Let’s keep it 100. If you had a choice between calling prospects and taking live fire, you would choose the bullets.

—Jeb Blount

Ultra-high-performing recruiters are relentless, unstoppable prospectors. They are obsessive about outmaneuvering their competition and keeping the funnel full of qualified prospects. They prospect anywhere and anytime—constantly kicking down doors looking for their next opportunity. They prospect day and night—they ask, and ask, and ask, until they get a qualified prospect to say yes.

Ultra-high performers (UHPs) are unstoppable and always on—fanatical. My favorite definition of the word fanatical is “motivated or characterized by an extreme, uncritical enthusiasm.”

Top military recruiters view prospecting as a way of life. They prospect with single-minded focus, worrying little about what other people think of them. They enthusiastically dive into telephone prospecting, area canvassing, cold calling, networking, asking for referrals, social media, following up on leads, working schools, setting up at school and community events, and striking up conversations with strangers.

• They don’t make excuses: “This is not a good time to call.” “The system is down.”
• They don’t complain: “Nobody is calling me back.” “The leads are bad.”
• They don’t whine: “Nobody answers the phone.” “No one is qualified.” “The other branches are offering a better deal.”
• They don’t live in fear: “What if she says no?” “What if this is a bad time?” “What if his dad answers the phone?”
• They don’t procrastinate: “I don’t have time right now. I’ll catch up tomorrow.”
• They prospect even when mission is made because they know that there is no time to rest.
• They prospect when times are bad because they know that prospecting is the key to survival.
• They prospect even when they don’t feel like prospecting because they are driven to keep their recruiting pipeline full.

Fanatical military recruiters carry around a pocket full of business cards. They talk up strangers on the sidewalk, in grocery stores, at schools, at sporting events, in line to get coffee, in elevators, trains, buses, and anywhere else they can get face-to-face with potential recruits.

They get up in the morning and bang the phone. During the day they are networking at schools. In the evening they knock on doors. In between interviews they prospect with e-mail and text. At night they work social media. While applicants are being processed at MEPS, they grab a list, pick up the phone, and make more calls.

Before they quit for the day, they make even more attempts. The enduring mantra of the fanatical military recruiter is: One more call.

Prospecting is the air they breathe. They don’t whine like babies about not having enough leads or cry about how MEPS is kicking back all of their applicants. Their survival does not rest on the hope for a CAT-4 day. They don’t blame the command, MEPS, the prospects, parents, teachers, schools, news, or society. They get moving, take responsibility, and own mission. They generate their own leads and, through hard work, determination, and perseverance, their own luck.

Fanatical military recruiters are aware that failure in recruiting is not caused by a deficit of talent, skills, or training. Not a poor territory or inferior prospects. Not the other branches of the military. Not “this generation” of teenagers. Not the latest news cycle or the person currently occupying the White House. Not the NCOIC, First Sergeant, Sergeant Major, or anyone else in the chain of command.

The brutal fact is the number-one reason for failure in recruiting is an empty funnel, and the root cause of an empty funnel is the failure to prospect. The foundation of all success in recruiting is a fanatical focus on prospecting.

It’s simple, the more people you talk to, the more people you’ll enlist. The Pipe (funnel) is Life.