Stop Treating Your Sales Callbacks Like Scandals

Salespeople lose sleep over calling a prospect back who ignored them last time. They picture the prospect at their desk, coffee in hand, muttering, “Not that guy again.”

Here’s the truth: nobody remembered them ten minutes after the call. Not ten days. Not ten months. The prospect filed it as background noise the second it ended—the same way you forget the name of the person who sat next to you on a flight. The same way the Red Sox’ Caleb Durbin was booed off the field in June and cheered during July and August. By September the fans forgot how bad he was earlier in the season.

Now look at people whose scandals made global headlines and who still came back bigger.

• Tom Brady served a four-game Deflategate suspension in 2015 for allegedly taking a little air out of some footballs, then won the Super Bowl anyway. If he’d been kicked out of football he might have had a second career as the lead singer for Air Supply.
• Bill O’Reilly left Fox in 2017 after $13 million in harassment settlements and simply took the same show to Newsmax, where the audience didn’t seem to mind.
• Donald Trump was impeached twice, convicted on 34 felonies, and tagged with a $450 million civil fraud judgment—then got re-elected. He leaned into his indictments so much that his mugshot became his profile picture.
• Rob Lowe’s 1988 convention tape should have ended him; instead it became the warm-up act for The West Wing and four seasons of Parks and Rec.
• Michael Vick did 23 months for dogfighting, came out in 2009, and somehow made the Pro Bowl with Philadelphia. Maybe he was a World War II fighter pilot in a past life.
• Kobe Bryant’s 2003 felony charges were dismissed in 2004; three years later he scored 81 and two years after that he was MVP.
• Martha Stewart did five months in prison in 2004; her stock quadrupled while she was inside, and more than 20 years later, in her 80s, she’s still in the spotlight—giving dating advice.
• Robert Downey Jr. spent a decade in and out of rehab and was considered unemployable until Iron Man in 2008 turned him into the highest-paid actor on the planet.
• Tiger Woods went eleven years without a major after the 2009 scandal, then won the Masters in 2019. The one-time best golfer in the world is now the most well-known serial car crasher.

Nine scandals. Nine comebacks. The pattern isn’t talent or a clever rebrand. It’s that they showed up again.

Here’s the part most people miss. The first chapter ran on talent and fame. The second ran on underdog status. People don’t root for the guy who’s already won. They root for the one who fell and got back up, because that’s the story they tell themselves about their own lives. Sympathy sticks longer than talent.

Your prospect doesn’t have you on the equivalent of a no-fly list. They don’t even remember that you called before. They don’t know your name. They don’t know your company. They don’t know shit. Don’t ask if they remember your call. Don’t ask if the timing is better. Don’t ask if things have changed. Treat it like the very first time you’ve ever called them. But this time, be prepared for the put-off. Know how you’ll handle it. Lower their resistance. Ask a good question. Don’t suck.

And don’t wait until you’re ready. Pick up the phone. Be the underdog. Be part of your own comeback. I’m rooting for you.

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