Persistence is the Key to Fanatical Prospecting Excellence

Other than not prospecting all together, giving up too soon is the primary reason salespeople are failing at prospecting on an epic scale. 

Three weeks ago, while I was on the golf course enjoying an afternoon out in the sun, my phone rang. I was waiting for the group in front of me to clear the green so I answered; but, I couldn’t hear anything on the other end and hung up. 

Ten minutes later it rang again with a call from the same number. This time however, I was walking up to a birdie putt so I sent the call to voicemail. 

I looked at my voice messages after finishing my round but there was no message from the number that called. I didn’t give it another thought. 

Late that same afternoon I received an email from a sales rep saying that he tried to call earlier but somehow we got disconnected. The phone number in his signature matched the number that had displayed on my phone on the golf course. 

It was then that I realized that I had my earbuds in when I answered the phone the first time. Sometimes calls don’t get automatically transferred to them. That’s why I couldn’t hear him. I felt bad because it was my fault that we didn’t connect, not his. 

I considered responding to his email at the moment, but it was dinner time and I was getting ready to grill some steaks, so I put his note aside for later. The next morning, stuff happened, priorities got in the way, and I forgot about it. I haven’t heard from him since. 

After three attempts (and no voice message) he gave up. The sad thing is, because of my guilt about hanging up on him, had he made one more call or email, I would have responded. 

Other than not prospecting all together, giving up too soon is the primary reason salespeople are failing at prospecting on an epic scale. 

The Trouble With Projecting

When I tell stories of prospecting persistence from the stage during keynotes and training sessions—for instance the rep who contacted me 71 times before finally convincing me to buy from him—people in the audience visually squirm. 

Invariably, when I tell the true story of the time I left a voicemail for a prospective client every day for 52 days in a row, before he called me back leading to a $1.2 million deal and punching my ticket to Presidents Club, there is an audible gasp of disbelief.  

This type of raw persistence carries negative connotations. People will come up to me and say things like:

“I could never do that!”

“I’d be pissed if anyone called me that many times.”

“If someone did that to me I’d block them.”

Sometimes they attack me with:

“Anyone who would call that many times is an awful person.”

“I don’t care what you were selling or how bad I needed it, I would never buy from you!”

“That’s horrible, it’s stalking!”

I want to be clear that I am not suggesting that salespeople should engage in gratuitous stalking. That makes no sense and will not earn you meaningful engagement. 

Professional, intentional, systematic, multi-touch sequencing, is not stalking. Still, for most salespeople, the level of persistence required to grab the attention of modern buyers in these sequences can feel icky. That you are being pushy. Like you are crossing the line. Bothering and annoying people. This is why most salespeople give up too soon. 

Emotional Hang-Ups 

Even though pretty much every sales professional worth their salt understands the power of persistence in prospecting, almost everyone struggles to actually BE persistent prospectors.

Why? Because of the wave of emotional hang ups that often come with persistent prospecting in the form of projecting. 

Projecting, in a psychological context, is the act of attributing your own emotions, feelings, assumptions, experiences or biases onto your prospect. It causes you to perceive situations through the lens of your own emotions rather than objectively assessing the reality of the other person’s perspective.

Think about the rep who called me while I was on the golf course. If in his mind’s eye he pictured me angry at him because I hung up on him, he might feel like a fourth or fifth touch was being “too pushy” or “annoying me” even though his feelings could not be further from the truth. I might have been interested in what he was selling, but we’ll never know now. 

Or if you feel anxious about interrupting people with a phone call, you might project that anxiety onto your prospect, assuming that it makes them uncomfortable even though your prospect may not feel that way at all because they are in a buying window and receptive to talking with you. 

Projecting Destroys Persistence

Projecting, which is all too common for salespeople, costs you dearly and holds you back from being persistent. 

Assumed Rejection: When you project your fear of rejection onto prospects, it can cause you to interpret a lack of immediate response or a vague objection as a definitive “no.” This causes you to give up when, in reality, persistence might have led to a different outcome.

Misreading Intentions: When you project your feelings of annoyance or frustration with being interrupted onto prospects it can cause you to give up prematurely, out of a mistaken belief that you are bothering them.

Channel Silos: Projecting can cause you to stick to a single communication channel like email, believing that it is less intrusive and aligns with how the prospect wants to be contacted. When the prospect doesn’t respond, you quit rather than reaching out through different channels.

Discomfort Avoidance: Projecting your own discomfort with prospecting onto the prospect causes you to rationalize that your prospect doesn’t want to be contacted either. This undermines persistence and your chances of breaking through and making a meaningful connection.

Emotional Drain: Projecting negative emotions increases emotional fatigue and decreases your willingness to persist, leading to fewer follow-up attempts.

Emotional Detachment

Breaking through the challenge of projecting when prospecting and truly embracing persistence is not easy. You know as well as anyone else that detaching from emotional hang ups is easier said than done. But emotional detachment is exactly what has to be done in order to free yourself from what is holding you back. 

Emotional intelligence involves understanding and managing your own emotions while also recognizing and influencing the emotions of others. This level of empathy and emotional awareness is a crucial metaskill for building rapport and trust with prospects, understanding their perspective, and tailoring your sales approach to help them achieve their desired outcomes.

However, when it comes to the grind of prospecting—where rejection and non-responsiveness are common—emotional detachment becomes equally important. 

Detachment doesn’t mean being cold or indifferent; rather, it means not allowing your own personal emotions like feeling pushy, icky, uncomfortable, frustrated or the fear of rejection dictate your actions.

In a way you must become two different salespeople. One who can prospect and build pipe dispassionately and the other who can engage and build relationships in order to advance deals through the pipeline to close sales. It is this balance of empathy and detachment that is key to maintaining both the human touch needed for selling and the relentless drive that successful prospecting requires.

It is by separating your emotions from the process of prospecting that you begin to fully embrace persistence and gain the mental resilience to face rejection and maintain your momentum. 

When you learn to detach, you are less likely to take rejection personally and experience emotional burnout. This helps you bounce back more quickly and maintain a steady, consistent routine that keeps you on track.  

Resistance Does Not Equal Rejection

Detachment begins with internalizing that your prospect’s initial resistance does not equate to outright rejection. We all resist new things and change. 

Resistance is a natural response to your outreach, especially when people are not yet familiar with you, your brand, or your product, service or software. It is just human nature. 

Because of this, persistence is often required to move beyond this initial familiarity barrier to compel your prospect to engage in a meaningful conversation. This is why making multiple prospecting touches is a normal part of the prospecting and the familiarity journey.

Instead of viewing a lack of response, a rejection, or a different outcome than you expected as a personal failure, start reframing these outcomes as part of the process. This helps you avoid getting caught up in the negative emotions that cause you to give up too early. 

It is easier to detach from your emotions when you view each prospecting touch as a natural step toward meaningful engagement rather than solely focusing on the success or failure of any given touch. 

When you shift your mindset from equating persistence with being pushy and resistance with rejection you step into a prospecting framework that values consistency, patience and a focus on persistently playing the long game. 

Boost your confidence and persistence with Jeb Blount’s hot new on-demand course, The Power of Persistence