Don't feel like making that call today? Well you are not alone! Jeff Thull in his book 'Selling Excellence' quotes research suggesting that 90% of sales people have some degree of sales call reluctance, with 40% having sever reluctance.
A nice term for them is Sales Avoidance Tactics – attending a management meeting, preparing a report, submitting an expenses claim, sending emails, etc.– all tasks that compete with sales activities for our attention.
No sales person is reluctant to collect the cheque, or co-sign the sales order – it is other parts of the sales process , in particular, lead generation that people run from. Specifically, the number one area of reluctance is cold calling (about which you find lots of information elsewhere in this blog).
So, you are not alone. But, knowing that won't get the job done. Sooner or later (and preferably sooner) a bit of 'just do it' is required. So launch yourself bravely, with your goal in mind, and get stuck in.
Remember, if you do the hard jobs first the easy jobs will take care of themselves.
Start small and start easy. Pick the people you feel most confortable approaching first and block some slots from your diary. Have all your preparation (including list, call guide, email, etc.) and practice (role playing) done and find out about the person and company before you call looking for a common link, connection, or topic of conversation. Then take the phone up and dont leave it down till you are done.
Remember as Dale Carengie said ‘Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it... that is the quickest and surest way every yet discovered to conquer fear.’
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