We as salespeople can be notorious at finding reasons not to pick up the phone …
- They are very busy people, they’ll never meet with me.
- I’m told there is no business there.
- I need to do some research on them.
- I don’t know them.
- I hear they are nasty!
- I will call next week … and next week never seems to come.
- I think my competition have them locked up.
- They are more senior than I usually call.
We get very good at finding reasons NOT to do it … and develop an inertia that becomes tough to overcome. Typically we overcome it when the boss “loses it”, the commission cheques start to get a little thin or we see the “writing on the wall”! Then, somehow miraculously, we start to make the calls and wonder of wonders we find that it really wasn’t all that bad. In fact, we see business!
So … whether they are cold calls, warm calls or just calls to people you don’t really want to be calling … its much better to do them ALL the time. Build them into your schedule. If you plan for a certain number of these calls a week and plug them into your schedule they will just happen and it won’t be painful. If you wait until things are slow and the boss is breathing down your neck etc you just don’t know how much pain is going to be associated with that attention!
I wrote a blog entry about making cold calls a little while ago and you might be able to pick up a tip or two from there.
I also wrote a blog entry about why clients will spend time with a salesperson. You need to believe in what you have to offer … or else why would a client bother?
Last reference … I wrote about hitting the sales wall. There might be something worth reading here.
Good luck and good selling!
