Are you successful because you are confident or are you confident because you are successful?  You’ll find proponents on both sides of that question.  Consider, however, if confidence comes first, it isn’t dependent on the ups and downs of success.  In other words, one can be confident in the face of any level of success, failure, stress, etc.  If your confidence is dependent on success, doesn’t that mean you are only confident when you are successful?

Now consider sales prospecting.  The overwhelming result of prospecting is failure.  You pick up the phone 75 times in one day and may only achieve your goal – an appointment let’s say – a half dozen times if you are both capable and fortunate.  While your fortune is out of your control, for example, the number of people in the office when you call and who pick up their phone, your preparedness and approach are definitely up to you.  Which brings us to the 5 C’s of prospecting.

If you want to maximize your prospecting results, you must be:

Confident – Confidence comes from knowing your craft.  It develops from preparedness.  You can increase it by practicing your approach.  It comes from knowing what you want and how to get there.  But know also, it comes from your attitude first.  You can choose to be confident and it doesn’t have to depend on an outside influence.  You can sound confident.  You can use body language that projects confidence.  Your voice can impart confidence.  Each time, before you pick up the phone, check your confidence.  You have the right to make that call, you are offering a value to the contact, and he or she will benefit from meeting with you.

Calm – Consider how other people communicate.  Are they rushed?  Do their words run into each other?  Do they mumble or is it difficult to understand each word they say?  Do they have nervous habits in their speech patterns like using ‘um’ or ‘like’ over and over?  Or do they speak at an even pitch and cadence?  Do they pause to collect their thoughts?  Is it soothing to listen to them?  Now consider which is more trustworthy.  Which approach instills leadership and knowledge?  When you are calm as you speak, your audience will both show more interest in what you have to say as well as assign more credibility to you and what you are saying.

Concise – Know what message you want to deliver and determine the best way to deliver it with the fewest words necessary.  Eliminate anything that doesn’t fit or belong with the message.  That doesn’t mean, “Let’s meet.”  That isn’t a message, it’s a demand.  It doesn’t bring value to the recipient or give them a reason to meet.  “Your organization has objectives to grow both marketshare and revenues and my firm has ideas that will help you do just that.  We need to meet to discuss these ideas further.”  You don’t need to ramble on about all the amazing things your company offers, or list your extensive resume to get a prospect’s attention or achieve your goal.  You simply need to impart value and lead them to your desired result.

Commanding – Consider the following two inquiries.  “Can you meet next week?”  “I have openings Wednesday at 10:15am and Thursday at 2:30pm; which works better for your schedule?”  Which question is more commanding?  How about, “I understand you are a busy executive, so if I don’t hear from you by tomorrow at 3:00pm, I’ll reach out to you again.”  Does that statement maintain your command of the situation?  Do you have to wonder how long to wait before you contact your prospect again?  When you put the control of the situation in the prospect’s hands to get back to you, or answer if they can meet, or anything else that you are trying to accomplish, you relinquish control.  You delay results.  You lose command!  Keep command of your efforts, schedule and more and you’ll be much more likely to achieve your goals.

And you must have a:

Call to Action – Why are you contacting your prospect?  What do you hope to achieve?  Your answer to these two questions is your call to action.  Don’t be like so many other sales reps who deliver their pitch about their great product or unbelievable service and then fail to ask the prospect for a commitment of some sort.  Picking up the phone 75 times a day becomes easier when you ask each prospect you speak with to meet and you receive a ‘yes’ in return multiple times.  Wayne Gretzky once said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”  For prospecting purposes, you miss 100% of the appointments you don’t ask for.

Rob Nelson has 23 years of B2B print solutions experience and has worked with influencers in many of the leading organizations across such markets as insurance/finance, healthcare, manufacturing, advertising/marketing, commercial printing and more.  He has held various positions in sales and management.  He lives in the north suburbs of Chicago with his wife, two children and two dogs.