Resolve To Be Resilient: A True Cold Calling Resolution

My handy Google Calendar informs me that today is January 5th, which means that many of our New Years’ Resolutions have already fallen by the wayside. If we’re being completely honest, my “New Year, New Me” diet lasted approximately two days — and that’s only if you are generous enough to classify Starburst as a fruit (editor’s note: I don’t).

The reality is that many of our New Years’ Resolutions are poorly planned and are set up to fail before we even begin. So, rather than vaguely resolving to “work harder in 2023” or “get that promotion you deserve”, commit to a strategic improvement that will deliver results. Be strategically resilient.

Strategic resilience is not to be confused with “overdrive mode” which demands a blind push forward. It is simply, and specifically for sales development reps, a commitment to work more efficiently and gain an elastic quality to your daily activities.

Overdrive Mode?

Let’s begin by discussing how an “overdrive” plan would develop and, ultimately, fail. By making a standard pledge to “work harder”, you might project success like so:

• Step 1 = Set your goal: Something like, “increase the number of leads I pass each week by 2.
• Step 2 = Set metrics: Assuming an average lead rate of 2%, you will likely aim to increase your cold calling activity by 100 dials per week.
• Step 3 = Set guidelines: To be organized and accountable, you will logically decide that a 20-call-per-day increase will yield an additional 2 leads per week.
• Step 4 = However, your goal will likely fall short for the same reason my diet did: the plan is rational, but not realistically sustainable and will fizzle out over a period of time.

Some days will have unforeseen roadblocks that alter your schedule and resource commitments, and you will have to scramble to make a number of those extra calls during off-peak hours, which causes their value to significantly decrease. Diminishing returns are no joke.

Similar to cheating on your diet for a day or two each week, this leads to an eventual abandonment of your resolution.

What’s The Answer?

To solve this, aim to make as many extra calls during optimal times on days that allow it, rather than stopping at your allotted amount.

On days that are less conducive to extra calling, commit the extra time & effort that you pledged to other areas that will help you prepare for other projects or the coming days ahead.

This flexibility and elasticity will provide a realistic perspective to create marginal gains relative to days prior. The ultimate result will be concrete and long-term success through increased cold-calling production.

Now if I could only say the same thing about my diet…

Is this 👆 perfect? No, but it fosters a more sustainable way of thinking about resolutions and goal setting.

This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about this. We tackled the idea of personal goal setting in an episode of UNSUBSCRIBE with Scott Bonish 👉

Tune in for a crash course on setting personal goals (both business and professional), what mindset to adopt, and how to stay agile when things go awry.