By Ray Titus
When I started in sales more than four decades ago, I brought enthusiasm, passion and hard work to the job. I needed knowledge to make it all work together. I needed more than book learning, though I’m a big believer in that. I needed the knowledge that comes from simply doing the job. The more you do it, the better you get at it.
It’s a simple formula for success, especially in sales. But fewer and fewer people are putting it to work. That’s why I was so glad to pick up Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount, a sales acceleration specialist who lays out the tools for finding and cultivating leads that can be converted to customers. It’s probably the one book to read if you own a franchise or you’re starting a business.
It’s all about mindset, Blount writes. “It takes grit. You have to grind to shine,” he advises. “Losing is a choice. Mediocrity is a choice.” And so is success.
For me and for Blount, it all comes down to hard work and persistence. How hard can you work to fill your pipeline every day, so you never have to scramble to refill it? How many prospects will you see each day, and what will you do every day to get out and meet them?
Without a steady flow of opportunities, how can you expect to succeed year after year? The best time to build future business isn’t when things slow down – it’s when momentum is already strong. And the way to sustain that momentum is through relentless prospecting, including the lost art of cold calling.
I was introduced to cold calling soon after joining Minuteman Press, founded by my dad. He handed me a stack of fliers and said, “OK, go out there and sell.” We didn’t get much training; we had to learn from being out there. I learned very quickly, by saying yes to almost everything. It was probably three or four weeks before I started getting my feet under me, and after a couple of months, I could really zone in.
It’s hard to keep at this, but it’s what you have to do. Every tool Blount recommends will work if you work. It’s the grit, that mental toughness, being willing to put in the time that leads to sales. The real workers out there are going to be the ones who succeed greatly.
You can never get away from the need to work hard, even if you’re the boss. You have to lead by living the example of your work ethic, and you can never lower the bar. The minute you start lowering your expectations and accepting less, that’s when results are put at risk.
At United Franchise Group, we encourage our salespeople to call or go out to meet a prospect in person. Because while email and text may capture a lead, calling and personal networking are the tools that often turn a prospect into a customer. Right at our core, that’s who we are. We’re about in-person meetings, face-to-face networking, and jumping on the phone. It’s how we built our company and our franchise owners follow suit.
If you’re not in sales, you’re not off the hook. One of my biggest takeaways from Blount’s book is that every employee, not just salespeople, owns a pipeline. It’s a philosophy our company fully shares. From Purchasing to Legal to Accounting, everyone has a defined stream of work that goes beyond a daily to-do list. Each role is built around a strategy for supporting sales, with the expectation that their efforts ultimately drive revenue. Everyone should operate with that mindset – understanding what feeds the business and why consistently filling that flow of work matters.
Prospecting through personal contact with cold calling is a dying art, and it needs to be revived. Social media and digital tools have their place but, often, they’re used as substitutes for human contact that can be so important in opening and closing a sale.
All this is not to say that technology should be rejected because human interaction is better. Blount believes, and I agree, that prospecting has to strike a balance between old school and new school. One example is having a telemarketing room to make outgoing sales calls and take incoming calls, using leads generated by AI. Send out bots to start conversations with people in the fields you want to sell to.
Bots only start conversations. Humans finish them. And the more diligently you engage, the more success will come your way. All you have to do is pick up the phone to set up a meeting and start selling.
Ray Titus, 40-year franchising veteran and founder and CEO of United Franchise Group.