Last night I gave a presentation on sales to over 100 RTV virtual tour providers.  After telling our success story, I was so pumped up that I couldn’t sleep.  HOWEVER, this morning, sleeping was all I wanted to do.  I really, really, really didn’t want to get up and make calls but today was a phone day for me so I got up anyway.  I was reminded of a quote by Robert Ringer...”Success is a matter of understanding and religiously practicing specific, simple habits that always lead to success.”  Don't you just hate that?  I really, really wish there was some other way.

I shared last night about how we are living our dream life.  Vision Quest Virtual Tours allows us to travel all over the country  photographing healthcare virtual tours.  We love what we do and are successful in our business because we understand those specific, simple habits that always lead to success.  But today, I didn’t feeeeeeeeel like getting on the phones.

We just finished two big jobs so I am back to replenishing the pipeline.  Sales is a giant funnel and you have to put a whole lot in the big end before you see a steady stream coming out the small end.  I told Greg yesterday that I hated the funnel filling part and he suggested that I just skip straight to the close.  Don’t we all wish it was that easy!

Here are four tips for those days when you just don’t feel like making the cold calls:

1. Break down your list into smaller components.  I try to make 20 - 30 calls a day  when I am replenishing the pipeline so I make a list at the beginning of the week on a legal pad.  I like the satisfaction of crossing things off a list and watching the list get smaller.  Sometimes that  list looks overwhelming when I have made ten calls in a row with no success.  So instead of focusing on the legal pad,  I put 5 names on a small notepad and move the big list out of sight.  Sure it's a mind game but sometimes it works.
2. Eat your frog -  Brian Tracy says that if you get up every single morning and eat a frog then everything you do for the rest of the day will be easy.  Is there one person you’ve been dreading to call?  Or one person that you’ve been calling and are sick of chasing? (Or does that just happen to me?)  Make that one call and then give yourself permission to take a break.
3. Check In With a Satisfied Client -- After eating my frog today (a prospect who has been jerking me around for 2 months who I finally moved to the every 90 day drip list), I talked to a client who loves us, loves our product, loves our price and loves doing business with us.  That fueled my engine so that I could keep going and ended up not needing the break I promised myself after eating the frog.
4. Cut Yourself Some Slack -- I got in about half the calls I wanted to today but I made one great contact that could open the door to a bunch of business! 

Sales is a numbers game but don’t get so caught up in hitting the same number every single day.  Long term consistency is the key to any goal worth achieving so give yourself some grace if you aren’t at your best one day. My weekly goal is 100 calls but if I hit 10 one day and 30 the next, I am still on track.   I know that there will be days like today.  The key is that I have already loaded up 50 new names to start calling tomorrow!