Tweet

Overcome Call Reluctance - Get Your Salespeople to Prospect

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan

Article Overview: By decreasing both the amount of resistance and time spent overcoming the resistance, you might be able to make it less overwhelming and therefore easier for your call reluctant salespeople to experience prospecting success.

Overcome Call Reluctance - Get Your Salespeople to Prospect



I am reading Dan and Chip Heath's new book, Switch - How to Change Things When Change is Hard. One of the studies they presented suggests that the more difficult something is for us, the fewer emotional resources we have to do it. In other words, the amount of time we spend doing something difficult is in direct disproportion to the resistance we have for it.

To illustrate the results of this study, let's take something like Prospecting and assume two things:

1. You still need your salespeople to find new opportunities and you don't have enough Sales 2.0 (incoming leads) to eliminate the need;
2. You have salespeople with some call reluctance.

As of yesterday, you asked your salespeople to make calls for a certain amount of time, or until they reached a certain number of attempts, conversations and appointments. Your salespeople that don't experience anxiety over this had no problem and your call reluctant salespeople either found some other important thing to do, started but stopped, or lied.

If I apply this research to Prospecting, your reluctant salespeople are resisting as many as 4 things:

1. Dialing the phone
2. Speaking with someone who might be bothered by the interruption
3. Overcoming resistance to schedule an appointment
4. Getting rejected

Using what I understand about this study, for the next week, ask (only) your call reluctant salespeople to make calls in one of the following ways instead:

• instead of an hour of calling, schedule just 10 minutes of calling - at 6 different times each day
• make attempts only until you have a conversation with a decision maker - x different times each day

By decreasing both the amount of resistance and time spent overcoming the resistance, you might be able to make it less overwhelming and therefore easier for your call reluctant salespeople to experience prospecting success.

Related Articles
  Sales Training – Salespeople Tips on Crossing the Barbed Wire Fence of Sales Reluctance
  It Ain\'t About You by Keith Rosen, MCC
  Sales Training London: The 5 Hidden Weaknesses That Once Overcome, Will Dramatically Improve Your Sales
  Sales Reluctance In Any Part of Selling
  Coaching Tip - Top 4 Ways Pressure Salespeople Gain Their Reputation
  Overcoming Cold Calling Reluctance by Keith Rosen, MCC
  Sales Reluctance Is Not a Two-Letter Word Named No!
  'The Queen of Cold Calling' and Call Reluctance
  The Prospect Isn't Talking With Any Other Salespeople
  Sales Tip – Top 3 Selling Crimes: Bring in the Sales Crime Stoppers!
  Do You Have A Commodity Mindset?
  What Causes Sales Prospecting Reluctance (and What to Do About It)
  Handling "I'm Not Interested."
  2nd of the 10 Kurlan Sales Competencies that are Key to Building a Sales Culture
  Call Reluctance - Causes, Factors and Predictors
  What Makes Your Customers Wince
  How to Become a Financial Closer - Medical Sales Training
  Discover Your Team’s Weaknesses
  How to Find the Compelling Reasons Behind Seth Godin's Intangibles
  Salespeople and Their Fantasies

Article Tags: amazon, amount of time, appointment, appointments, attempts, call reluctance, conversations, decision maker, different times, disproportion, emotional resources, experience anxiety, heath, img src, incoming leads, interruption, li li, new opportunities, resistance, salespeople



Related Forum Posts
I answer my phone - when I worked in the Call Center we had to say "Good XXXXXX, Andy speaking, How may I help you?" imagine saying that over and over again. It kind of sticks with you. It's been a few years now but I've kicked off "How may I help you?" part.
Book: The 1-Minute Millionaire: The Enlightened Way to Wealt - Book:The One Minute Millionaire: The Enlightened Way to Wealth Robert G. Allen (co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul) 2002 Jacket: Is it possible to make a million dollars in only one minute? The answer just might surprise you. [This book] is an entirely new approach, a life changing "millionaire system" that will teach you how to: 1. Create wealth even when you have little or nothing to start with 2. Use the power of leverage to build wealth rapidly 3. Overcome fears so you can take reasonable risks Use "one minute" habits to build wealth over the long term ...Here are two books in one, fiction and non-fiction, designed to address two kinds of learning so you can fully integrate these life-changing lessons. On the right-hand side pages you will find the fictional story of a woman who has to make a million dollars in ninety days or lose her two children forever. The left-hand pages give the practical, step-by-step non-fiction strategies and techniques that actually work in the real world.
Re: Hiring introverts vs. extroverts - [quote="Evan":37xmbjab]It's generally hard to be a good salesperson if you are an introvert.[/quote:37xmbjab] Evan, I was thinking about the same right? Then I was put in charge of training sales teams and found out interesting traits among the successful ones. Often times, the extroverts talk "too much" and kill a sale. They attempt to overcome every objection by giving answers while NOT understanding they are not hearing true objections. When objections are answered but the buyers aren't proceeding for transaction, they're not telling you the real objection. When that happens, there is a psychological shift occurs that the more you appear needy to sell as a salesperon, the less attractive your sales team becomes because people like to be facilitated instead of being sold. So the hybrid of both characteristics will serve best in sales. The tone of your voice, posture, attitude, all work well... and you want to look confident, mature, calm and not attached to the end result of the transaction. It's like saying.... Mr. Prospect, I certainly would love to welcome you as a customer, but even if you don't proceed, it wouldn't be my loss... but saying this through your tone of voice, look on your face and everything else instead of in words. And some extroverts ones have hard time expressing these messages through unspoken communications, seeking approval for their answers to customers objections by speaking too much. Interesting isn't it? Warmest Regards, Takuya
Money I made while in School - While in university I did have a Student Loan (still paying that bugger off) and had a part-time job as a Call Center agent (inbound). *Canada* I also designed websites (outsourced all the work). I just worked on getting new customers, managed the projects to completion and helped create Marketing Plans for my clients (Online and Offline). *Canada* When I was studying the in the States I also made some money as a Part-time Flight instructor. *USA*
Comapnies that release buggy software - I know that companies have been doing this for a long time - rushing software into release and then sending out "patches" for the many problems they have later on, but I've never understood it. Surely the bad will they generate is enough to drive away customers?? Having said that, I've got Windows XP, it works just fine for me, and I see no point in changing. Call me an old fuddy duddy, but in my experience new software usually takes away stuff you loved about the old application, and puts in new stuff that you hate, because no one ever asks the users what they want...it's all done by techheads....or whatever the term for those guys is these days...


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Stay Employed In A Down Economy

Top 5 Tips for Better Online Ads

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.