Why Sales Isn't a Numbers Game

One of my first jobs out of college, my mentor handed me a phone book.

Not a regular phone book. A University of Missouri alumni directory. Tens of thousands of names.

Start calling, he said. Find qualified investors.

I was a stockbroker. Or "financial advisor" as we'd say now (same job, better branding). And this was how we filled the pipeline. You dialed. You got rejected. You dialed again. For every no, you were supposedly one step closer to a yes.

I sat there staring at that book thinking: there has to be a better way.

Spoiler alert: there is.

The Numbers Game Assumes You Don't Know Who You're Looking For

That advice (every no gets you closer to a yes) sounds almost motivating when you first hear it. Kind of poetic, even.

But follow it to its conclusion and you end up making 300 cold calls a day, blasting thousands of emails into the void, knocking on doors until your knuckles give out. All hoping that someone, somewhere, accidentally says yes.

That doesn't seem like a sales strategy. That's a repetitive coin flip.

And it treats people like lottery tickets. You're not connecting with a human being who has a real problem you can actually solve. You're burning through inventory until the math works out in your favor.

I know. I lived it. I had the phone book to prove it.

The numbers game only makes sense if you genuinely have no idea who your best customer is. If that's true, I guess spray and pray is your only move.

But you do know who they are. Or, at least, you can figure it out.

Think about who you've helped the most. Think about the problem you solve better than anyone else. Think about the kind of person who lights up when they hear what you do.

That's not a thousand people. That's ten at a time. Maybe twenty.

What if, instead of finding ten buyers out of a thousand strangers, you did the work upfront to find those ten before reaching out?

Fishing in the Cove

This is what I mean by fishing in the cove.

The numbers game sends you out to the open ocean with a giant net, hoping something swims into it. That's a lot of work. It's also a lot of rejection. And I hate feeling that. I felt defeated every day.

The cove approach says: go where your fish actually are. Study the water. Know the species. Show up with the right bait.

You do more work before you ever cast a line. But you do a whole lot less thrashing around once you get there.

For most of us, the work up front is much easier. It doesn't feel like sales at all. It feels like research. It feels like curiosity. It feels like caring enough to understand the person before you show up in their inbox.

My mentor's alumni directory had tens of thousands of names because nobody had done that work. Nobody had asked: who in here actually needs what we're offering, is in a position to act on it, and is likely to trust someone reaching out cold?

If someone had asked those questions first, that phone book might have been three pages long.

Your Unique Three Changes the Whole Equation

When you get clear on your unique solution to a unique person's unique problem, the numbers shrink dramatically, and so will your stress. (New to the Unique Three? Start with The Hidden Reason Your Business Feels Generic.)

You're not trying to convince anyone of anything. You're finding the people who already have the problem you solve, already want the kind of help you offer, and just haven't met you yet.

That's a short list. Work it like a short list.

Give those people your full attention. Understand their situation before the first conversation. Show up prepared. Ask real questions. Listen like it matters, because you know what? It does.

Ten people who feel genuinely seen because your unique solution solves their unique problem will outperform a thousand people who feel like a dial tone.

Trust me. I've been on both sides of that phone call.

Sales Isn't a Numbers Game

It's a people game. People can tell the difference, and you don't need the rejection anyway.

Do the work upfront to find the right ones. Then show up for them like they're the only ones.

Because to them, that's exactly what you should be.

Who are your ten? If you're not sure, that's where we start.

This article first appeared in my LinkedIn newsletter, Approachable Entrepreneurship.

Found your ten? Here's what to say to them.

Once you know who your people are, the next step is a conversation that feels like curiosity, not a cold call. How to Sell When You Hate to Sell walks through the N.I.C.E. method for exactly that.

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Keep reading: You're Losing Sales to People You Haven't Even Met