Persistence; Never Give Up!

The majority of people do not have the patience to continue the pursuit if they don’t get what they are trying to achieve in the first couple of attempts. This is unfortunate for them because most connections occur after five to seven attempts. It would be nice if you could put aside the first few attempts and just jump to the ones where you will make a connection. That is not reality.

My suggestion is to give yourself an even meatier goal of say, ten attempts, so that when someone connects after five to seven, you have a sense of accomplishment toward reaching your goals. Unless the person you are trying to reach is someone you have already connected with in the past or have met with in person, they are not sitting by their phone or computer waiting for you to contact them.

To that end, learning the regular tendencies of the recipient of your message helps immensely in closing down the connection sooner. Learning which device they would be more apt to be near, mobile, office phone, email, etc. will also enhance your chances of success. You can learn this information through asking directly, asking their associates and/or observation. It may take several calls and persistence just to reach the associate to find out this information alone. Don’t give up! You will eventually get it.

Remember, most salespeople are not persistent and give up to early in their attempts to reach a potential client. By being persistent and hanging in there for the long run, others will eliminate themselves from the competition and actually increase your chances of success. Until you have made seven to ten attempts, you shouldn’t even consider moving on to the next prospect.

What are your challenges when it comes to persistence? I look forward to hearing your comments. Until next time…