The Most Effective Call to Advance and Conquer

whom I wanted to do business.

Establishing personal contacts is an incredibly effort- intensive action. It takes lots of guts, but it will help you develop skills that you won?t be able to hone unless you repeat them over and over again. This habit has had more to do with my personal and business success than any other approach I have ever taken. In addition to helping establish a client base, personal contact will elicit in clients a level of

confidence in you that is not attainable in any other way. Master this skill and you will be able to care for yourself and your family and build a business anywftere.

Making personal visits can also help you overcome the fears and insecurities you might feel with regard to your abilities. It certainly did for me. It forced me to disregard many of the so-called business protocols that I believe denied me success.

The president of the United States does not become the president witftout making personal visits, shaking hands with those he doesn?t know, and kissing lots of babies. He or she is required to reach out?welcomed or not?and make contact at his or her own personal risk. Any success- ful politician will tell you that neither money nor speeches can replace reaching out personally and touching people. If it is good enough to make a person president, then it is certainly good enough for me. And believe it or not, you are running for president?president of your industry and marketplace. Okay, so it?s not a public office recog- nized by other countries. It?s a private office over which you have 100 percent authority and no one else to blame. There?s no congress or senate to appease. You are in com- plete control of your economy, and your approval rating is not an issue. There?s no media attacking your every move. You get your way in any situation, and you alone determine the conditions of your universe. As president, the personal visits you make to the people with whom you have done business before will ensure the health, solvency, and success of your administration.

I am not suggesting that you grow your business solely on making personal calls the way I did mine, because you likely have two things going for you that I didn?t: (1) your power base (people you know); and (2) your past customers. Use the power of personal visits with those two sources first before you start making cold calls, I will show you exactly how to most effectively do that.

My wife is an actress, and one time, after she returned from an audition that didn?t go well, I tried to console her. She responded by informing me, ?You have no clue what it?s like to go on an audition.? I told her, ?Sweetie, I under- stand. I have been on more auditions in my life than you and 10 other actors combined, with only two differences:

(1) I call it a sales call; and (2) I was never invited.?

When you want something bad enough, you will do whatever it takes to make it happen?including ignoring social norms and acceptable behaviors in order to get your products and services known. Tfte marketplace?particularly in a contracting market?will only reward tftose wfto are willing to do wftatever it takes.

Remember: You?re going to use the information col- lected during your ?checking-in call? on this personal visit. It?s not a cold call because these people are friends, relatives, and even former clients and contacts. There are a lot of rea- sons why people don?t make this call. One of them is that we are socialized not to go to extreme measures in order to get what we want in life. You and I are basically programmed to be reasonable and logical (suppressed in this case) rather than unreasonable, illogical (which is good in this case) and willing

to do whatever it takes to create success. This is the main rea- son why people do not make their dreams come true.

The economy does not have to be in dire straits in order for people to have financial problems. You see proof of this every day. Economies, therefore, don?t determine suc- cess; your actions do. Economies don?t run people; people create and run economies. Individuals and companies suf- fer because they refuse to do wftatever it takes. People suffer financially because they are unable and unwilling to get in front of enough people in order to promote themselves, their services, and their products. Have you ever seen a guy dating a beautiful woman who is seemingly ?out of his league? and wondered, ftow did fte do tftat? Well, he was unreasonable and disregarded the things that most people consider important. And because of that, he got the pretty girl.

Personal contact is both the most effective and most feared kind of all sales calls. It is also the fastest way to sepa- rate yourself from your competition. You must be willing? especially during economic slowdowns?to take extreme actions in order to offset the pullback. Often, the action only seems extreme because people are conditioned to wait for something to happen rather than make something hap- pen. I have never met anyone who doesn?t agree that noth- ing is more effective than personal contact when trying to sell yourself, your product, or a service. Since entire indus- tries have become addicted to mass marketing and huge advertising programs, they have become dependent upon taking orders instead of creating opportunities. Advertis- ing is ineffective during periods of contraction, however, as

it becomes unaffordable and falls on deaf ears. Members of the public are only looking for products that will save them money with no investment! Full-page ads are put in the trash and never read. Billions of e-mails go unread every- day because they end up in junk mail folders. Personal visits, on the other hand, are cost effective, targeted, and a major way of differentiating yourself in the marketplace. They will get potential customers thinking about you and your company.

I want you to make one personal visit a day for the next 21 days?and watch your life and business become revital- ized. From the people you called or sent mail to in the two actions I mentioned earlier, choose one person a day with whom to make a personal visit. Do not call and tell that per- son you are coming by; do not ask for permission. Just drop in. In most situations, you will likely meet the gatekeeper/ receptionist, at which time you will say, ?Is John in? I am a personal friend.? (Or ?He is a client of mine.?) ?I was in the neighborhood and just wanted to say hello.? If your client is not in, leave your card and take the time to pay attention to the person who greeted you. He or she should become a new addition to your power base because you will need him or her for future contacts with your client.

On those occasions when you do get face to face with your contact, simply say, ?John, I was in the neighbor- hood and wanted to stop by and say hello. Do you have a few minutes? How are things? Is the product or service you bought from me satisfying you?? In the case of a past client with whom you have yet to be successful: ?I was in

the neighborhood and wanted to stop by and see how you are doing and take some time to reconnect. How is your business? How is the family??

The clients you meet will naturally reciprocate and ask about what you are doing. Respond in kind, and if they express interest and you see an opening, do some fact-finding to see how you can help them. If there is no fit for what you do, ask them for the name of someone they know who might be able to use your services. You might say, ?I didn?t come by for this, but who do you know that would be interested in using my products or services?? Then be quiet and let the client think about it and give you a name.

There is no downside to a visit. No one will throw you out, no one will ridicule you, and no one is going to call the police on you. There is no way to be rejected or even fail, as you are basically just dropping by to say hello and reconnect; you?re not trying to sell anything. The upside is that you may get lucky and run into someone who actually needs what you have, which will allow you to enter into a presentation, a proposal, and a sale. If you just sit around and wait for something to happen to you, you will be doing a lot of waiting?and will be miserably disappointed at the end of the month.

If you go out and start making things happen, something will happen. This is one of the great underused methods for surviving a contraction. Consider the person who loses his job and is looking for work. Most people spend time rebuilding their résumés and then send them out and wait

for someone to look at them. When the economy slows down, jobs are lost, and more people need work. This means that more résumés are being sent to companies, which decreases the chance of yours being read. You won?t get a job with just a résumé; it will happen when you get in front of someone, meet that person, and make him or her feel confident about hiring you. I am shocked at how much more time and money people spend on figuring out how to write a résumé than on how to sell themselves during an interview.

Look around your office. Do you see money or oppor- tunities to do business? Mostly likely, you don?t because these things only exist outside your office. Similarly, if you run a company from home, you won?t find any hidden money in your kitchen. No one who lives there is going to buy your products or services or fund your projects. So start with your power base and past clients. Reach out to them by way of personal visits. Thousands of businesses?even entire empires?have been built by such means. Get over your hesitation and resist any of the beliefs you have been taught. Become unreasonable, and act like your life depends on doing this one thing well.

So go make a personal visit?either right now or first thing tomorrow. I don?t care who it is you go see; just go. Then schedule a visit every day for the next 21 days. If you don?t miss a day, making such connections will become a habit by that time, and you will be experiencing the rewards of advance-and-conquer techniques.

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Date: 2016-06-12; view: 112