Cold Calling Comfort
by Richard White
Joint research by small business portal
startups.co.uk and sales coaching company Pro Excellence
has found that cold calling and prospecting are the
main challenges for small to medium businesses when
it comes to sales.
When asked 'what is your greatest challenge in sales?'
40% of responders chose cold calling and prospecting.
So, why should this be? And, more importantly, what
can be done to make these calls less daunting? It seems
that many sales people who are successful at generating
sales from existing clients are reluctant to make calls
to generate business with new clients. The root of this
reluctance is often more to do with individual attitudes
and beliefs about the product or service, how they prepare
for the calls, how they manage the responses.
Richard White, managing director of Pro Excellence
says: 'We normally find that sales people who are reluctant
to make sales calls become more confident once they
are better prepared for the responses they are likely
to get. We ask them to list the ten most feared responses
and then we work together to develop standard responses
which will become automatic. Anyone making regular calls
will realise that the same responses come up again and
again. We also encourage clients to focus on learning
from their mistakes and failures so that each call they
make becomes more effective.'
Although very personal, typical regulars on list of
the ten10 most feared responses are:
1. We are happy with our existing supplier
2. I'm in the middle of something, can you call back?
3. Send me some information about your company/product
4. I am not the right person to speak to
5. Can you drop me an email
6. We are not spending any money at the moment
7. How did you get through to me
8. Voice mail
9. Secretary - Can I take a message?
10. What can you offer me that my current supplier
does not?
When the individual lists the responses and begins
to decide how they would best respond to them they find
that it becomes less daunting. There is a realisation
that the same responses actually come up repeatedly
and, with a little preparation, it' not difficult to
use them to move things forward.
Sales is a wonderful profession for personal development
- to improve performance you are always pushing at the
boundaries of the comfort zone. To succeed at higher
levels is not just a matter of technique; you need to
be able to control your thinking.
It would be nice to think that there was one simple
way to develop sales skills. We all have our own learning
styles and preferences. Some learn best through activity,
either role-play or trial and error, some through book-based
study, others through reflecting and questioning. Indeed,
learning is such a personal thing that the latest opinion
is that self-directed learning is where individuals
and companies should be headed. Companies should aim
to provide the infrastructure and learning environment
whilst motivating and encouraging employees to take
personal responsibility for their own skills development.
It's a cliché, but the reality is that you can
lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. You
can provide a training environment, lay on training
courses, books and even personal coaching. If the person
is not open and motivated to learning then it will not
happen. When working with individuals a coach will spend
a great deal of time focusing on their goals, values
and aspirations. When someone is motivated for their
own reasons you know that great things are going to
happen! A person motivated to learn and overcome obstacles
will typically put in the effort to read a book, listen
to audio programmes in the car even pay for their own
training and coaching!
Cold calling and prospecting are good examples of how
selling is a mental game. The crucial issue in sales
development is most often not how? but why? and what's
stopping that person from achieving better results.
The human brain is designed for continual learning,
but the question is whether the individual is motivated
to learn. The coaching relationship is confidential
and personal, allowing the individual to open up and
discuss things that motivate them and things that may
be de-motivating them. By bringing these concerns out
in the open they can then take action to move things
forward.
Even though each person is unique, for those who like
to put people in boxes there do seem to be some common
types to look out for:
Motivated achiever
These are the professionals. This type of person is
always looking for ways to get better results. They
are highly self motivated and will take whatever sales
development assistance you provide. Often they will
personally fund their own development. They are keen
readers and may have a personal development tape in
the car. Even at the top of their profession, these
people get great results from High Performance Coaching.
It's like pouring petrol on a fire!
Know it all
These people have been around a while: been there,
done it and have the scars to prove it. They believe
that they know how life is and you are not going to
convince them otherwise. Know-it-alls are generally
fairly closed to learning. They tend to be reasonably
ok at selling although sometimes patchy and could
do even better. They are often OK with cold calling
and prospecting although it can be a problem if their
performance is below their capabilities. Sometimes
they respond well to High Performance Coaching although
often they just play along.
Pleaser
These are very good at looking after customers because
they like pleasing people. They can develop some very
strong business relationships and customer loyalty.
Pleasers often shy away from cold calling and prospecting
until they can see the function in terms of helping
people. They often cannot understand why, having attended
all the training programmes and read all the books;
they still have difficulty in making the calls. These
people can get big improvements in performance through
High Performance Coaching.
Reluctant Sales person
This is someone who doesn't really enjoy certain parts
of the sales role or has temporarily lost interest.
They avoid making the calls because they either don't
feel like it or they can't be bothered. It's a motivation
issue rather than a learning issue, although the sales
person is unlikely to admit it. Most training is wasted
until the motivation is there. High Performance Coaching
can really help the individual to get clear about
their goals and resolve any issues with colleagues.
Occasionally the process can help them realise they
are in the wrong job.
Steady Eddie
They will make the calls on a regular basis because
that's just part of the job.
This person will go on any course they are told to.
They are unlikely to request a course for themselves
and will just get on with it. They are comfortable
with their way of life and although they would like
things to be improving are not going to set the world
alight without help to build much bigger goals.
The ideal approach to helping each of these types is
to have a combination of more classroom, book or audio
programme learning combined with High Performance Coaching.
This ensures that the learning is translated into action
and anything that is standing in the way is confronted.
There is also great benefit in sales people learning
from each other. In many organisations, they work individually
and an interactive learning day where everyone participates
is a great way of building some team spirit.
When working with people on cold calling and prospecting,
a coach 's initial focus is on helping the individual
to build self motivation, to get them to want to make
the calls in the first place and then working on helping
to put the task into perspective and removing any mental
blocks that could potentially hold them back. Short,
regular sessions ensure that good habits are formed
and any issues that come up are promptly resolved.
'We focus on helping our clients get the best performance
increases from their sales team within their budgetary
constraints,' says Richard White. 'This often means
a combination of conventional learning methods and our
style of High Performance Coaching. We can even help
sales managers and sales directors achieve performance
break-thoughs by learning our approach to coaching.'
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