If you've been guilty of bulldozing your prospects or being rude or uncaring, today must be the day you change your mindset: Don't treat prospects like a number. Although numbers are important to those of us who work in sales, we can't let them become our primary focus. They can help us measure our success and determine our strengths and weaknesses, but we can't reduce our prospects to a number. Find the balance Some organizations focus so little on numbers that they don't have any way to replicate their successes. They have no idea how many calls it takes to get to the right customer. They have no idea of their conversion rate. On the other hand, some organizations are so focused on the numbers that it becomes the primary focus of their work. As a result, they often sacrifice quality in the name of numbers. Do not lose track of the people in the process. My wife got a call from a traditional seller in a traditional selling situation last week: he knew nothing about the company except the name and the phone number. He didn't know who he needed to speak to, and it was obvious he was calling from a call center. The caller wasn't prepared and he didn't have a cadence to his call. Dialing for dollars Some companies have a single speed. They spend each day dialing for dollars and relying on phone calls to advance their numbers. They fail to realize that today's buyers are busy. They fail to approach selling from the buyer's standpoint. It never occurs to them that they could have brought value in an email. Or that they could have used multiple emails to share client testimonials or valuable tips or irresistible messages. They overlook LinkedIn as a place to connect with prospects and they miss the opportunity to provide value. They forget that they could mail something to the prospect or research who they should contact within a company. They overlook the strength of using multiple points of entry rather than just blasting the prospect with phone calls. Control your emotion When my wife told the caller that we weren't interested in doing business with him, he got upset. He's no doubt frustrated because he's doing the same activity every single day and not having much success, but it doesn't give him a pass to get upset. Sometimes you've brought value and done everything possible for your buyer, and they still aren't ready to buy. It's ok to say, "Hey, I get this all the time. Sometimes people aren't ready. Out of curiosity, is it because you guys already have someone in place or just that you're not looking to buy right now?" Once they give me an answer, I ask if it's ok for me to send podcasts or videos in the future. If they say yes, then I've left the door open. Instead of sacrificing my connection by getting angry, I keep opportunities open. Develop processes I'm a big proponent of making sure you have processes in place as you reach out to prospects. If you're treating them like a number and calling without doing any research, please stop. You're treating them like a number and they're going to respond accordingly. Offer personal touches. Take 2 to 5 minutes to go on LinkedIn and find out what the company does. Don't eat up too much of your time, just find out the key players and the company mission so you can have an intelligent conversation. Do work If you're trying to reach people the same way everyone else is, you're probably not going to have a lot of success. You're going to have to do a little bit of work to grab our attention in a busy setting. I recently got a video from someone as a form of outreach, and I complimented the person on the video. Then, I invited the person to be a guest on the podcast, and the show is going live soon. It's more work for you, but your job as the seller is to make the buyer's job easier. Don't add unnecessary complication. [Tweet "Treat people like people. Try something unique. People aren't robots and they aren't just numbers. #EffectiveSelling"] "Don't Treat Prospects Like a Number" epi