Stop Holding Beliefs That Don’t Serve You

There is a danger in holding beliefs that don’t serve you. They do more damage than you may know.

If you believe that cold calling no longer works, then you won’t be effective making calls. You will believe that is no longer effective, that buyers are more annoyed than they were in the past, and that you are not going to be successful in scheduling an appointment.

Those beliefs will betray your efforts. You will make four of five calls, schedule no appointments, believe that you have evidence that it isn’t working, and give up. Your experience will match your beliefs.

If you believe that, because of the Internet, buyers are now 70% through their buying process before they speak to a salesperson, you may believe that the only way to engage them is passively waiting for them stumble upon your social presence and invite you to compete for their business. LinkedIn connections are a lower level of engagement than a commitment to a scheduled appointment, and online conversations are lower level of engagement than real life, face-to-face conversations. This is true even though the social channels are critical to building your brand, and we have never had such powerful tools for doing so.

The belief that you cannot create value for your clients early in the process, that they won’t engage with you, that they have so little to do that they are spending their time researching your space, and that they believe they know what they don’t know just isn’t true.

The only person who is right to follow a strategy of waiting is the Vice President of the United States. Your beliefs cannot support passivity.

What if your competitors believe something different? What if they believe speed is important and pick up the phone? What if they believe that all of the value creation occurs at the beginning of the buyer’s process and works to get in front of opportunities? Will you hold to beliefs that don’t serve you?