Making the Phone to Ring
Making the Phone to Ring
For me, the most powerful trigger for this particular terror is a silent telephone. There are days when I~{!/~}m extremely busy, juggling the work of three or four clients with scarcely a moment to spare, and telephone calls are likely to be a distraction, if not a nuisance. But even on such busy, money-making days, I feel I need a little action from the outside world. If the phone doesn~{!/~}t ring, at least there could be a fax. Where is the UPS lady? The Fedex guy? ~{!0~}Sorry, you have no email messages.~{!1~} How dare you! Doesn~{!/~}t anyone on earth care about me? Then the phone rings, and it~{!/~}s someone who wants to talk about my long-distance calling plan. That interruption only makes the silence more unbearable.
Nevertheless silence, and often a deadly feeling of loneliness, are the frequent companions of the self-employed. It can be just as insidious in good times as bad because a silent office seems to portend lean times ahead. The entrepreneur is never home free.
The phone that rings regularly seems to be an indicator of well-being, akin to a proper pulse rate or a healthy complexion. The phone needs to ring to keep my spirits up, but how do you make it happen?
As a longtime user of direct mail and faxing campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s and now e-mail campaigns, I know that even when I drag sacks full of letters to the post box, there~{!/~}s no guarantee that the telephone will ring. Besides, the first one to call is likely to be a competitor trying to check you out, or a middle manager who responds merely in an attempt to look busy to his superiors. These are troublesome calls that I~{!/~}m happy to do without. Yet even such insidious or exasperating calls often feel better than silence.
It took me close to a decade to discover something that ought to be obvious. The people who will make your telephone ring are people you already know. For me, they can be people I~{!/~}ve met at professional gatherings. They can be people who have attended my seminars, with whom I~{!/~}ve established a rapport. They can be former clients who have moved into other jobs where they don~{!/~}t need my services, but still are happy to talk about their own situations. They can be personal friends I haven~{!/~}t seen in a while.
I used to be reluctant to call such people without an agenda, but I~{!/~}ve discovered that ~{!0~}We haven~{!/~}t talked in a while, and I want to stay in touch~{!1~} works for most people. (Obviously, you can~{!/~}t use it on the same person too often.) Such people nearly always return my calls, and that means that when the telephone rings, there~{!/~}s often someone at the other end I~{!/~}d like to hear from.
Not too surprisingly, these calls sometimes turn out to be useful. On a couple of admittedly rare occasions they have brought me new work. More often, those I~{!/~}ve called have been willing to share information that has proven useful to me. But it~{!/~}s unrealistic to think that making such calls will ~{!0~}pay off~{!1~} in any immediate and quantifiable way.
What they offer is something that the entrepreneur sorely needs, a sense of perspective. They let me get a take on the world from someone else~{!/~}s point of view. They offer a taste of the workplace sociability that is often what those of us who work independently miss most. Having the benefit of others~{!/~} perspectives has a long-term business benefit. It helps me craft promotions to which others might respond. Explaining yourself to someone sympathetic is good practice for making a pitch to someone skeptical. And hearing what others are talking about gives insight into the culture as a whole, which is an antidote to letting the business absorb all our attention.
But I never look to an immediate profit from staying in touch with lots of people. The reassurance of having the telephone jingle on a day when the office feels like a mausoleum is payoff enough.
Making the Phone to Ring - To learn more about this author, visit James Chan's Website.
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The great fear of the entrepreneur is to be forgotten. It~{!/~}s bad enough when people know about you, but don~{!/~}t need you. It~{!/~}s worse to feel that nobody is thinking about you at all. You feel like a gadget left neglected in the back of the drawer, still useful, but utterly forgotten. You just want to scream ~{!0~}Get me out of here!~{!1~}
For me, the most powerful trigger for this particular terror is a silent telephone. There are days when I~{!/~}m extremely busy, juggling the work of three or four clients with scarcely a moment to spare, and telephone calls are likely to be a distraction, if not a nuisance. But even on such busy, money-making days, I feel I need a little action from the outside world. If the phone doesn~{!/~}t ring, at least there could be a fax. Where is the UPS lady? The Fedex guy? ~{!0~}Sorry, you have no email messages.~{!1~} How dare you! Doesn~{!/~}t anyone on earth care about me? Then the phone rings, and it~{!/~}s someone who wants to talk about my long-distance calling plan. That interruption only makes the silence more unbearable.
Nevertheless silence, and often a deadly feeling of loneliness, are the frequent companions of the self-employed. It can be just as insidious in good times as bad because a silent office seems to portend lean times ahead. The entrepreneur is never home free.
The phone that rings regularly seems to be an indicator of well-being, akin to a proper pulse rate or a healthy complexion. The phone needs to ring to keep my spirits up, but how do you make it happen?
As a longtime user of direct mail and faxing campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s and now e-mail campaigns, I know that even when I drag sacks full of letters to the post box, there~{!/~}s no guarantee that the telephone will ring. Besides, the first one to call is likely to be a competitor trying to check you out, or a middle manager who responds merely in an attempt to look busy to his superiors. These are troublesome calls that I~{!/~}m happy to do without. Yet even such insidious or exasperating calls often feel better than silence.
It took me close to a decade to discover something that ought to be obvious. The people who will make your telephone ring are people you already know. For me, they can be people I~{!/~}ve met at professional gatherings. They can be people who have attended my seminars, with whom I~{!/~}ve established a rapport. They can be former clients who have moved into other jobs where they don~{!/~}t need my services, but still are happy to talk about their own situations. They can be personal friends I haven~{!/~}t seen in a while.
I used to be reluctant to call such people without an agenda, but I~{!/~}ve discovered that ~{!0~}We haven~{!/~}t talked in a while, and I want to stay in touch~{!1~} works for most people. (Obviously, you can~{!/~}t use it on the same person too often.) Such people nearly always return my calls, and that means that when the telephone rings, there~{!/~}s often someone at the other end I~{!/~}d like to hear from.
Not too surprisingly, these calls sometimes turn out to be useful. On a couple of admittedly rare occasions they have brought me new work. More often, those I~{!/~}ve called have been willing to share information that has proven useful to me. But it~{!/~}s unrealistic to think that making such calls will ~{!0~}pay off~{!1~} in any immediate and quantifiable way.
What they offer is something that the entrepreneur sorely needs, a sense of perspective. They let me get a take on the world from someone else~{!/~}s point of view. They offer a taste of the workplace sociability that is often what those of us who work independently miss most. Having the benefit of others~{!/~} perspectives has a long-term business benefit. It helps me craft promotions to which others might respond. Explaining yourself to someone sympathetic is good practice for making a pitch to someone skeptical. And hearing what others are talking about gives insight into the culture as a whole, which is an antidote to letting the business absorb all our attention.
But I never look to an immediate profit from staying in touch with lots of people. The reassurance of having the telephone jingle on a day when the office feels like a mausoleum is payoff enough.
Making the Phone to Ring - To learn more about this author, visit James Chan's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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