciated but also underutilized or blatantly ignored. There are courses taught on how to aggressively acquire leads and yet the simple act of establishing the first line of communication with a lead is almost always skipped. The sales process can undoubtedly be fun and is often seen as the sexiest pursuit when it comes to running a business but far too many entrepreneurs miss the mark and end up becoming their own worst enemy when it comes to the act of following up with a lead. Look, it’s not rocket science. It’s actually so simple that a baby (or as I like to refer to them, tiny dumbo adults) could handle the process and make a killing as a result. At the end of the day you just have to call your freakin’ leads!
The fear, lack of education, or whatever other excuse you’d like to insert when faced with this topic can be solved by answering the following four questions. For those keeping score at home, grade yourselves in these four areas to determine what it is that is holding you back from attaining the success that you so rightfully deserve.
Why are you afraid to pick up the phone?
I’ve seen countless business owners throw money at a sales funnel just to claim it doesn’t work when the sad truth is that they’ve simply allowed all of the leads to go cold and have therefore wasted their hard-earned advertising dollars. Oftentimes this is a result of having a phobia of simply picking up the telephone. So why is this? Maybe they’re afraid they won’t know what to say, maybe they’re afraid of rejection, or maybe they just hate their families and would rather remain unsuccessful. To each their own and I’m certainly not here to judge you based on your excuse, however, I will say that no excuse is without its proper solution. You just have to care enough to find the solution to your specific problem. If you’re one of those poor souls that claim to not have the right words to say, that’s where a trusted call script comes in handy. IT’s a wonder what a repetitive and practiced business coach script can do for the sales process. If you are terrified of rejection, try getting rejected more often. Once you wake up to the fact that the world doesn’t begin each day with the burning desire to pay you, you’ll feel a sudden wave of confidence and be affected far less by the simple use of the word “no”. Rejection is a natural part of life. Hell, I eat rejection for breakfast with a black cup of coffee to wash it down. At the end of the day, you have to decide if the fear of rejection is more lucrative than manning up and attempting to acquire business.
Are you tracking where your leads are coming from?
Another classic mistake that exists within the sale funnel is poor tracking of where leads are coming from. Or rather, the overall lack of tracking leads in general. Look, Clay has said it time and time again, “measure what you treasure”. There has to be a scorecard to dictate how well one is doing in business, and there has to be a system of order to keep everything in balance. A lead tracking system is the best way to know how many people you have in the pipeline, where your leads are coming from, and the status of all leads in general. Don’t waste your time complaining about not having a CRM or another BS paid lead tracking program. All of the pros know the simple act of compiling an organized spreadsheet is good enough when formulating a way to track leads.
Why aren’t you following up with your leads?
Are you the type of person that thinks the first try is merely good enough? Can you confidently say you’ve done a good job when your first attempt was a failure? We’ve talked about it before on these business coach blog posts. Rejection is natural in the life of a business owner. It’s common for us to get discouraged when a potential lead doesn’t answer the phone, but that defeat doesn’t have to be permanent. So what if you’ve already tried to call your lead. Chances are they won’t recognize the phone number and will ignore the first 7 calls. You need to approach every single lead as if it is the first time you’ve tried to contact them. You need to get familiar with the mantra of cry, buy, or die. You shouldn’t feel accomplished until you’ve called, texted, and emailed each lead a dozen and a half times. It’s common for a business to give up on a lead entirely due to lack of communication, but you’ll quickly come to realize that the successful businesses out there have a bullheaded mentality and will not stop reaching out until they get their potential buyer on the phone.
When will you commit to not sucking anymore?
It’s time for the final question… Now that you’ve hopefully considered your answers to questions one through three, it’s officially time to take action. Where are you finding yourself the weakest as it relates to these principles? And when will you finally decide to say enough is enough? The only person that can make a difference in your business is you, and that starts with you making the firm decision to pick up the phone each and every day and commit to just calling your damn leads and getting help from a business coach.
