I'd Call'Em, But What Would I Say?
One of the most common reasons I hear from salespeople not making prospecting phone calls is theyíre reluctant to call because they wonít know what to say. This reason is used both surprisingly enough for ìwarmî calls and for cold calls, too. Now the reason for cold calls is probably easy to understand, after all, they arecalling ìstrangersî. Salespeople feeling reluctance about calling known contacts may be less expected, and can be caused for the same, and some very different reasons. Letís examine both and consider some ways to keep call reluctance from becoming callparalysis.
No Shortage of Reasons Not To Call
See if any of these reasons business-people give for not making calls sound familiar:
- Iím tired.
- Voicemail!
- They all hate us.
- I donít feel good.
- Iíll do it tomorrow.
- I am too busy selling.
- I donít have a good list.
- I wonít know what to say.
- This is a bad time of year.
- I am busy pursuing business.
- Iím tired of talking to strangers.
- Iím afraid theyíll be rude to me.
- I hate dealing with gatekeepers.
- Iím afraid theyíll hang up on me.
- They think I have nothing to offer.
- Iíll get put on hold and be left there to rot.
- The company should give me more leads.
- I just need more time to get this figured out.
- I have to do more research on this account.
- Iím not sure Iíll be able to get my words out.
- Iím sick of the phone being slammed on my ear.
What business people donít often confess about these ìreasonsî is that they are really just excuses for not making prospecting phone calls that are uncomfortable. And almost all of these excuses are the manifestation of a feeling of inadequacy or inferiority. This feeling of inferiority has less to do with the value or potency of their product, and more to do with the role they find they have to play to sell it -- the role of ìthe salesmanî.
Slime Factor Fears
Since our culture has established that a salesperson, or worse yet a telesales person, is an unsavory, unprincipled sort, when they find themselves in that role, they worry too much about what their prospects will think about them. And even when they do make the call, theyíre often so worried about how they might sound that they go on and on about their product, and may never get around to talking about the prospectís needs.
Get Over Yourself, Already!
The interesting thing about all this anxiety over making calls is that the receivers of the calls actually barely even give the bad ones they receive a second thought. Most people just consider these calls they receive at work to be at worst an interruption or nuisance, and at best a call from a company they may want or need to know something more about. So when salespeople feel like the next cold call is a ìmake or breakî situation instead of a casual inquiry, they make too much of themselves, and need to realize that their phone call is a small blip in the prospectís busy life.
ìIíd CallëEm To ìCross-Sellî, But What Would I Say?
A lot of clients are at a loss about what to say to an existing customer if they donít have any new services or products to talk about. One approach a businessperson can take to open a good conversation with any client or acquaintance is to simply call to talk about an article or story at least loosely relevant to their business. The îHave You Read The News?î approach sounds something like:
ìWe hadnít spoken with each other in a while, but I was reading a piece in the Ann Arbor Regional Business-to-Business journal about Ö and I thought of you. How about I tell about the article and you can tell me if itís a topic that is of interest to you? It may not be of interest, but if it is, It might be important for you to know that I (we) can help you withÖ OK?î
The îHave You Read The News?î approach is also a soft way to open up an opportunity to cross-sell. This approach is a way to help a client to discover other capabilities you have to serve them with, if the article you talk about is related to a capability of your firm they are unaware of.
Breakthrough
Salespeople that find themselves paralyzed and not making prospecting phone calls should consider three things to help them break through. One; their reasons are really just excuses, irrational and not realóso they need to face up to and dismiss them. Two; you can call anyone if you just make it about the conversation, not sales, and three; sharing the news makes for good conversation and a soft cross-sell.
© Copyright 2004. Marr Professional Development Corporation