The Cold Truth About Cold Calling (Money Monday)

A few weeks back, I was delivering a Fanatical Prospecting Bootcamp to a group of sales reps – all in their 20s. 

They had been assigned to me because their boss was tired of listening to their excuses about why they weren’t consistently picking up the phone and prospecting. 

When he brought me in, he said matter of factly: “They won’t pay any attention to me, but before I start firing people, I’m hoping you can get through to them.”

The reps didn’t want to be there. It was a hostile audience from the start. 

Just as I kicked off the training, one of the reps challenged me with, “Your book Fanatical Prospecting was written a long time ago. Is it even relevant anymore?” His sneering words were more of a statement than a question. 

Cold Calling is Old School Distraction

Like many reluctant prospectors, he wanted to engage in a distracting argument over whether or not outbound telephone prospecting (a.k.a cold calling) was old school. He wanted validation that his avoidance of prospecting was OK. And to make the point that marketing should be responsible for delivering hot, ready-to-buy leads on a silver platter.

Sales reps of all generations — for at least the past 125 years — have been eager to make any excuse — and I mean any excuse — to avoid picking up a phone or knocking on a door. The most common excuse always has been that synchronous prospecting (a.k.a talking with people) is old school. 

There were a couple of snickers from the back of the room in anticipation for what I would do next. But I’d been to this rodeo many times before. 

 “What do you think has changed since I wrote the book?” I asked calmly. 

The young rep shot back condescendingly. “Well, for one thing, nobody answers the phone anymore.”

So I challenged him right back. “Ok, let’s test your hypothesis. Let me see the prospecting list that you brought with you.” (We run live call blocks in our Fanatical Prospecting Boot Camps and require participants to bring a list with them to class.) 

Cold Calling Reality Bites

I waited patiently as he pulled the list up on his laptop. Then, I began dialing his prospects, right in front of the class. Instantly I had their attention. They all leaned in to watch. Reality TV is a hell of a magnet. 

I made 11 dials to his list, spoke to two decision makers and set one appointment—all within a span of about 15 minutes. As I handed him back his laptop, I turned to the group and asked, “Any more questions?” 

Elvis Presley said, “The truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.” The reason telephone prospecting wasn’t working for the petulant sales rep who challenged me was that he wasn’t doing it. 

The cold truth about cold calling is that nobody answers a phone that doesn’t ring. 

Sales Success is Paid for In Advance with Prospecting

What was true when I wrote Fanatical Prospecting is still true today: 

• If you wait for people to come to you, you’ll starve to death. 
• If you think your marketing team is going to supply you with an endless stream of qualified, ready-to-buy prospects, then you are delusional. 

Here’s another truth for you: When it comes to prospecting, you cannot be delusional and have a full pipeline at the same time.  

There are certainly sales jobs where your phone rings and inbound chat dings with people who are ready to buy. If you cannot stand interrupting people through outbound prospecting, but you like selling, perhaps those are for you. 

However, if you take a sales job where you never have to make a cold call, be prepared for a paycut.* Sales reps in these types of roles typically get paid by the hour with minimum commission upside.

*[Also be aware that some people, including Victor Antonio, are projecting that many of these jobs will be taken over by AI in the future.]

Cold Calling is a Prized Meta-Skill in Today’s Noisy Marketplace

The most coveted, highest-earning sales jobs are reserved for rainmakers. Those who have the ability to fill their pipeline through outbound prospecting and cold calling activity. This is a prized and highly rewarded meta-skill in today’s noisy marketplace.

The top-earning sales professionals in every industry, everywhere, understand this at a visceral level. This is why they are absolutely fanatical about prospecting. 

If you want to make more money, be successful in your sales career or business, earn the income and get the awards you feel you deserve, then you need to get right with this truth right now.

This is a binary choice: Do you want to be successful in sales OR linger in mediocrity, failure and eventually be replaced by a robot? Go look yourself in the mirror right now and answer that question. 

Success in sales is paid for in advance with prospecting. If you are not willing to pay this price, get out now. Go do something else. Life is far too short to spend it doing something you hate. 

Fanatical Prospecting Gives Your Sales Career Wings

On the other hand, if the answer is yes and you choose to embrace success, then make the commitment to be a relentless, unstoppable, fanatical prospector. Ditch your wishbone; grow a prospecting backbone. 

Fanatical Prospecting is the path to freedom. Embracing it gives you wings. It is the difference between earning enough income to create generational wealth or living paycheck to paycheck for the rest of your life, living in your dream home or paying rent for some flea-bitten place someone else owns, settling for a low budget staycation or taking your family on an epic dream vacation. It will change your life. 

Fanatical prospectors are always on, all the time, everywhere. They fill every available moment in their sales day with prospecting activity. They prospect day and night, anywhere and anytime. And they are always on the hunt for the next opportunity. 

Fanatical Prospectors are fearless. They strike up conversations with strangers in line to get coffee, in elevators, on planes, trains, and anywhere they can talk with people and qualify potential prospects. They ask people where they work, what they do, and who makes decisions at their company. 

Fanatical Prospectors get up early in the morning and bang the phone. During the day, they knock on doors. They go to networking events, conferences, and tradeshows. They invest in their professional network and ask for referrals. At night they engage prospects on social media. And when it’s time to go home, they always make one more call. 

The pipe is life and this is why Fanatical Prospecting is as relevant today as it was the day I wrote it. That’s the cold hard truth.

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Download Jeb’s FREE Fanatical Prospecting Book Club and Study Guide. This 31-page guide includes summaries, discussion prompts, individual reflections, and exercises. Get it Here
Find out more on the Fanatical Prospecting Live Curriculum HERE