Recent studies have confirmed the obvious, that is to say that "fear of calling" in sales, can contribute to a significant proportion of lost sales revenues. One study that I read recently found that as many as 40 per cent of established salespeople experienced periods of "fear of calling" severe enough to threaten their future in sales.
Stemming the ever-increasing costs of the "fear of calling" syndrome cannot be addressed by training alone. It requires an experienced coach or mentor to work with each salesperson's particular set of beliefs, so that they feel truly empowered to breakthrough their self-created mental barriers. One particular statistic in the following survey should give any salesperson suffering from "fear of calling", renewed confidence
How Customers Regard Salespeople Survey:
• Salespeople who do not bother to make appointments. 45%
• Salespeople who know nothing about the customer's business. 60%
• Salespeople who know little about their products and services. 60%
• Salespeople who call too often. 39%
• Salespeople who don't call often enough. 49%
• Salespeople who do not have the authority to negotiate prices. 45%
• Salespeople who do not ask for the order. 40%
• Salespeople who are not properly or sufficiently organised. 55%
Most desirable quality customers want to see in salespeople? -Competence!
Customers Can Sense Fear:
We must remember that a salesperson's state of mind is instantly transferred to their prospect or customer, which means that the challenge for organisations is to constantly create a highly resourceful state in their salespeople. This is extremely important, because when salespeople lack belief in themselves, their product or their service, they unconsciously transmit their attitude to prospects in a variety of subtle and sometimes overt ways.
Fear of calling is that serious!