I will be shocked if anyone reads beyond
the title of this blog post.
I make this assumption because,
for six plus years,
people have asked me how I started
my coaching practice.
I always give some version of the
same response:
First: make 800 cold calls.
That and 20 years in marketing.
(Or, as Barry Newstat says:
step one: find a time machine;
step two: use it to go back
28 years and start making furniture)
In six plus years
not one person has asked
a follow up question to my step one.
Instead, they dust past it and ask
Uh-huh, what else?
What they really mean is:
what’s the easy way to get clients?
I made 800 cold calls
not because it was the
right way or the only way.
I made cold calls
because I was committed to building my practice.
Cold calling wasn’t particularly successful,
(800 calls, 8 or 10 meetings, 2 or 3 clients)
but it did make me absolutely fearless.
Turns out, committed and fearless
are pretty good qualities for building a business.
I often meet other service providers
who boast about never making cold calls.
I always have the same thought:
maybe you should.
