While conducting extensive tactical sales prospecting training for computer resellers from 1987-1994, I was frequently confronted with a stark reality. Many entry-level b2b sales professionals had very toxic levels of Call Reluctance.
Call Reluctance (CR) is a career-threathening condition which limits what sales people can achieve by emotionally limiting the number of sales calls they are able to make. CR is “emotional sludge”!
I can’t take credit for the CR definition. This belongs to George Dudley and Shannon Goodson, Phds and co-authors of “The Psychology of Call Relectance (How to Overcome the Fear of Self-Promotion) a 1986 paperback published by Behavioral Science Research Press, Inc., Dallas, TX.
Since I couldn’t put my finger on the reasons many of my trainees were making excuses instead of conducting their timely qualifying follow up phone calls, I was thrilled to hear about this book which came highly recommended by another sales training consultant.
I was even more anxious to read the book when I learned both authors conducted extensive CR field testing of sales professionals from entry-level through top producers with major clients in the insurance, computer, management consulting and telecommunications industries.
Besides publishing the results of their exhaustive field tests, the book identified 11 specific CR Tendencies with their characteristics; and, explained their application of a pre-employment testing instrument which they used to pre-test sales candidates.
The SPQ Gold Test Instrument was not a Personality Test. It specifically measured:
Out of curiousity, I took the SPQ Gold Test and much to my surprise, discovered I had some degree of Over Preparer Tendencies! While not career-threathening, I was interested in remediation so I flew to Dallas and enrolled in a 2-day CR Remediation Clinic taught and managed by Dudley and Goodson.
At the time, I thought some of the classroom exercises designed to remediate the 11 CR Tendencies were questionable and unlikely to be practiced by even the most ardent student. I was impressed enough with the veracity of the SPQ Gold Test Instrument to become an authorized test-administrator and marketer in Central Florida.
The Test Instrument was software-platformed and test results with a Remediation Analysis were provided to client management for each enrollee.
For several of our clients, the SPQ Gold Test became the primary pre-employment testing instrument. We offered the test instrument to several clients until the Dudley and Goodson Organization insisted we also conduct local CR Remediation Clinics. We declined since it was incompatible with our business model and we preferred to pass them on to Dallas for Clinic enrollments.
Even though we discontinued our affiliation with the Dudley and Goodson Organization, this book and the CR concepts are still relevant and applicable.
Shortly before writing this blog posting, I visited Amazon.com to see what books were in print. I found several used copies of the original 1986 Dudley and Goodson book and a later 2001 edition for sale.
I highly recommend this material to both sales agents and sales managers since the bone-shaking fear of picking up the phone to call prospects is still a malady which afflicts many of us.
Do you agree?
What are your 4 most frequently heard sales objections raised by potential sales prospects when you communicate with on them on the phone? Even if you are just beginning to use the phone to better qualify new sales prospects, you are certain to have heard the same 1 or 2 objection types; perhaps, worded differently. Answering this question should not be too challenging.
My reason for posing it is by anticipating these objections, we can carefully word our answers and commit their conversational adaption to one side of Cue Cards [3], [4], [5] and [6].
If you are a first-time visitor to this blog, please get caught up. Click and read the two Recent Posts. The Phone as a Sales Prospecting Tool (Part 2) and Mastering the Phone as a Sales Prospecting Tool.
Still stumped? The answer is easier than you think. Here’s why. Your mailing campaign will limit the type and nature of the objections asked by your prospects, provided of course, your prospect received the 1,2, 3 or 4 greeting cards spaced 4-5 days apart; and you conducted your timely Qualifying Phone Follow up Call within 5 days of their receipt of the last card.
