Calls Vs Contacts

I was at a sales meeting yesterday and one of the sales managers from another branch made an interesting suggestion. He said to pay particular attention to the contact history in our CRM when we are making phone calls to new leads that we are unable to get a hold of. Each attempt we make to call a prospect is given a timestamp so that we know exactly what time each day we've tried to call. He said that when he looked at his salespeople's contact history, he realized that for the most part, they were attempting to contact the these new leads at the same time every day. He suggested trying a different time each day unread. Maybe those leads were more available and receptive of sales calls in the afternoon.

This suggestion is not a revolutionary concept. It should be a no-brainer. Yet, it struck me really hard because I knew what my contact history for new prospects such as these probably looked like. Since I make the vast majority of my phone calls in the morning, I probably call them at the same time every day. I am guilty of this poor sales behavior and, frankly, I'm disappointed with myself. Why is it such a big deal to me? Because the way I make my calls signals what I really care about in making them.

Am I shooting for call volume or contact volume? Does it matter how many calls I make if I never speak to anyone? You see, day in and day our, I find myself going down the same list, mindlessly dialing the same numbers and checking off the same names as I go. If is almost as if I don't care whether or not I get ahold of them because I am trying at the same time and in the same way every day to do if. My call list becomes a to-do list. I see it as something to get done. The problem is that, IT ISN'T ABOUT SALES CALLS: IT'S ABOUT SALES CONVERSATIONS! My goal should be to have insightful, game-changing discussions with prospects rather than checking their names off of a list. I'm not selling if I'm merely calling; I'm selling of I'm conversing.

What about you? How many calls did you make yesterday? And how many conversations did you have? When your prospects actually picked up the phone, were you so shocked that they actually answered that you stumbled through the conversation or were you ready to engage in effective dialogue? My advice? Change your way of thinking. Set out each day to maximize the amount of conversations you have, rather than the amount of calls you make. Calls don't generate revenue. Conversations do. Calls don't solve problems. Conversations do. You aren't in sales to call people; you are in sales to actually talk to them.