When I say “get over being scared of selling,” that doesn’t mean that you have to engage in methods of contact that you’re really, truly uncomfortable with, right? That means finding a path, finding a path that works for you, finding a path that works for your people. Finding a path that works for your prospects and clients, right?
And there’s always a path. There is always a path to get there.
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David: Hi and welcome back. Are you scared of selling? If so, get over it. Today, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing that very topic. Welcome back, Jay.
Jay: Hey, it’s a great Halloween topic, right? Being scared. My kids are watching scary movies all of this month and I participate in a scary movie all day long when I have to pick up the phone and I have to talk to people who I don’t know and convince them why my services are what they need. Please write me a check.
That is a scary prospect when you think about it.
David: Yeah, entrepreneurs basically are facing Halloween every day. In a lot of cases, a lot of ways, whether it’s making phone calls or making payroll or making decisions, making rules, it’s always about making something.
And the whole idea of being scared of selling, I hear this from so many people that I thought we needed to address it. And when I say get over it, that sounds very insensitive, and perhaps it is, but it’s also very necessary.
Jay: Yeah, I mean, it’s the reality. If you’re in a business model where you have to sell, then you have to get over it. It’s just that simple, and if you don’t, then you’re going to constantly be struggling.
And it’s not something that you’re going to do from day one, but it is something that you have to be determined to do.
David: Yes. And when I say this, I don’t mean to put anybody down, right? There are a lot of really good people who have really good reasons for being scared of selling.
Certainly in their minds, they’ve got really good reasons for it. And I’m not taking any of that away. It’s a fact. The fact that there’s a term called “call reluctance” indicates that there is a level of fear based here to the point where they had to create a term for it.
So, what I find is helpful — particularly if I’m interacting with salespeople who are running into this situation — and a lot of times they won’t even say they’re scared of selling, but ultimately that’s what comes out. One of the things that we have to look at first is why are they scared?
Why are they scared of selling? Is it fear of success? Is it fear of failure? And a lot of times we hear blanket terms like that and they’re like, “Oh no, it’s not that.” But sometimes it is.
Sometimes it’s variations of that. I’m afraid that if I call and they say no, it’s going to hurt my self esteem. That’s fear of failure. I’m afraid if I do too well, people are going to resent me and think ill of me, right? Some people think that way. So any of those preconceived notions that we have about what our sales success will do to us, for good or for bad, are going to impact our actions.
And that’s why I say we need to get over those things, right? We have to get past those things and once again, deal with reality. I’ve been on a sort of truth quest lately in terms of let’s not look at what we think about. Let’s not look at what we fear. Let’s look at what’s true. Let’s look at what’s real in the market right now.
If there is somebody in the market right now who is afraid to interact with prospects or clients, it’s going to impact their performance because it’s going to impact what they actually do.
If you’re scared to pick up the phone, you won’t pick up the phone. If you’re scared to send an email, you won’t send the email. Or if you do, it’ll take a lot longer than it should.
And then that’s four other emails that you wouldn’t have sent in the meantime. So we have to get over it. And a lot of it starts with the why.
Jay: Yeah, the why is important. And I think it’s also to kind of look at what you’re doing. I fall into the trap of, you know, email works really good, so I’ll just email instead of picking up the phone.
So I’m slipping into those comfort zones, right? And making excuses that that’s just as good. So I’m taking the path of least resistance.
David: Right. And then blaming the prospect for not replying to the email, right? When email may not be their primary method of communication.
And there are a lot of people who do the opposite. There are people who have done phone all their lives. And the idea of having to deal with the indignity of having to send a text, right?
There are some people who are like that as well. And they may want to make a phone call, but if the person that you’re reaching out to doesn’t like taking phone calls, there are some people who see the phone ring and they’re like, “who on earth is trying to call me?” They get really mad about it.
Jay: That’s me. Yeah, that’s me. So this is my question and I’m glad we’re talking about this because I’m a salesperson and I have these hesitancies and these fears and we say get over it and I know you, you never mean just get over it, you mean there is a path forward to get over it, right?
And so, let’s talk about that. What are those steps? You’re talking to me and I have to make phone calls, and every day I get up in the morning and I dread it. David, what can I do to begin the process of overcoming those fears?
