- Be honest with yourself. Many people are more willing to admit they are alcoholic, than that they are sales call reluctant. Are you getting in front of qualified prospects consistently and comfortably? If not, why not? Many people want to hide and deny their call reluctance. Admitting they are call reluctant is the first step to overcoming the debilitating disease of prospecting.
- Observe your behavior on the sales call. Call reluctance shows up there, too. What happens when it is time to ask for the business? Do you shy away? Do you hope that if you are nice enough, they will ask to buy?
- (If you are making all the money you want and meeting your objectives, do not do this exercise!) Write down your self-defeating behaviors. Do you commit to making 50 calls a day and stop at 20? Do you get caught up in busy work so you can avoid prospecting? Do you lose business cards? Do you write a prospect’s name on a sticky note and then misplace it? Do you have selective forgetting when it comes to asking for referrals? Do you target avoid certain people? CEO’s? Lawyers? Doctors?
- Be able to clearly, concisely and confidently articulate your potential value to your prospect. If you can do this, you are not wasting your prospect’s time.
- Take an inventory of what you have to offer. Once you are convinced of your value, the process of prospecting becomes much easier because you are “sold” on you.
- Take the sales call reluctance assessment. A validated instrument can quantify specific challenges and suggest appropriate steps to address sales call reluctance issues.
- A powerful technique to overcome call reluctance is to capture what the self-critical inner voice is saying to you ON PAPER in YOUR HANDWRITING. Recognize this voice? It is an internal saboteur that must be defused. This hyperactive voice says things like, “I don’t want to intrude” or “I haven’t done enough research about their company.” “They are probably still at lunch.” Once captured on paper, write realistic responses to the critic’s claims. Engage the internal voice in written dialogue. For instance, “I may not be totally knowledgeable about their company, but I have the basics down.” Recognize the goal obstructing statements and counter those with goal supporting statements. Once an individual is willing to do these exercises, they are on the fast track to becoming incredibly comfortable prospecting.
Tips for Overcoming Sales Call Reluctance
Republished with author's permission from original post.
