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I was asked recently what is the most important lesson I’ve learned about selling that has contributed the most to my success. I said that prospecting and filling my pipeline has been huge because you can’t close if you don’t have prospects. If you are ever discouraged because you miss a sale, it’s because your pipeline isn’t big enough. The bigger your pipeline, the bigger your success can be. A lack of prospecting is the biggest reason why people don’t sell more than they do. You must get the most out of your prospecting activities.
Here are two essential tips for you to today on prospecting:
1. Right attitude.
I’m not talking about having just a good attitude. The attitude that’s required of you is one of gathering, not just hunting. When you go duck hunting, someone has to put the duck decoys out. At this point you may not even need a shotgun. You have to get things set up so you can actually bring a bird in. Have an attitude of community and service. That’s the energy you need — just letting people know you exist.
“I’m Grant, I exist down the street.” See, I’m not trying to sell someone, I want to try and provide help and get out of obscurity — which is the biggest problem you have. They don’t know you, so they won’t be giving you money.
People don’t know about your product or service because they don’t know you exist on this planet. Attention is the attitude here. The old saying “Don’t be interesting, be interested” is false — you have to be interesting. If you’re not interesting, nobody will know you exist. Once they know you exist, then you can be interested. The goal is for you to be so interesting that you come out of obscurity, get their attention and they become so impressed by you that they comment. You don’t have to win the race right now, just get to the front of his or her mind. Then the race never ends. Make them want to follow you on Facebook or Twitter. Become special in their eyes.
Once you are out of obscurity and have his attention, then you can have his priority. With an attitude of “how can I help, serve, educate, give and support?” you will come to the front of their mind. If they are a business, how can you get them more clients or more fans? If it’s an individual you need to find that point of service, that pivotal point where it’s give, give, give. Sevetyfive percent of the time I’m in business, I’m providing the public something at no cost. Not all work is always paid.
Related: How Serving Others Can Help Make You a Great Leader
You won’t get super rich if you have the attitude that if you’re not paid, you aren’t doing it. I only get paid about 25 percent of the time. For me, the other 75 percent is an investment. I’m busy doing free meetings, servicing the community, posting videos online and much, much more. I don’t get paid to tweet, but I get paid for attention. Attitude is king. If you want altitude with a big fat pipeline, big fat checks and money coming in from different sources, attitude is king. You have to have your head right. Give, give, give, not get, get, get.
2.Right activity level.
Attitude and activity are completely different things. Attitude is how I’m going to approach somebody while activity level is how much push. Most people hate prospecting, do you know why? Because they never do enough of it. You prospect once or twice, giving away a business card, and nothing is going to happen. Most people don’t like work because they don’t work enough. You only work enough for it to feel like work. I work so much it feels like prosperity.
Marriages fail because people don’t invest enough energy, creativity and time. The marriage wasn’t failing when it was just a dating relationship. That’s when couples create and grow — activity level is way high. Then after some years in marriage, the activity level starts to drop and, sooner or later, the divorce comes.
Activity level always goes back to the four levels of action: doing nothing, retreat, average and massive action. You need massive amounts of outflow in your life. If you’re worried it’s going to exhaust you, think how exhausting it is to stay poor. From personal experience I can promise you, I’ve been poor and I’ve been on the other side, and it takes as much energy to stay poor as it does to get rich. It’s work either way.
What level of activity are you operating at right now? Never depend on one activity—not one phone call, not one email, and not one letter. Depend on massive, because it’s the only way to play the game and the only way to expect to win. Start thinking in 10’s. Instead of thinking about going after a business, go after 10 businesses. Create 10 mailers for each of them, then make 10 visits, 10 emails, and 10 phone calls. Never do anything in 1’s. Think about beating something to death. Pound it relentlessly.
Related: Why Attitude Is More Important Than Intelligence
You weren’t taught to work, at school you were taught to sit in a chair and listen. You want your own economy and to take care of your family? Plan on beating it to death. 10X whatever you think is necessary. All things in life that are powerful have repeated actions. From sports, to rap music, to movies, repeated actions over years brings massive results. If you’re not 10Xing, you’re just another guy.
Right Attitude + Right Activity Level = Full Pipeline.
Remember you want—and need—to create and fill up a pipeline. Your expectation in this is of investment, not return. It’s activity out, not activity in. It’s like farming and planting seeds for next season. You aren’t going to eat what you plant today. This isn’t like fishing or hunting, where I catch or kill and eat the same day. You aren’t going to get rich without an investment attitude, and you won’t get rich without the right level of activity.
In prospecting your expectation should be to expect rejection, losses, and people not being interested in you. Your expectations should be set correctly for the marketplace. Expect “I’m not interested, get out of here, I don’t have time”, expect disappointment, no return phone calls—that’s what you need to set your expectations for. That’s the muscle you need to get ready for. Keep making the investment despite what you’re going to hear. This is not get rich quick, but this is get rich. There is a harvest, but only after lots of investing.
If you want a great tool to help you in sales—and life—I created the Grant Cardone Playbook to help you have financial success.
Be great,
GC
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