In prior posts, I said the purpose of a pre-mailing is to set the stage for your timely Qualifying Phone Follow up Call. Your strategy should be to whet the prospect’s appetite with just enough information so they will thirst for your timely phone follow up call. Another important duty of your pre-mailing is to narrow-focus their objections to these 4:
How can I make such an assumption? It’s simple. The focus copy of your pre-mailing raises a problem or the ‘pain’ issue your prospect is likely to have recently experienced or is currently experiencing which is even better. Your solution, is reinforced by testimonial comments from clients (who are no longer pain-afflicted) because of your brand of Rx which soothed their pain or solved their problem.
If your pre-mailer copy is NOT focused on Pain issues, it should be! To waste this very limited real estate (copy block) which should not exceed 34 total words or about 2 sentences inside a greeting card on nearly any other subject, is the sign of an amateur or someone who has money to burn!
If There is NO PAIN………………………………..There is NO GAIN!
Isn’t just a cute saying. If the person who is opening your sequenced mailings isn’t feeling a pain or is someone who hasn’t felt this pain in their very recent past; they won’t be motivated to want to listen to your solution. They just don’t have a need now for what you sell. They have no sense of urgency! Your message will fall on deaf ears. So, do your homework. Don’t waste this precious space inside your 3 or 4 greeting cards with fluff.
Lets do Cue Card [3], one of the most commonly heard of the 4 Objections (copy between the ====):
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[3] “We do Business with Your Competition” (top line in red ink)
[hand-print the body copy, in blue ink]
You Say: “[Mr. Prospect] DO YOU have COMPETITION in Your Business?” (pause and continue)
“I just Want the Opportunity to Compete for YOUR ACCOUNT. Does That sound fair to you?”
(pause and wait for reply) Prospect Says:
YES-> Go to Cue Card [7] -> [ask your 5 key Qualifying Questions] -> Re-confirm Appointment day, date, time and appointment address] -> End Call -> Decide?
NO -> Go to Cue Cards [4], [5], or [6] -> End the Call and Begin next Qualifying Call.
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If you would like to see the carefully chosen wording for each of the remaining 3 Objection Cue Cards and a complete explanation with justification for use, CLICK on Purchase the E-Book Now in the right sidebar. My Power Prospecting eBook costs $40 and includes 4 FREE Bonus items. Plus, my NO NONSENSE Money-Back Guarantee gives you an entire year to try my program and then, if it doesn’t work for you; e-mail me your 5 completed Homework Assignments as proof, and I’ll refund your $40 credit card payment.
Why do I require proof of your completed Homework Assignments? To discourage impulse buyers! My mission with this eBook is to encourage you, a seriously motivated B2B selling professional, to end the pain of your weekly prospecting so you can systematically and painlessly earn the income you deserve!
Absolutely, nothing beats learning, by doing! If you are willing to complete my 5 paper and pen exercises to personalize this Formula to your needs, you will succeed, provided you apply the Formula, as designed and presented to you in this eBook to your prospecting situation in your B2B marketplace. Completing the 5 Exercises is important. Testing and re-testing (re-writes of your Cue Cards, too) the Power Prospecting Formula on your real world prospects usually takes several months of pre-mailings; timely qualifying calls; asking the 5 all important qualifying questions and then forming the disciplined habit of deciding to keep or cancel a booked in person appointment. You are deciding whether to make sales calls or social calls. Ultimately, you are deciding if this prospect deserves your time. Breaking old, unproductive sales prospecting habits takes time. You owe it to yourself and to those who depend upon you for groceries to allow the time for this new concept to produce tangible results. Thus, the reason for a 1 year guarantee.
In my next post, I’ll have several proven effective techniques for overcoming the bone-shaking fear of picking up the phone. This affliction, exclusive to sales professionals, is called: call reluctance. In the mid-1980’s, two behaviorial science specialists in Dallas, TX, wrote an excellent book about how to overcome the fear of call reluctance. The book includes a self-test which identifies several types of call reluctance with listed characteristics; detailed remedies and coping mechanisms. I have personally witnessed the transformation of several formerly shy sales wannabes into fearless Power Prospectors with the application of these techniques. You will not be disappointed!