I downloaded Mark Cuban’s book “How to Win at the Sport of Business” on my Nook last night. Great and easy read so far.

As I’ve chatted with folks across the country, it seems the consensus is that a lot of people and companies are:

1. Cautiously spending

2. Waiting on the outcome of the 2012 Presidential Election

3. Agree that we are in a very skittish and unpredictable economy

All 3 could be true. None could be true.

Here’s Cuban’s quote that applies to sales, prospecting, and success overall:

“In sports, the only thing a player can truly control is effort. The same applies to business. The only thing any entrepreneur, salesperson or anyone in any position can control is their effort.”

It’s a healthy reminder that I can’t control the weather, economy, companies buying decisions and their time frames.

All I can control is my effort. Then I can trust the numbers and results will play out fairly.

I came across this article recently and thought I’d share some of it word for word that ties with what Mark Cuban said.

Here’s the source: http://www.omghub.com/salesdevelopmentblog/tabid/5809/bid/76911/Are-Your-Salespeople-Still-Cold-Calling-The-Ugly-Truth.aspx

Cold calling isn’t enjoyable (for those salespeople who are truthful about it). Cold calling isn’t effective except for the most brilliant of callers.  Cold calling isn’t efficient anymore.  One thing that cold calling will always be is controllable and manageable.

You can’t control the number of inbound leads your salespeople will get.  Of course, if you are generating more leads than necessary to keep the pipeline full of quality opportunities my argument doesn’t work.  But most companies aren’t accomplishing that – yet.  

You can’t control the number of introductions you will receive from your clients and customers.

You can’t control the number of introductions your social network will make on your behalf, even if you are asking for them.

You can control the number of cold calls your salespeople make.  Even if the numbers are as ugly as this:

Attempts – 100
Connects –   10
Meeting Scheduled – 1

At least you can control that.

I don’t think cold calling should still be the default approach for new business development. However, if a salesperson needs to add 20 new opportunities to their pipeline each month, and the other methods deliver only 7, then cold calling becomes a necessary method to secure the remaining 13 opportunities required.

A good reminder that we are in control of  few things! I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000 and thank you for helping us make meaningful introductions and profitable connections on your behalf!