Voicemail. Voicemail. Endless Voicemail.
Gatekeeper roadblocks..
No one has time. Few pick up.
Fewer agree to meet. Put off’s are plentiful.
These are the constraints of prospecting that frustrate most.
These are the constraints that most seek to break free of.
Most get demoralized and beaten up trying to break free of these limitations.
Let me offer a contrarian opinion.
Seeking to break free of these constraints is not the road to prospecting success.
Embracing the constraints is the first step to prospecting success.
Don’t invest time and energy seeking creative ways to work around or avoid these constraints.
You won’t change them.
Work within the constraints. Rather than seek to think “outside the box,” apply your creativity “within the box.”
Victory in prospecting is often not defined properly. That’s a reason why so many spend so much time running in the wrong directions.
“I need to get by the gatekeeper.” No you don’t.
“I need to get fewer voicemails.” Not going to happen.
What you need is more timely meetings with qualified prospects. Once you accept the constraints of the cold calling environment you can laser focus on your real goal.
Your core goal and mindset is always more qualified meetings. Once you accept the constraints of your environment you start to get creative “within the box.”
You don’t get frustrated by the constraints anymore because you have accepted and embraced them. Once you focus energy previously spent getting frustrated or dejected on things that will actually help you reach your goal you will make progress.
Once you accept the constraints and focus on achieving your goal, you will find that the constraints get minimized or you simply don’t care about them anymore.
Those that are successful setting sales appointments work within the constraints and focus on behaviors that will lead to the result they seek. Trying to change things that are not going to change does not help.
Accepting constraints of cold calling means that you focus on what you can control and will get you results with the cold calling constraints.
Those issues have been discussed ad nauseum in these articles. Profiling and properly prioritizing your prospecting targets, use of a contact manager, call process, 3 cycles of 3, collecting worth info, coding techniques, Plan B, integrating other marketing techniques and using advanced strategies.
So accept cold calling constraints, get creative “within the box” and at all times remain focused on the issues that will get you closer to your goals.
