I know it sounds like a ridiculous question, but it’s true.
Before I explain, let me tell you a story:
As I’ve written previously – and to the astonishment of many of my fans – I used to be a cold calling monster. I’d cold call all day, every day, and forget that I was supposed to be selling something, not just prospecting all day long.
That reality would hit home every time my commission check arrived.
The old saying, “Too much month at the end of the money” was all too
often the case.
Eventually I figured out how to get leads without cold calling – in other words, I worked out the system that now forms the basis of
the strategies and techniques I teach today – and before I knew it, I
had an endless supply of hot, qualified leads!
The problem was that the novelty and thrill of being flooded with so
many people who were ready to buy right now was almost like an
addiction. I kept pushing my lead generation systems more and more and
more.
Once again, despite my success in lead generation, my commission
check would reflect the fact that I had all the leads I could ever want
and more, but never got around to closing most of them.
The Law of Cosmic Habitforce
Napoleon Hill coined that term. Later in life, when he wrote Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude with W. Clement Stone, he explained that it was his 17th law of success – the one missing from the original The Law of Success and Think and Grow Rich.
It took a lifetime of experience and “hard knocks” to learn it.
Likewise, I found myself falling into old habits very recently.
I’ve mentioned that after relocating early last year, I turned into a
networking machine in my new city in order to make new business
connections as well as friends. I was so successful at it that I even
did a webinar on it.
The trouble is, I was having a lot of fun networking. Way too much
fun. So much so, that I spent far too much time out of my office going
to networking events and speaking at local organizations, that I fell
way behind on my work! (And in the process, I picked up even more work
through my new connections – pushing me even farther behind.)
I’ve now whittled my schedule down to two groups that I’m a permanent
member of, and will occasionally drop in on the Chamber where my
company is a member, but that’s it.
The Trouble With Having Too Many Leads
I know I’m not the only person who does this – many people have bought the Never Cold Call Again
system, flooded themselves with hot leads, and then continued to fail
because they were either having too much fun racking up all those leads,
or lost the sales because they never had enough appointments in the
past to develop any real selling skills.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: We’re not paid
for prospecting. We’re not paid to go to appointments. We’re not paid to
go to networking groups, or spend drive time in our cars between
meetings.
We’re only paid to make sales. Period. That’s it. End of story.
So MAKE SURE you convert those leads into sales - only then are they worth anything! And if you have lots of leads but not enough sales, re-prioritize your time so you're spending it closing the leads you already have instead of endlessly chasing down new ones!