Make The Calls

One of my very good friends, whom I got into an entry-level selling job, achieved such a high level of success that he went on to work for a national fishing magazine as the director of advertising sales. When asked at a corporate planning session what his sales plan was for the upcoming year he replied: "I am going to make the calls." Now you and I may think that at such a high-level a sales plan would be a great deal more detailed and intellectual than just making the calls. But when you consider the overall commitment to making the goals, making the calls is really all there is. All of the planning in the word will not get sales in the door, you must make the calls. Obviously an aggressive and reasonable target for sales activity makes perfect sense, but if you do not prepare in advance, establish objectives for every sales call and then make the sales calls, it will not matter. Once the activity targets have been established, you must meet the demands and measure your results to determine if you must make any modifications. There is no one who knows what will happen when you make a sales call, but everyone knows exactly what will happen if you do not. Since you want to make more sales, you must make more calls!