If you’re new to business and looking for a quick and easy way to get your message out there fast, it’s hard to imagine an easier way than making a list of prospects and then calling those individuals on the telephone.  If you don’t mind reaching out to your warm-market on the phone, then you can make some serious progress getting your products, services, or opportunity out into the marketplace.  

Now, when it comes to making a list of people to talk to…something we call your 100 list…those new to the business can overthink the process.  Often, no sooner than they can think of someone to add to the list, then quickly disqualify that individual as someone who wouldn’t be interested, for one reason or another.  An example would be keeping someone off of the contact list because they are someone they talked to previously, and that person said no at that time.  Another example would be keeping someone off of the list because they hadn’t talked to or seen that person in over 5 years.  The rationale for keeping that person off the list would be that the conversation might be awkward because it might seem to the prospect that you’re only interested in them for selfish reasons.

There are many, many, more reasons for disqualifying someone, but it’s very important that when making this “100 list”, NO ONE should be disqualified for any reason.  Your main goal is to get everyone out of your head and onto paper (or computer).  You want to add any and everyone you know to this list, regardless of who they are and how you know them.  The only qualifier to this is that there does need to be a way for you to contact this individual…but you can determine this later once your list has been created.

When you do this exercise, you’ll find very quickly that you know way more people than you ever thought you knew, and this should provide you with a bit of  hope as you consider the possibilities of reaching out to this list.  It will not be uncommon for you to create a list of 200 or more people.  

Once your list is done, you’ll want to create a strategy for how you will reach out to these individuals.  For some of these prospects, you may be comfortable calling them on the phone.  For others on the list, you may want to send them text messages as a first point of contact.  There may be some that you’ll contact via social media, and some who you’ll simply decide that you will not reach out to for certain reasons that are specific to you and your unique situation.  One word of caution:  If you disqualify someone from your list, it should be because you couldn’t find their contact information, or you simply do not want to do business with this individual. Otherwise, let the prospects on your list disqualify themselves.  There you have it!  Are you up to the challenge?  If so, give it a go, and let me know how big a list you’re able to make…I’d love to hear about it!