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Conquer Call Reluctance
Submitted by:
The Brooks Group
Here are five practical steps that are certain to help you get positive results, fast:
Step 1 - Choose Prospects You Can Feel Good About Calling On
Call reluctance is directly related to two variables that you can control. The first is how much you know about the prospect and the second is how confident you are that they’re likely to be interested in what you offer. Try to learn as much as you can about your prospect before calling him or her (without going overboard and using this as another excuse to procrastinate).
In your research, look for specific reasons that this prospect might be interested in what you offer and then plan your call around this knowledge. This strategy helps establish you as an insider. It also allows you to distinguish yourself from other salespeople, both in the mind of the prospect and in your own mind. Once you start focusing on why your prospects would be interested in talking to you, you’ll feel a lot better about calling on them.
Step 2 – Make Sure You Are 110% Sold On What You Are Selling
“Have the courage of your convictions?”
It’s not surprising that salespeople who don’t believe in the superiority of what they have to offer – or doubt the importance of that offer to the prospect – would have a sick feeling in the pit of their stomachs when facing a prospect.
It’s absolutely essential that you build a genuine sense of pride in what you offer. You can start by examining how your product or service has benefited your current customers. You may be surprised at the tremendous positive impact that your product or service has for your customers.
Once you have an understanding of how vital and valuable your offering has been for your existing customers, you can use your creative imagination to build a vision of what you can offer to your new prospects. In order to successfully sell your product, you should have such a sense of the superiority, worth and importance of it that you can’t wait for the next opportunity to tell someone about it. If you are trying to sell something you cannot feel that way about, you should probably think about finding something else to sell.
You’ll also want to make sure that you’re 110% confident in what you personally have to offer to your customers as a sales professional. Can you be proud of the level of knowledge, expertise, integrity and personal enthusiasm that you offer your customers? Are you confident in your communication ability and your persuasive talents?
Step 3 – Recall Past Accomplishments
If you’re in the habit of living fearfully or skeptically, your self-image is probably wallowing in your frustrations, disappointments, and failures. That can make it very hard to approach a prospect. It can also mean that you approach prospects “knowing” that you’ll meet failure. The result? You’ll prove yourself right every time.
On the other hand, if you constantly visualize your past successes, and focus on the times when you were able to overcome challenges, you’ll feel more confident about making sales calls that you might otherwise dread making. If you replay these successes inside your mind a sufficient number of times, you are sure to start feeling confident and successful. This sense of confidence will most certainly help you overcome call reluctance.
Step 4 – Mental Rehearsal
What if you’re new to selling, or at least new to certain selling situations, and you don’t have lots of past accomplishments to recall? How can you build on your positive experience if you lack experience? The answer is to manufacture “synthetic experience.”
One of the greatest gifts of the human imagination – and possibly also the greatest liability – is the fact that your entire system, mind and body can be as affected by synthetic experience as real experience. It’s really a matter of what you choose to “feed” your mind.
Mental rehearsal involves perfecting an experience in your mind down to every detail until it becomes a very vivid mental movie. Then you can play that perfect scene over and over in preparation for the real experience. This technique is commonly used by all kinds of people whose success depends on outstanding performances
Mental rehearsal involves perfecting an experience in your mind down to every detail until it becomes a very vivid mental movie. Then you can play that perfect scene over and over in preparation for the real experience. This technique is commonly used by all kinds of people whose success depends on outstanding performances
In sales, it is helpful to mentally rehearse any and all questions that the prospect may ask, so that when these questions arise, you will be prepared.
Step 5 – Relax
If you show up full of stress and anxiety, your prospect’s natural reaction is to meet you with resistance. How can you put prospects at ease if you can’t tame your own tensions?
Think of how you feel when you call or visit a friend. There’s no tension, no fear or dread involved. But consider for a moment how successful you would be at making and keeping friends if you approached your friends the way you sometimes approach prospects: with reluctance, anxiety and apprehension.
Now consider the reverse: how successful would your sales calls be if you were able to approach every prospect with the comfort and ease that you approach a friend? It’s easy to see that what you bring to the situation sets off a chain reaction that determines the outcome.
Relaxation can be a difficult thing to achieve, especially when you’re under pressure to make a sale. You can start by focusing on ridding your body of tension – relax your shoulders, unclench your fists, stop grinding your teeth and smile…Once you relax your body your mind will automatically begin to relax as well.
Whatever the reasoning behind your reluctance to make certain calls, applying these solid steps can surely help get you in front of your prospects with confidence. But the first step lies in making the conscious decision to change your thinking and take action. As soon as you stop avoiding unpleasant or stressful situations, you can start feeling, and being, a lot more successful.
