MAKE IT A ("NO") GAME

“I know it’s crazy,” exclaimed Barry, a financial advisor in New Jersey. “I want to grow my business and I want to be successful, but I can’t bring myself to make the phone calls I need to make—and if I don’t, obviously, none of that will happen.”

Barry proceeded to tell me how many dozens of calls he’d initiated over the past few weeks to “hot” leads that he purchased, and how discouraged he had become.? He acknowledged that if he didn’t stay on those calls, his business would not grow this year, and that it was possible that he’d even have to find another line of work. Having put 5 years in and having had some success, that wasn’t what he wanted.

We discussed how the best people for him to approach were his existing clients (to serve them more deeply and ask for introductions) and his “warm market”—the people he knew already . But he was?especially?terrified about calling?them.

“I’d much rather cold call,” he insisted, and I could not budge him to change his thinking about this—not yet.

“You’ve made plenty of these calls before,” I remarked. “Has the quality of the lists gotten worse?”?

Barry conceded that it wasn’t that the lists were worse, it was just that he couldn’t pick up that phone for anything. ?

“Then maybe you’re approaching these calls the wrong way,” I suggested.? “Make it a game. Your?need ?for more clients is making the calling stressful. It’s no wonder you can’t bring yourself to do it.”

“What if the goal here was not to get an appointment, but to collect NOs?” I asked.? “How many NOs could you collect in a day?” ?

Barry was intrigued.? AIMING for NOs as a game? Just for one day?

Since he wasn’t doing much of anything productive in his current funk anyway, Barry agreed he could give up just one day to play our little “NO” Game.

Now, we had to give the game some structure.? We decided to make it a bit like baseball, so that Barry’s challenges were as follows:

1. Break up the day into innings.??Make 20 calls, then take a break and reward yourself: a walk around the block, some peanuts and crackerjacks; a cup of coffee or a lunch break.? Then make 20 more calls, and continue the call-reward pattern throughout the day.

2. Keep score.

~Every “dial” (do we still call them dials?) would be a swing.

~Every “connect” (an actual conversation—however short)whether it resulted in an appointment or ended in a “NO” would be a hit.? (Hits were what we were looking for.)

~Every “Yes”—an appointment to see a prospective client—would be a Home Run.? (Great if you can get them, but we’re only really after hits.)

At the end of the day, Barry had made 109 dials, had connected with 27 people, and had booked three appointments. ?In baseball jargon, he was batting .248 and already had made 3 home runs for the season.

Much more importantly, Barry was actually enjoying the game, and was ready to play again the next day.

Until Barry turned calling into a game, he was struggling with it.

If you’re stuck wishing for Yeses but scared to face the Nos,?make a game out of it.? If you can’t do it on your own, let’s have a conversation .? Your success is in your hands.?

Batter up…and?keep?REACHING…

?

P.S. Barry and I are working on his approach to existing clients for introductions and the people he knows already. We’ll make it another game.