David: Well, one of the things that we do with all of our clients is we look at what are the actual fears? What are the things they hate doing? Right?
And if somebody comes to me and they say, I hate making cold calls. Then if I go back to them and I say, “well, our program requires you to make 72 cold calls a day,” that’s not going to work for them.
But the good news is that they don’t have to do that, right? A phone call is a marketing vehicle. We talk about the MVPs a lot. I’m not going to get into it in this podcast, but there are lots of different marketing vehicles. And when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
If all I know how to do is cold calling, I’m going to want to do cold calling.
There are people online now who say, selling is all about Instagram, right? And that’s all they know so that’s all they talk about. The truth of the matter is there are lots of different ways to reach out to people. And there are lots of different people who like to be reached out to in different ways.
So we have to match up what we’re ready, willing, and able to do with the audience that also likes to do things that way, right?
So if I were to say to you, you have to take phone calls from now on and you don’t want to do that, then what I would do instead is I’d say, “okay, let’s look at all the other alternatives that could help get you in touch with as many or more people as you’re in touch with now without having to utilize a lot of the tools that you don’t like using.”
Now, will you have to use them occasionally? Probably. But if you can get things set up to the point where you’re utilizing the marketing vehicles that you’re most comfortable with, then your job will be to connect with other people who are on the same page as you.
Jay: Yeah, I think that’s really interesting, can you accomplish the goal focusing on your strengths instead of just trying to do it the way everybody does it? Cause that’s the way that, you know, sales has been done for the last 50 years or whatever else.
In my case, calling somebody cold is the most terrifying thing in the world. But once I’m on the phone with somebody, if that phone call was generated in a different way, I am comfortable, I am relaxed, I build rapport, people thank me for the information that I give them, so I really excel once I’ve overcome the initial cold call portion, right?
I know I’ve shared this with you and our listeners. I’ve set up that system where we convince people through online means to set up a free consultation with me. So now I’ve overcome the cold call part because they’re expecting the conversation.
Now I can shine, right? So we adjusted our business model. Now I have a business partner who would cold call anybody, for any thing. And so he takes on anything that deals with that aspect. So we’re lucky to be able to divide and conquer based upon our strengths.
David: Yeah. And all of these things are tools. A phone is a tool. Social media platforms are tools.
It’s all just various tools. And when people get too married to the idea of one particular form of contact, they set themselves up for failure because those types of things change. And if we’re not ready for the change, if we only have one particular way of doing things, and we now require another way of doing things, it’s going to take a lot longer to adapt.
Jay: Yeah. And I also think, as you’re trying different things, tracking those different things. And we’ve talked about this many times. We just did a webinar. We formed a partnership with a company and we did a webinar with all of their clients. And we thought this is going to be a great opportunity.
And yeah, we lined up the free consultations. But out of about a hundred of them, I’ve closed one. So it’s like, okay, I didn’t have to cold call. I didn’t have to do these things. I filled up my calendar. But in the end, was there any value to it?
Not yet. You know, maybe in the long term, but not yet. No.
David: Yeah. And the value is learning that this doesn’t work as well as other things I’m doing, right? So you’re testing and you’re looking at the results of the test and saying, okay, is this something that I want to do again? And how long will I cultivate them?
And then the other 99, you know, then the question becomes, all right, how can I disqualify the poor quality prospects as quickly as possible and musical chairs. Musical chairs it down to maybe 10 or 12 or 20 or whatever that number ends up being.
But I would focus hardest right now on getting rid of the ones that you know, are not a good fit, so that you can then focus your time and energy and effort on the few people that are actually going to move forward.
Jay: Yeah, and it’s not that we get rid of them, it’s that we reclassify them, like you said, or pre-qualify them.
So they’re still in our database. They’re still going to receive regular contact from us. It’s going to be automated contact, and we will generate business from them. There’s no doubt. But if I could take a hundred new calls that fill up a hundred spots on my calendar from that same group. I would never do that again.
Yes, I might do something with that same company, but it will not be designed to give free consultations. That will never happen again with that particular format.
So we learned a great deal. We needed to do it. We think it will still be an income stream, but we will not sell to them the way we did the first time.
