Malcom Gladwell, in his book, "Outliers," asserted that in order to gain "master" or "outlier" status... in anything... a person has to amass at least 10,000 hours practicing their craft.
Well, I have my 10,000 hours of prospecting, and, while I'm freakishly good at it, I can say with all my heart, that "I hate prospecting."
It wasn't always this way. For 20 years, I just considered it a necessary part of my job. I moved up the ladder of my career, it was critical for my skills to develop to the next level so that I could continue to provide value to my customers and the company I worked for.
Then, after I transitioned into the Direct Sales industry, and became an entrepreneur, it was even more crucial to my success to be the best at prospecting that I could be.
After all, that's how I made my money, right?
I studied with master prospectors. I spent 4-5 hours a day for over ten more years honing my craft. I had the honor of coaching tens of thousands of individuals on their prospecting skills.
Then, one day, I realized that I was miserable. I hated picking up the phone, and most of all, I HATED PROSPECTING. Even worse, I had begun to hate the people that were expecting my calls! I knew that I never, ever, wanted to pick up the phone again.
Even worse, I realized that while I was great at prospecting, most people, even my students, were awful. While I did my best to train people to do what I was able to do, there were three HUGE issues that crushed my student’s ability to succeed:
- Almost no one enjoys picking up the phone to talk to someone they don't know. Overcoming "phone fear" was ridiculously difficult to cure.
- Even when one of my students overcame their fear, the ramp up time to excellence was just too long for anyone to really succeed.
- Most people and businesses have difficulty generating enough people to talk to about their products and services that success takes a very long time and most people give up.
So, what do you do, when your best skill, one you've attained "outlier" status with, is suddenly the very last thing you want to do?
What I did was transfer my skills to the online marketing world. While I almost never pick up the phone to "prospect" anymore, the communication skills and work ethic that took me to "outlier" status, work in my business through:
- Writing articles and blog posts, like this
- Communicating to my prospects through email and video
- Inspiring my partners to grow their business
- My ability to clearly train my affiliates on how to market their businesses and make more sales
Some people believe that old-fashioned prospecting is dead. While I wouldn't go that far, I've certainly been able to utilize technology to the point where my clients and customers find me first, are pre-qualified online and almost always buy something from me before I ever speak to them.
THEN, I pick up the phone and talk to a CUSTOMER. At that point I can use all my old skills and find out how I can help them live the life of their dreams.
I hated prospecting, but I don't hate prospecting anymore because I simply don't do it.
Please let me know if you found this post informative, or if you are experiencing some of the same frustrations that I was.
To find out more about how Karla lives a “prospecting-free” life, check her out here: https://thesilvers.leadpages.net/noprospecting/
Don and Karla Silver are accomplished entrepreneurs, an award-winning bestselling author and recognized experts in Lifestyle Design.
Don and Karla Silver's passion is helping other entrepreneurs, or would-be entrepreneurs reach their personal and financial goals, sometimes through non-traditional ways.
With decades of experience as entrepreneur's Living a non-traditional life, Karla and her husband have, since 2008, lived all over the globe. As “luxury vagabonds,†they have lived in Spain, Lake Tahoe, Hawaii (twice), France, Acapulco, Mexico, Italy, and more recently, Palm Springs, California.
Both Don and Karla are powerhouse entrepreneurs, coaches, speakers and internet marketers.
In September 2013, Karla was inducted into the National Academy of Bestselling Authors and received a prestigious Quilly award at the Golden Gala Awards in Hollywood, California.
Find out more about what Don and Karla do here: http://ourbusinessoverview.com/
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