How to Get Past Call Reluctance and Make Your Calls More Profitable
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Getting past call reluctance is one of the keys to successful cold calling. Understand what’s causing the reluctance and work on a solution. The three main causes of cold calling reluctance are lack of a plan, attitude and fear of rejection.
Cold Calling Tip #1: Have A Plan.
Planning is a key to success in anything you do in sales. Know who you’re calling. Write a thumbnail sketch of the people you’re calling. What I mean is get specific about the group of prospects in your target market. How old are they, what kind of work do they do, where do they live, and what kind of challenges do they have. The better picture you get of who you’re calling the better you’ll understand and relate to them.
The second part of this cold calling tip is know what the big picture is for you. Why are you in sales and what benefit does your product or service bring to your target market? Decide what your objective is for the call, get the appointment, name, etc.
Plan out what you’re going to say. Have a written script that tells you exactly what you’ll say. Know what objections may arise during the conversation and how to handle each one. Understand how and when to close.
It’s not just picking up the phone and hoping for the best. Put your plan on paper so you can see it and internalize it and your cold calling success rate will increase.
Cold Calling Tip #2: What’s With Your Attitude?
Improve your attitude and you’ll improve your results. I’ve seen a dramatic difference in my phone success based on my attitude. When my attitude is bad, people are less receptive and my success rate goes down. When I’m feeling good, my success on the phone goes up. I guess it’s not that everyone else is having a bad day.
Work on your attitude everyday. Make a decision to have a good attitude. If you have a bad attitude don’t pick up the phone. Stop watching the news and start reading positive books. Have fun on the phone, make someone smile.
Cold Calling Tip #3: Don’t Take It Personal.
Remember, not everyone you call will be interested in what you have to offer. So be prepared for rejection and understand they aren’t rejecting you they’re only rejecting the offer you’re making them. Thank them and move on to the next.
Cold calling is time consuming and nerve racking for many sales people. If you expect and prepare for the best, you’ll have a better chance of the best happening.
The single greatest cause of sales “failure” is the fear of rejection— that creeping feeling that customers will tell you “no”. It can be so paralyzing that rookie and veteran sales people will go to great lengths to avoid that word.
This fear disables you from cold calling, closing, and from getting up in the morning. You see a lot sales people killing time at Starbucks; it is fear that makes them drink the coffee, not the caffeine.
Frankly, not of all us are cut out for sales, but most sales people can beat this fear. It can be conquered by a simple technique called “systematic desensitization”. This is a fancy term that describes how you can beat your fear by confronting it repeatedly. That’s right. The more you confront the fear, the more you will minimize it. You do it again and again until you lose your fear.
Conversely, if you do nothing and if you don’t confront the fear, you make your fears even larger. If you don’t make cold calls, they will become harder to do.
John Bradley Jackson
Author: First, Best, or Different
http://www.firstbestordifferent.com