David: Yeah, so it’s an excellent learning experience. And we have to do that. We have to constantly adapt. We have to look at different things, potential twists and turns in the road that are coming ahead and say, all right, what’s something that we can test out to see how it works? And it sounds like you’re doing that and you’re already learning a lot from this.
And who knows, like you said, a bunch of those people may end up converting.
Jay: Yeah, but I still, David, I still have a tendency to seek the path of least resistance, right? I know that I’m best one on one on the phone. And so that’s the hardest piece for me, still, even with everything that we’re doing.
And I’m getting better, you know, sometimes it’s just the more you do it, and you learn about yourself and I’m getting better every single day, but I would never get better if I didn’t put myself in an uncomfortable situation, right?
David: Yeah. And when I say get over being scared of selling, that doesn’t mean that you have to engage in methods of contact that you’re really, truly uncomfortable with, right?
You said it best earlier. It’s like, okay, well, when we talk about getting over it, that means finding a path, finding a path that works for you, finding a path that works for your people. Finding a path that works for your prospects and clients, right?
And there’s always a path. There is always a path to get there.
It may take a little longer. It may be a little more convoluted, maybe more twists and turns, but you can get there. So getting over it doesn’t mean you have to do a lot of things that you hate doing.
Now, if you’re a salesperson and you don’t want to do any of that, you don’t want to make phone calls and you don’t want to send texts and you don’t want to send emails, you don’t want to do any of that, then you’ve got a problem.
In our retail mail order catalog business, we hired someone one time to work in our call center. So her job was to answer the phone and take catalog orders over the phone. And so we hired her the first day and she came in and she’s answering the phone, and she was doing it. And at lunchtime, she came to my operations manager and said, “Yeah, I don’t think I’m really cut out for making these phone calls.”
And he said, “Oh, okay, well, that’s kind of the job that you were hired for, but it’s the holiday season. We have a lot of mail orders coming in as well. What we’ll do is we’ll take you off the phones and we’ll just have you process the mail orders and we’ll have everyone else pick up the slack on the phones.”
So she said, “okay, good.” So back from lunch, she’s working the afternoon, entering the mail orders. Comes to my operations manager at the end of the day and said, you know what, I don’t think I’m, you know, really big on entering these orders into the system. And he’s like, well, now we’re kind of out of options, right? And you applied for a job that you really don’t want to do any of the things that are necessary.
So when it comes to sales, you’re going to have to be able to communicate with people. You’re going to have to figure out a way that you’re comfortable doing that. But it doesn’t have to be just one thing. A lot of times there are sales managers who will say to their salespeople, “you have to do this,” right?
And if it’s something that they’re just not going to do, or do well, then they’re not going to last, or they’re not going to do well. And that’s not a dig on the salesperson, and it’s not a dig on the sales manager. Some are just programmed, look, this is what we do. This is how we do it in our organization.
And if that’s the only thing they know how to do, then yeah, they’re going to have to find people who are willing to do it. But when they’ve got different forms of first contact, and that is something we focus on a lot in our training with our clients.
First contact is huge. Because there are so many different ways of doing it, that you’re bound to find several that you’re comfortable with, so you can actually interact with the people that you need to interact with, without driving either you or your prospects crazy.
Jay: Yeah, absolutely. So, if people want to tap into that experience, how do they find out more?
David: Go to TopSecrets.com/call. There’s a short video you can watch there. Take a look at that, see if it makes sense to have a conversation with myself or my team. You’ll know from that video, I mean, if it makes sense, if what we’re talking about there makes sense, you’ll say, okay, I’ll have a call.
Now, there is no obligation to buy anything on this call, right? We’ll have a conversation. We’ll look at where you are now versus where you need to be in terms of visibility, sales and profits.
We’ll ask you some questions about where you are now and where you need to be in that regard. And from there, if there is something to talk about, if it seems like it makes sense for us to work together, we’ll give you some options on that.
But absolutely no obligation in that regard. So schedule a call. We’d love to talk with you.
Jay: All right. Fantastic. David, it’s always a pleasure. Happy Halloween.
David: Thanks, Jay. You too.
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