“I keep my pipeline filled to capacity.”

“I meet my goals for 10 new contacts every month.”

“I made the required 200 phone calls this week.”

“I add the needed 3 new prospects to the CRM every day.”

Whoopdie friggin doo!

The real question is have you had a meaningful interaction with anyone? Have you met anyone who remembers your name or, more importantly, your company and what services you offer? Have you had a conversation (yes, conversation) with the same person twice? Have you been asked to be taken up on a call to action? Have you researched a new contact to the point of knowing their favorite color, what their outside interests are and where they went to school? Have you scheduled a meeting with a prospect where they invited you? Has your new contact introduced you to others in their organization?

If you do everything by the numbers answer “no” to more than three of the follow-on questions, you need to rethink your approach. Compiling statistics for the sake of, well, compiling statistics is about as useful as a one armed paper hanger.

I see all sorts of numbers like “75% of customers require at least five calls” or “it takes at least 25 cold calls to get a name of a prospect”. These may be accurate stats but are they smart work habits? My assertion is no they are not. I’d rather spend an extra hour researching a potential customer before trying to call them than make 10 anonymous and meaningless cold calls. You will learn more often than not that while checking into a prospect, they aren’t a prospect. This is particularly useful to those who dislike getting the cold shoulder.

People are busier than ever. If you cannot start off an initial contact with something that captures their interest, you have about a 99% chance of failing to start a conversation. If you start off with a lyric from their favorite song, you have about 99% chance of starting a conversation.

Work smarter, do a little homework and forget the friggin numbers.