Cold Calling is King.

I have made my coffee, been to the bathroom, straightened my desk and even sharpened my pencils that I am not going to use! I was doing everything I could to not pick up the phone and make those calls. Is this you? 

I am sure at some point in our sales careers we have all experienced what I call "call reluctance".  Developing the right mindset starts with coming to grips with the fact that cold calling is hard, gruelling and rejection-dense work. I am not going to sugarcoat the facts for you, Cold calling sucks.  However, it brings in the bacon. Our brains are designed to protect us from harm and so we will do everything we can to preserve our ego for rejection and ourselves from working a hard gruelling day of cold calling.

I have been in sales for more than 25 years and have worked, interacted with and trained thousands of people and not one could convincingly claim to enjoy cold calling. So as salespeople, we seek the silver bullet, we look for the shortcut or the best kept secret formula that will help us "bring in the bacon".  Or worse, we do nothing, we don't make the call and don't make the sales.

I believe that selling is a profession, and you will get want-to-be salespeople and you will get professionals, just like in most businesses. You get good doctors and bad doctors, good attorneys and bad attorneys. Professionals have to produce the goods, they cannot attend to the customer and do a half job, you need to get up and get out there and make it happen. Pick up the phone and ask for the business.

When you look at it objectively, it makes very little sense. You are been paid on commission, or you work for yourself and then you are avoiding the very activities that lead to a sale.

So let me address this, YOU ARE NOT BEING LAZY. You wake up, go for a run or go to gym, get dressed, take on the taxies in the traffic just to get to work on time. You would not do this if your true intention was to accomplish nothing. So what is keeping you from picking up the phone? What stops you from making those important phone calls that will turn into sales and your goals been achieved?

It boils down to avoiding things that are unpleasant or uncomfortable. But since most people have a hard time admitting and accepting their own self-sabotaging behaviour, the real challenge in conquering this problem is confronting it. You can't just say "get over it" now pick up the phone and call". There’s just no technique or motivational strategy that can help you overcome call reluctance until you acknowledge it and recognise it for what it is.

So let's say you do not feel comfortable approaching a prospect. Usually, something is going on in YOUR mind that’s making you believe that talking to a new lead or prospect will turn out to be a bad experience and you will feel rejected.

What’s happening is that your behaviour or the feeling of rejection is reinforcing your negative thought-pattern and at the same time your negative thought pattern is influencing your behaviour. It’s a vicious, self-defeating cycle. The only way out is for you to decide to change your thought-pattern and then your behaviour. Just challenging the habit of avoiding making the call is a massive first step towards your cold calling strategy.

So now that you have made the conscious decision to think and act differently, there are practical sales tips or steps to help. I shall address these practical tips in a further post.  

You also need to address "acting differently" on your calls, or should I say, your approach. Your approach would be what you say, when and how you say it. They say that your prospect forms an opinion on you is just 4 seconds when you are calling them. It's not your name, it is not your company,.... so what is it. It's your approach, the pace, power and pauses you use, the way you smile through your words, the enthusiasm in your voice, the warmth and competence they prescribe to you. These are all skills that can be learnt.

Nobody picks up a phone that does not ring. Phones are attached to people, not offices - so it is common for your prospect to answer the phone when you call. In fact no one is calling, that's right most sales people are mailing, sending notes in social media inboxes and waiting for the prospect to get back to them. So be the salesperson that stands out and make the call. Most customers inboxes are been spammed everyday, so make a human connection, make a live in-person phone call.

When your phone rings, what is the first thing you do....? Do you answer it? Probably not, you will look at the cell phone screen to see who is calling, thats right, you will engage with an auditory device visually. So why is this important?  When you call introduce yourself first, give your name before asking for theirs? Our primitive brain wants to understand who we are talking to before we confirm who we are.  It helps us answer the question of who the hell is calling me? There are a lot more skills sales trainers and coaches like myself can help you with to improve your approach and increase your talk-time, talk-time normally turns into sales.

I know that cold calling is the quickest way to generate more appointments and or more sales. The truth is cold calling is still the hardest, most mentally exhausting part of my sales week. There is always something more fun I would rather do, even during COVID, and although I have come to accept it, it will never get any easier. The one thing that separates me from most salespeople and helps me pick up the phone, is this: I am passionate about what I do, I constantly work on my approach, I work off an interchangeable script, I don't let rejection affect my ego and I know my numbers. 

May the Sales be with You.