In appreciation of this week’s game 1 of the World Series, I thought I would bring back an old (but still relevant) blog of mine. Here’s to not striking out!
The past few months I have been traveling the country and presenting strategies on prospecting. Recently, we hosted a national webinar on the same subject. During these sessions we addressed the meaning of prospecting (asking for the business), the objective of initial prospecting efforts (getting the meeting), and approaches of prospecting (letters, calls, meetings – never emails).
One thing I always ask my audience about, is the frequency of their prospecting efforts; that is how many times they call a prospect before giving up. More times than not the answer is 3. Really? 3?! The underlying reason, is the adopted mindset of “3 strikes and you’re out!”
Last time I checked, commercial real estate was not played on a diamond-shaped field. There was no one pitching you balls to hit, although the idea of prospects calling you directly is where you should strive to be.
If you must use baseball as an analogy, consider this:
* Babe Ruth is known as the Home Run King (The magical 714 – before the great Hank Aaron, and the presumed medically-enhanced Barry Bonds).
* Babe Ruth also held the record for the most strike-outs (now held by Reggie Jackson, who is #13 for most home runs).
* Ironically Babe Ruth’s jersey number was “3”.
* How many home runs would Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, or even Reggie Jackson have hit if instead of “3”, the rule was “7 strikes and you’re out”?
Seriously, how many more home runs would Babe Ruth had hit if he had 4 more chances to swing his bat every time he got up? One could easily project double. How many more times would he have struck out? Given the hypothetical “7 strikes and you’re out”, he would have struck out a lot less.
Now consider these facts on prospecting:
* It takes an average of 7 attempts to simply make contact with a prospect.
* It takes an average of 7 no’s from a prospect before they say yes.
* Those that make more quality, targeted calls – make more money than those that do not.
Professional persistence pays off. Drop the baseball mindset. By putting these limits on your efforts you are putting limits on your success.
If you want to start hitting more home runs, click here to schedule a free consult with one of our program consultants. In this free strategy session, they will learn about your business, objectives, and share with you ideas for becoming the consistent producer we all know you can become.
