You can't "just dial" anymore

I convinced him that the same time it would take to dial 100 times a day should be converted into planned canvassing in several areas. He lives in a populated part of the country and there are thousands of businesses within 20-30 miles of his agency.

I told him to map out where he would go three times a week and talk to no fewer than 10 new business owners each time. He could plan the canvassing around the neighborhoods where he has other appointments. Then we talked about what he would say. He had to give me a little bit of product knowledge (mostly I only care about the benefit of the product to the business owner) and we put together a couple of sentences that clearly addressed a common problem business owners have, how his idea addresses that and how he would try to schedule a longer time to sit with the owner and personalize it.

He was excited at the end of the call. It was not only manageable, but he was more interested in interacting with small business owners than CEOs and gatekeepers.

I could have easily told him how to get past the gatekeeper and how to talk to the few CEOs he would get on the phone. I know how to do that. But I also know that it would take a long time — maybe weeks — before he got a face-to-face appointment. And he would lose his energy and passion in the process.

Being willing to dial 100 times a day no longer impresses me. It scares me. I worry that a manager has gone through tons of resumes and quite a few interviews to hire one person.

And to let that one person spend too much time trying to connect with hard-to-reach people will only frustrate them and make them consider another career. It is our responsibility to teach people how to make a success of the financial services industry.

Even if a manager were able to become successful dialing 100 times a day, I don’t think it will work now. The contact rate is too low and people’s energy doesn’t sustain them through the frustration.

I continue to cover cold calling in my seminars. But I also know that the numbers are not in our favor the way they were 20 years ago. We all need to reconsider that this is, and always will be, a relationship business. Keeping our producers out in their communities, talking to people and interacting with people is better than having them inside dialing and leaving messages.