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.
The Slippery Slope:
Typically, salespeople who believe that if they had lower prices, they would win more deals, tend to attract more price objections. This in turn leaves them feeling scared or reluctant to talk to prospects about what they have to offer. Their downward spiral then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Salespeople's desire to succeed may be so dominated by a need to be liked, that they'll avoid asking prospects for information that is needed to identify the prospects' compelling reasons to buy. When this happens, closing becomes a real issue because salespeople, fearing rejection, perceive that asking for the order might cause a breakdown in the relationship with their prospect.
Summary: The Importance of Divine Intervention From Above:
Most Sales Directors grasp the concept of activity management, skills development, and knowledge development. Intuitively, Sales Directors also understand the vital importance of the right mindset. Yet far too many feel powerless to help their salespeople turn their negative beliefs into positive ones. Those few Sales Directors who do tackle such negative beliefs and are able to change their salespeople's self-limiting beliefs into empowering ones, have found an unbeatable path to success.
Today's News: Who says that top sales experts don't have a sense of humour (humor)?
Last week I mailed my good friend Paul McCord to enquire how his teleseminar had gone and this was his response: "Sorry it's taken a bit to get back to you-we've had three days of pretty severe 'dry' thunderstorms with winds gusting to as much as 80mph and with extensive power outages. Love these dessert summers."
"The seminar went well although due to the power outages I lost the recording and had to rerecord it with an audience of only Mr. B.J., a miniature daschund, and Ms. Chloe, a miniature Yorkie. I think BJ really 'got' it but Chloe seemed more interested in her butt than in how to connect with prospects on the phone."
Then yesterday, I received a message from him, asking if I had any ideas for a topic, as he was about to write his newsletter. I gave him a couple of suggestions and he came back with:
"Actually, an excellent idea. I'm going to start on it-don't know if I can knock that one quickly enough, but a great topic.
And certainly better than the ones Mr. B.J. and Chloe have suggested. Mr. B.J. suggested An Epistemological Foundation for a Comprehensive Theory of Managing Sales and Marketing Integration. Chloe just laughed and said not only was that far too pretentious, but impractical and ultimately worthless. Her suggestion was far more practical and down to earth: Why Do Fleas Always Try to Hide in Your Butt So You Can't Get to 'Em?
Chloe is, needless to say, the practical one, Mr. B.J. the dreamer. Although Mr. B.J. tends to be my ideas guy, Chloe is the one who is always emphasizing the practical and immediately applicable."
I told him he was a wasted talent and should get on the stage - he said:
"Haven't thought of another career-although I've considered trying to enroll B.J. in a graduate philosophy program somewhere. Oxford rejected him as being too dogmatic . His response was "what the hell do they expect from a dog from Germany? What do they want a friggin uppity Poodle who sits around and reads Sartre or Camus-so 20th century, or a lovie, dovie Irish Setter that'll agree with anything? Hell, no! They'll get a damned German absolutist and they'll damn well like it. And don't tell me about no Heidegger, Kant or Nietzsche-so 19th century. Those damned English have probably never read a great thinker like Ludwig von Wittgenstein-what the hell do the English know anyway?"
He and I are constantly arguing. Seems in the Canine world-he claims throughout the animal world-the concept of moral and philosophical absolutes are the accepted dogma; consequently, they can have a legitimate epistemology, whereas his argument is that we humans who have primarily adopted a relativistic world view no longer have any basis for any real epistemology, leaving us groping for anything remotely resembling reason, much less actual knowledge. My response is that he is absolutely wrong-or maybe not, I really don't know."
I do hope all of that "travels" because I am still laughing!
Tomorrow: If the copy arrives on time, it will be Rochelle Togo-Figa on the JF Guest Author Spot
Link to original post