I need advice on managing distractions

Everyone knows that Sales is a grind. Cold calling for newbies is akin to having a full blown conversation with a native speaker in a foreign language that has yet to be discovered.


I'm not saying that cold calling is tedious and mind-numbing. But since cold call prospecting is arguably the most tedious and mind-numbing part of Sales, what distractions do you all use to get through it?


I'm all in for some easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy Words with Friends games but I'm looking for something a bit more entertaining and something where I don't have to wait for the numbskull on the other side to make their move.


What do you all do while prospecting to A) keep you head in the game, and B) take your mind away from the fact that (for some of us) you are mindlessly clicking the "click to call" button on the next prospect over and over again?



PS 3 weeks until first MNF of 2021 season; YOU CAN DO IT!

๐Ÿฑ Off-Topic
๐Ÿค— Self-care
๐Ÿ˜ƒ Fun
13
CoorsKing
WR Officer
11
Retired King of the Coors Knights
Listen to the war room playlist on spotify

Post/comment on Bravado

I read product white papers. Nerdy, yes. But it helps over the long run.

Pressure wash the interns when they get too loud.

All said and done though - try to just calendar block your day, drink some coffee, power through the calls without getting distracted, make some $$$, and then go rip some Coors Light.
MinisterOfChaos
Politicker
3
Commercial Account Executive
Curious about the product white papers. For your own products, competitor products, anyone else's products?
CoorsKing
WR Officer
5
Retired King of the Coors Knights
Both. Industry specific, 3rd party, our own, any and all
Beans
Big Shot
0
Enterprise Account Executive
We got a link to this playlist?ย 
CoorsKing
WR Officer
3
Retired King of the Coors Knights
InQ5WeTrust
Arsonist
5
No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL
Break up your calling time into chunks, almost pseudo pomodoros.ย 

Otherwise the mindless dialling will just kill you.ย 

Music in-between calls.ย 
If you have a bad call nothing wrong with taking a quick walk round the office/house etc to refresh.ย 
CoorsKing
WR Officer
5
Retired King of the Coors Knights
Remember: 2 pastas minimum per pomodoroย 
InQ5WeTrust
Arsonist
4
No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL
Every 4 pastas you need to change the type of pasta as well.ย 
CoorsKing
WR Officer
4
Retired King of the Coors Knights
Down. May toss in some meatballs as well, itโ€™s bulk season.ย 
InQ5WeTrust
Arsonist
4
No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL
Hot boi summer is over, it's sad boi autumnย 
CuriousFox
WR Officer
5
๐ŸฆŠ
Sad boi autumn is universal. Everyone knows the best foods are around the holidays.
InQ5WeTrust
Arsonist
4
No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL
It is true sweatpants season
UrAssIsSaaS
Arsonist
3
SaaS Eater
Beyond what others have laid out, give yourself little contests and rewards throughout the day. Either quality convos, accounts touched, appts set, something else that's totally irrelevant but I know I'm hyper competitive (even if it's just with myself) and winning feels good so this always helped me.ย 

Then give yourself some reward for hitting it, then you'll see those small wins start to turn into larger ones and you'll be rolling in the $$$ which is why we are all here anyway.ย 
Incognito
WR Officer
2
Master of Disaster
Well what I do is

SQUIRREL!

Get my Google alerts set for industry specific news

SQUIRREL!

daily, so it gives me fresh talking points when making calls

SQUIRREL!

and then look at my fat bank account and imagine all the cool shit Iโ€™m going to buyย 

also, I cannot have distractionsย 
SaaSam
Politicker
1
Account Executive
I break down my KPIs in to hourly activity. If I hit my number for the hour ahead of time I treat myself to some distraction. wrestle with my kid, surf the war room, read up on weapons technology, call to bullshit with my dad or one of my brothers, walk the dog, go down a youtube rabbit hole, read my book. Fuck, sometimes I'll just take a nap
MinisterOfChaos
Politicker
1
Commercial Account Executive
"read my book"

Damn. That's pretty fucking narcissistic, bro. But hey, to each their own! :)

I kid, I kid. I get what you're saying.
SaaSam
Politicker
0
Account Executive
Haha yeah I almost reworded it after typing but I'm a lazy fuck on Mondays
LordBusiness
Politicker
1
Chief Revenue Officer
Itโ€™s been many years since Iโ€™ve cold called on the regular, but we used to have little contests amongst ourself. Who can work the โ€œword of the Dayโ€ into the cold calls, cold calling bingo, first round at happy hour on the lowest meetings, etc. this type of shit always helped.
1nbatopshotfan
Politicker
1
Sales
I like to keep a tracker, counting my calls myself. In my previous role I needed about 12/hour to meet my metrics and be successful. Now Iโ€™m closer to 20 a day. No one is tracking me anymore, so itโ€™s purely on me to do it. The tracker keeps me honest and focused.ย 

while in the middle of a blitz I try and fall down a wiki hole or interesting stuff. Lots of time while the phone is connecting and ringing and read.ย 

I also liked @BigMeechย and his suggestion on white papers. Good time to learn.ย 
goose
Politicker
1
Sales Executive
This is wild. ย I can't imagine asking a group a sales people what they should do while they work. ย If you aren't going to bust your ass to win then what are you doing? ย Waiting for a better opportunity?

Jesus, either people are getting soft or I'm missing a joke here.
MinisterOfChaos
Politicker
0
Commercial Account Executive
Thereโ€™s no joke. Iโ€™m doing more prospecting these days to build up my pipeline for a big push to close out Q3 and Q4. Just got my book at beginning of Q2 and itโ€™s been a bit since Iโ€™ve had the need for heavy prospecting. Was just looking for some thoughts or ideas that others have to keep momentum during the inevitable doldrums of high output prospecting.
goose
Politicker
0
Sales Executive
Yep. ย Video games. ย Go with video games.
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
1
sales
i work in bursts of productivity. i'll smash a few calls, read an article, smash a few calls, read an article browse a mindless site, smash a few calls, etc.

i do this all day and can easily hit my call metrics
drippyAE
Executive
1
Strategic Account Executive
Personally I'd much rather cold call than hunt for prospecting data. Nothing worse than cruising the web for hour just to set up a call cadence. I'm going to answer your question, but in a slightly different way. I personally don't want distractions when cold dialing because it invariably divides my attention and therefore my sales skills. Active listening, in my opinion, is difficult enough with out background interference putting the kybosh on a cold convo.
NoSuperhero
Politicker
0
BDR LEAD
Well to avoid distractions, remove them from your environment. Do you need to cold call? I'm sure you don't need your phone next to you or in front of you to do that, so put it far from your reach!
TheDuchess
Opinionated
0
Sales Enablement Queen
If possible, try getting on a Zoom with a teammate to dial together. It will hold you accountable and also give you a forum to vent any frustration/get best practices on what they're doing to get through to prospects. Buddying up and setting goals for the week or day is wildly under-utilised but can be highly effective.ย 

Take initiative on your team to demonstrate leadership qualities. Build a 'cold call bingo' board to drive participation - cross off when you get a 'no', when someone hangs up, when you drop a generic 'drive revenue' into conversation, leave a VM or when you book a meeting etc. Get creative and make it a fun activity.
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