The Wolf of Wall Street depicts the career of Jordan Belfort, stockbroker in New York City, who engaged in corruption and fraud on Wall Street in the late 1980s. His actions will lead to his downfall and arrests. However, the story has a happy ending, as Belfort now offers highly popular seminars on sales techniques.

For anybody who is developing sales strategy, the Wolf of Wall Street offers a simple tip:

‘Call them until they buy or until they f* die.’ Many refer to it as a sign of perseverance. However, it is a double-edged sword with a sharp edge. Would calling leads over and over again persuade them to buy from you?

If we’re being totally honest, the answer is no. More likely, leads will block your number so they can finally have some peace. Pressuring leads into buying is only going to waste time that would be better utilized on calling people who are ready to purchase.

Build a Lead Magnet Rather Than Aggressive Prospecting

Rather than calling your leads until they f* die, as Di Caprio blunts in The Wolf of Wall Street, you should look for other strategies that can convert passive leads more effectively. Cold calling, ultimately, doesn’t work. However, allowing a lead to develop their interest in your business at their own pace can be too long and ineffective. Instead, you can build a lead generation platform that turns passive leads into customers. Why does it work? Because it’s a platform that puts leads in control. You can use content marketing to design a lead magnet, such as encouraging people to download a highly-targeted piece of content. Valuable content reinforces the connection to your business, which means that these leads are more likely to buy from you, eventually.

No One-To-One Calls for Inquiry Contacts

How long does it take for a lead to become a customer? The lead journey can vary in time. Some people are ready to buy almost immediately after discovering your services. Others need further reassuring along the way. Leads, when they are in the process of researching and comparing options, can get in touch with businesses. While they initiate the contact, it doesn’t mean they are ready to purchase. Unfortunately, inquiry calls can waste a lot of time, especially if you can’t screen calls accordingly. VOIP solutions such as Lingo.com can let you handle inquiry calls effectively, using virtual extensions and pre-recorded messages for information when you can’t take the call, for instance.

Aggressive Sales Tactics Don’t Always up Your Numbers

As tempting as it can be to try aggressive sales tactics that force customers to buy, few customers react positively under pressure. Oracle recently experienced negative reactions as the company threatened existing customers with a cost increase to encourage a move to the cloud.

As a result, some customers have been leaving the company altogether for other service providers. The bottom line: Blackmailing your customers into further purchases can backfire horribly and reduce your leads.

Should you spend time on the phone with leads that aren’t ready to buy now? The answer is no. More often than not, you will be either wasting your time or theirs. Instead, it’s best to focus on passive lead generation funnels that can help to qualify interests and time-saving phone systems. In short, don’t call them until they buy; let them call when they are ready to buy instead.