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Your Inspiration
  
 

CONQUERING CALL RELUCTANCE

  
 
“Just having a good look”
 
 

 

There are many skills in working as a sales professional, however much of our skill is in overcoming buyer resistance.  Customers have been programmed over generations to be cautious when they speak to sales people.  There is a belief that sales people will sell them something they don’t want (or – better still – something they do want !!). 

Customers have an inbuilt response which gives them great comfort when they are approached by sales people.   “May I assist you?”, “No thanks – I’m just having a look”.  This statement is most commonly used in a retail environment. These same thoughts also exist in the commercial selling process, they are however rarely expressed in the same manner as in the retail system.  In commercial sales this call reluctance appears as “objections”. 

It has been said “customers are cash rich and time poor”.  Sales people will tell you that’s not their experience.  So why do customers say they are “just looking” when they have little time to do this and need all the help they can get?  They are scared. Traditional sales techniques make them go from scared to petrified.  If you’re using traditional sales techniques and petrifying customers – STOP – there is a better way.

To understand the level of epidemic in the “just looking” syndrome, ask yourself this question.  How often do I use this line to minimise conversation with sales people?  Now if you find yourself using this phrase, and you’re in the sales profession then you can appreciate how well established and serious this epidemic is. 

Administering your own antidote to this epidemic will be your first step in helping you appreciate how to overcome the issue of call reluctance.  Find out more on what causes call reluctance and how to overcome it by reading the article about call reluctance in our library. if you are not a member go to www.theinternationalsalesinstitute.com and join. Its a free service.

Motivating yourself to overcome the fear of making contact with strangers is not something that just relates to sales people.  It is a social process.  It impacts heavily on the profession of selling because 80% of what we do relates to prospecting and finding new people to talk to.  It’s this skill in the area of prospecting that turns sales people into sales professionals – otherwise we become “order takers”.  

So, the first and most important step is to understand how you feel as a customer yourself.  Next, overcome any fears and apprehensions you may have. You will then be in an unique position to understand and empathise with people who are reluctant to meet or deal with you.  You will be in a much stronger position to help overcome your customers fears if you have conquered your own.

The team at the international sales institute wish you a proactive week full of new relationships.

“The relationship is more important than the sale”.