“I was going to call that prospect, but a big bad boogieman climbed out of my computer and bit me. I swear! Look at the byte marks.”
“I was going to call that guy for a decision but I ran out of time. I’ll call him tomorrow first thing unless I have that meeting with my mortgage guy. Yeah, by the afternoon for sure.”
“I left the guy three voicemails and he hasn’t returned my calls. I don’t want to seem like a pest. I just have to wait till he calls me back. I’ve done all I can.”
Excuses.
A woman sent me an email with a quote passed on to her by her father. “You can make excuses or you can make money, but you can’t make both.”
Call Reluctance (CR), is a mental disease of salespeople that leads to excuses both to oneself and to others (mostly bosses). Last week I shared sales training expert Emily Huling’s list of ways to uncover the root of the CR problem.
The so-called reluctance issue is subject to debate as to whether it even is a problem or just a mask for a deeper issue. Things like fear of rejection, or lack of belief in your product. Those are real problems. I think reluctance is a bunch of crap.
If you are experiencing this phenomenon, be sure to grab last week’s issue here. Now look below for some real answers from Emily Huling to get rid of the issue and build your sales skills at the same time.
Here are a few “Emily Remedies” to overcome this wallet crippling condition:
Get out your sales books. Just read for 30minutes a day. Get one new technique and try it out as soon as you learn it. Sharp skills and new ideas lead to the confidence to pick up the phone and call someone new.
Convert their information to a few ideas you think they can use. When you walk in their door with questions AND answers, you convert the fear energy drain to an air of self confidence and have all your energy saved for the positive elements of the sale.
Make time and set the time. Make a time to make calls. From 8am10am every day. Set minimum standards for success (make one appointment each day, make four followup calls, make one sale), and don’t quit until you achieve them.
Make it a game. W. Clement Stone, the great motivator and founder of Success magazine and Combined Insurance, required his sales people to put 20 pebbles in their right pocket at the beginning of the day. With each sales call, they moved one pebble to their left pocket. He would not allow them to quit selling that day until all the pebbles had been moved to the left pocket. Try this with $5 bills. Pay yourself for every call.
Think Yes instead of fearing No. Get a small yes by thinking you will. Appointments, permission to send something before the visit, anything that is “yes.” Think you will and you will get what you’re thinking. The “little engine” did.
Keep “no” in perspective. Think of “no” in new ways. Position “no” in your mind as “no big deal.” Think of no as the gateway to yes. Think of “no” as meaning “not yet.” Keep in mind that the average salesperson takes six attempts to make one live contact, so don’t give up!
Reward yourself every day. Keep your goals visible, and reward yourself when they are achieved. Nothing like a well-earned coffee latte!
Reverse the process in your mind. Try to make the prospect qualify for you, instead of the other way around. If you feel CR creeping in, start the turnaround process right away. Believe in yourself, motivate yourself to take action, and visualize the success that will come. Review past success to give present self-confidence, and ensure future success.
Call Reluctance is a symptom, NOT A PROBLEM. If you want to get over it, find out what’s causing it (the REAL problem), and you will be the winner in the battle for who (or what) controls your mind. And your bank account.
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