Overcoming Sales Call Reluctance
Emotionally, many people have a constant struggle between the desire to sell, to feel competent and the fear of appearing pushy or aggressive. Many in sales have this problem and even more entrepreneurs. As with most problems in life it relates back to fear and fear is a powerful block to success. Fear of the unknown, fear of rejection, fear of presentations, fear of failure, fear of running out of prospects, fear of looking bad are all examples of specific fears that people in sales feel when prospecting. This feeling of fear when attempting to prospect is called sales call reluctance.
In my practice I work with my clients to move past these fears. Using hypnosis and NLP can make a huge difference. You can also make changes yourself that can make a difference. Following are three “do it yourself” techniques to move past this problem.
The phone is part of the problem but not all of it. It doesn’t allow you to see the other person and that makes some people uncomfortable. It takes away from you the ability to feel in control since the other person can hang up on you easily. But what if you didn’t think that way? What if you made the phone your friend? It is after all the first contact source with many prospects. It is the first opportunity to hear the sound of their voice. It’s also the first time to connect in a much more personal way than email. Then imagine the person you are calling before you make the call. If you have no idea what they look like make something up. See them as friendly and smiling. Imagine the conversation going positively and then make the call.
Don’t take it personally. They are not rejecting you. They are most likely over worked or underappreciated in their job or home. It is the height of ego to believe that everything is about you. You call someone and they hang up on you, but it’s not because it’s you. Usually it’s because you called at a time when they were stressed, angry, rushed or otherwise upset. Imagine you are protected by a shield or force field that is not easily penetrated by negativity. Just like the proverbial duck’s back you can let the rejection roll off of you.
Reframe how you feel about what you are selling so that you believe in it. Many salespeople don’t seem to believe in their product or service and so they feel as though they are being pushy or bothering people when they call. But what if you truly believed this person would be helped by your call. Really believed it!! That belief will make all the difference. How can you change how you feel about your product? Obviously it would be nice if you already believed in your product or service but in the case of a sales rep, many are stuck with unrealistic sales goals or believing the product cost too much or not believing at all. So what is a belief? It is simply a thought that has been reinforced. So change the belief by thinking differently and reinforce that new way of thinking. Start by doing some research on how a similar product is marketed by another company. Find out other ways you could think of your product and make it your own. The more positive and excited you are by your product or service the easier it will be to sell.
There is a good book called “The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance” that describes 12 forms of call reluctance. But you will note that they are all related to a fearful behavior. So feel the fear and then use some of the above techniques to get yourself to make the call anyway.
