Sales Call Reluctance – How To Get Over It
Sales call reluctance is something that everyone will most probably feel from time to time; especially if one of your prospecting activities includes cold calling.
There are various reasons as to why you may be feeling sales call reluctance; from not knowing what to say, to the possibility of feeling worn down from the constant rejection.
Whatever it may be, making sales calls can be an important part of your sales process, so in this guide – we’ll teach you what to do to overcome sales call reluctance once and for all.
Sales Call Reluctance – How To Get Over It
Reasons You May Be Experiencing Sales Call Reluctance
As mentioned, there may be a variety of reasons as to why you may be feeling sales call reluctance.
Prior to learning how to handle it, let’s first discover a common list of reasons as to why people generally feel sales call reluctance prior to making their prospecting calls.
They’ve Been Told To Use Sales Scripts
The first common reason as to why people feel sales call reluctance, is because they’ve been told that they need to use cold calling sales scripts when speaking with their potential clients.
Studies show that most Sales Professionals despise using sales scripts, because it makes them feel unnatural, positions them as just another order taker, as well as making them feel manipulative.
As per our article in Entrepreneur; we detail why using sales scripts can actually damage your sales.
The problem with using sales scripts, is that you listen to your potential client to respond – rather than listen to them to really understand their situation, as well as be present and build empathy.
This means you’re listening to give them your next script – rather than asking questions or starting dialogue to open up a real conversation.
If you’re using sales scripts – there’s no wonder as to why you’re feeling sales call reluctance.
Related article: Sales Objections Scripts – Do They Work?
You’re Been Given A Wide Net To Call On
Another common reason as to why Sales Professionals feel sales call reluctance, is because the contacts and prospects they’ve been given to call seem to be quite a wide net of people.
What we mean by wide net; is that the list isn’t niche enough in a way that the people to call on are all ideal clients.
If you’re having to call on such a broad group of people, the likelihood of being rejected time and time again will go up.
It’s completely normal to feel unmotivated, the more you get rejected.
By following a sales targeting strategy, you’ll be able to identify exactly who your ideal potential clients are and have a higher success rate at engaging with them.
Niche is always better. The more targeted your list, the higher your success rate will be.
Further reading: Sales Targeting Strategy – Your Complete Guide
You’re ‘Not Sold’ On What You’re Selling
Another very common reason as to why so many Sales Professionals feel sales call reluctance, is because they’re ‘not sold’ on what they’re selling.
If you don’t believe in your product or service, it’s going to be extremely difficult to try and persuade someone else to believe in what you’re selling.
We could try to give you tactics here such as using a sales process or something similar to help you close more sales anyway – however the best advice we can give you, is to sell something you believe in.
Life is short, and the best way to spend your most important asset (being time), is to sell something worth selling.
We recommend digging deep into what motivates you and finding a product or service you’d believe in selling with purpose.
Related article: How To Get Motivated For Sales – A Step By Step Guide
How To Get Over Sales Call Reluctance
In the next few paragraphs, we’ll show you how to get over sales call reluctance by using a consistent process, that you could implement prior to making your discovery calls.
Overcome Sales Call Reluctance Tip #1 – Research
The first step to get over sales call reluctance, is to research the potential clients that you’ll be calling upon.
Many Sales Professionals make the mistake of calling upon people who have absolutely no interest, or reason to do business with you, your product or your service.
We recommend you research who your ideal clients are prior to making your calls, so you can figure out what their position will be within their company, who the other decision makers may be, and why they would want to speak with you in the first place.
Overcome Sales Call Reluctance Tip #2 – Don’t Pitch Too Early
Another important tip to get over sales call reluctance, is to stop making the mistake of pitching what you sell too early.
We call this ‘premature presentation’ – and it leaves your potential clients unsatisfied.
As per our article in Entrepreneur Media, we detail why presenting too early hurts your sales efforts, and what you should do instead.
We recommend you do the following instead:
- Build some rapport
- Introduce yourself as to where you’re from
- Explain the reason for the call
- Sell the next step; whether it be a face to face meeting, or discover call
To learn how to do this in detail, check out the related article below to find out how.
Related article: How To Cold Call – A Step By Step Guide
Tip #3 – Re-frame Your Relationship With Rejection
Finally, another way to overcome sales call reluctance, is to re-frame your relationship with the word rejection – and more importantly, how you feel when someone says they’re not interested.
The reason as to why your potential clients will say they’re not interested, is for the following reasons:
- They have sales resistance and feel they’re being sold to
- Your tonality may be a bit too enthusiastic and salesy
- You need to refine your prospecting list
First of all – we recommend you learn how to handle the “I’m not interested” sales objection by clicking here.
Secondly – to be successful in selling and to finally get over sales call reluctance, you need to understand that you’re not going to serve everybody, and not everyone will be interested in meeting with you for a sales opportunity.
That is completely OK!
Instead of looking at the cold calls you’re making as wasted opportunities or rejection – understand that you’ve saved time, money and effort by not meeting with people who most probably wouldn’t have bought your product or service anyway.
Sales isn’t purely a numbers game.
It is a quality over quantity game.
Our Final Thoughts On Sales Call Reluctance
Finally, our final thoughts on sales call reluctance is that you may be coming across it because you may need to refine your sales process.
The sales process is the most important ingredient you can add to your sales toolkit – and should be the foundation of everything you do when selling.
We highly recommend that you make yourself familiar with the sales process and learn how to implement it step by step.
By doing so, you’ll position yourself as a trusted adviser, as well as consistently close more sales.
To learn how to implement the sales process, read the related article below.
Further reading: The Sales Process – A Step By Step Guide
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