A good friend of mine works in educational sales. This morning she was telling (bitching to) me about the number of cold calls she typically makes in a week. I asked about the conversion rate. Abysmal is being kind.
Now in fairness there are bunch of factors (including that her biggest clients are municipalities who can’t get out of their own way with decision making), but still conversion is abysmal, disheartening, frustrating.
I suggested next week she make no calls. None. Then I asked her two questions. First I asked what is going to happen if she follows this suggestion. Second, I asked her what she would do with that time.
As to the first question she responded with words and phrases that included Salesforce and how the business owner would see no activity blah blah blah. (Oh great, micromanaging!) As to the second question she said she would probably do a handful of cold call visits instead each day. I asked how that usually goes. Other than getting away from her home office and maybe enjoying a cup of coffee or lunch there was no joy, no conversion, no point.
Years ago I was meeting a client for lunch. She called me last minute to say she needed to get a report done and couldn’t meet me. A report that “no one looks at.” My response was well if no one looks at it, don’t do it this month. Do it next month and see if anyone notices. Some sort of light bulb went off in her head. She said I’ll see you for lunch!
Fast forward she didn’t do the report the next month either. She did it after three months. Sent it to her boss with a note saying this is now a quarterly report. He gave her a thumbs up.
I’ve been there. So perhaps have you. But at some point one really needs to make a decision to not do things any longer. The problem becomes now what to do next or instead of.
It’s easy to make those calls and say I tried. It’s easy to make those calls and validate your existence. It’s easy to sit at your desk and go through motions to feel productive. It’s easy to make those calls so some supervisor thinks you’re being productive as they micromanage you. It’s harder to say I’m not doing this and now figure out what you’re gonna do with that time to achieve better results with a new creative approach. It’s harder to sit and ideate and brainstorm (even alone) new ideas. It’s really hard. I think more so for certain positions than others. Especially hard for self-employed people.
But on the other hand not doing something any longer is freeing on so many levels.
So I don’t know if my friend is gonna follow through, but I hope she does. Cuz seeing her so frustrated, so often, is very sad. I know. I’ve been there. How about you?