Walk Like a Giant, Sell Like a Madman

8.5. Make the Commitment

I strongly recommend that you implement the Hour of Power strategy, regardless of what you sell. If you make 100 calls a day, five or six days a week, I can almost guarantee that you will begin to see a dramatic boost in sales in a relatively short time. When you are ready to take the leap and implement your own Hour of Power, keep the following important points in mind:

• Strive to achieve the goal of 100 calls a day. When I coach people, I have them turn in their call logs to me at the end of every week. Making the bare minimum of 25 calls a day delivers some benefit, but the truly successful salespeople are those who do closer to 100 calls a day.

• What you say when you call is not all that important. What is important is that you make the call and establish contact. Leaving a voice mail message counts as contact.

• No selling. I know I said it before, but it deserves repetition: The Hour of Power is about building relationships.

• Do not get into a lengthy conversation. You have an average of 36 seconds per call.

• Limit yourself to five or six days to avoid burnout.

• Challenge yourself to make some difficult calls. Put new people on the list—people you would like to meet, organizations you want to learn more about, interesting people you might like to partner with, and so on. Remember, it all begins with a call.