Posted by John Lee Dumas (JLD), founder and host of the Entrepreneur on Fire podcast and author of Common Path to Uncommon Success, has some great entrepreneurial lessons in his book that we can apply to cold calling.
When John Lee Dumans first thought of starting a podcast, he had the idea of producing one episode per day. His friends thought that it would be impossible to produce so many episodes in such a little amount of time. There weren’t examples of others attempting this because most people weren’t sure how an audience would respond to so much content every day.
Before John Lee Dumas published the first episode of his new show, he realized that he needed to find someone who could hold him accountable. He read up on how podcasts are made and tried to find someone with knowledge in podcasting like himself and ended up turning to a mentor who had already done what he was attempting to do. She was able to help him avoid pitfalls and everything clicked.
John Lee Dumans learned that he couldn’t wait until his podcasting skills were perfected before publishing. He knew he would have to start now and work on getting better over time, but he still put it off for months.
Then one day, he published his first episode with only minimal editing or rehearsal beforehand.
Now, the Entrepreneur on Fire podcast has garnered over 1 million monthly listeners and is ranked as one of iTunes top business podcasts in America.
Here are three takeaways from John Lee Dumas’s story that can be applied to cold calling.
1. Set a big, crazy goal
One of the best things about having a crazy goal is that it keeps you focused and motivated. When I decided to stop accepting mediocrity with my appointment setting, l set up an outlandish objective by deciding I was going to book 15 appointments per day. My coworkers thought l had lost my mind when they learned this, but through consistency in pursuing this madcap goal, I achieved remarkable results. You can too if you set a big, crazy goal like JLD.
Related: How to Get Over the Most Challenging Part of Cold Calling
2. Find the right mentor
When you want to have a breakthrough performance on your next cold calling campaign, don’t forget about the power of mentorship. When I was picking up Zig’s book See You at the Top, he became my mentor and helped me think more positively with confidence by claiming my goal mantra while looking in the mirror every day.
Find yourself somebody that has achieved what you’re striving for or someone who will be able to help guide you through any obstacles along the way.
John Lee Dumas realized he needed a mentor who had achieved what he aspired to do. He followed his business intuition and looked for someone with accelerated success that could help him gain popularity within the podcasting industry.
Related: 3 Cold Call Tips That Will Help You Book 15 Appointments a Day
3. Do not procrastinate, get started now
The reason why salespeople are often reluctant to start their prospecting campaign is because of procrastination. It’s no wonder, then, that overcoming this obstacle ranks among top reasons for successful dialing for dollars in many polls.
As John Lee Dumans advises, you should get started and not worry about being perfect from day one. You’ll learn how to improve your phone skills with experience as time goes on. Make picking up the phone a priority when you arrive at the office if you ever want to be successful at cold calling.
Related: 5 Corny Jokes Will Get You Past Cold-Calling Gatekeepers