Attitude #5: Patient Yet Persistent

Patient yet persistent: an oxymoron? Not necessarily. As a sales entrepreneur, one of the biggest obstacles to your success is lack of patience. Statistics suggest that less than 5% of sales are made on the first call and over 80% are made on the fifth call. However, only 10% of sales representatives ever return for the third call. They quit and go back to the adult day care center to hang out with other frustrated sales representatives.

Look around you and you will see mostly quitters. Maybe there is one in your mirror. Consider this: The average person who takes up a musical instrument, quits. How many people do you know who play a "little piano" or "a few chords" on the guitar? They tire of it quickly, as results come too slowly. They go on to look for something easier. Likewise, many people who start night school, fitness programs, or sales careers quit. The examples are endless. Many of us are great starters but poor finishers.

This is great news for those of us who truly desire to be successful. It means that if we stick to it, we will be ahead of the pack. Jack H. McQuaig, a pioneering psychologist, claims that the one defining factor of success in sales is persistence. There is lots of room at the top. History is alive with classic examples of persistence. Thank goodness for the likes of Edison (10,000 tries before the light bulb worked), Einstein, Bell, Michelangelo, the Wright Brothers, and Alan Hobson and Jamie Clarke. They never gave up. On May 23, 1997, Alan and Jamie finally reached the top of Mount Everest on their third attempt. Alan said this from the summit, "If there is a lesson in all of this, it is that if we persevere long enough, we can do the dreams."

If you call a potential customer once a year, are you persistent? What about twice a year? Once a quarter, once a month, once a week? Are you persistent? The answer to all of the above is yes. Even by calling once a year you are demonstrating persistence. You are saying to the customer: "I'm still here, I'm not giving up." Harvey MacKay talks about how he has not met a qualified customer he hasn't sold. Some took a while—two to three years—but he sold them. Persistence. When do you give up on potential customers? When they die! Even then, introduce yourself to the new person!

Silver Platter Syndrome
It Begins with YOU
What I Told My Daughter