The other day, I received this email from a
recruitment consultant:
"I would just like to say a BIG, BIG thanks, I feel
totally transformed, my 'phone fear' has disappeared. Its really
quite weird, but I don't hesitate to pick the phone and ring people, in
the past 10 days I've picked up 4-5 briefs. When I see an
opportunity I just grab it.
I've noticed a big difference in my day too, I just
don't know where the hours go, and I wish there were longer hours in the
day to fit everything in. This will make you laugh, the last few
days I've had lots of admin work, and haven't been able to get on the
phone, I actually heard myself saying that 'I wish I was on the phone
more' can you believe it?"
What would it be like if you felt the same way about
your sales calls? Now, in order for you to be succeeding at your job,
you must already be making sales calls, so I'm not talking about
teaching you the basics here. I'm presuming you already do make calls,
but maybe you tidy your desk, answer your emails and make a cup of
coffee before you get yourself into the right mood. Maybe you stop after
ten calls instead of stopping when the clients have all gone home. Maybe
you make it harder for yourself than it needs to be.
Maybe you already love sales calls and you're already
getting great results, in which case – why are you reading this? Get on
the phone!
So, I'm presuming that you're reading this because
you'd like to get the same results as the person who wrote that email.
The good news is that this can happen very quickly. The longest this has
ever taken was about an hour, the shortest about 10 seconds.
But how? Well, the exact process varies from one
person to the next because every person I've ever worked with creates
this situation in a slightly different, unique way – and so will you.
Having said that, there are some general principles and patterns that I
can tell you about that you can use right away to improve your approach
and therefore your results.
Firstly, stop cold calling. It's difficult, time
consuming and produces poor results. Instead, spend some time each day
calling people you haven't spoken to before and finding out how you can
help them.
Secondly, At the moment you pick up the phone to dial,
what picture pops into your head? What does the voice in your head say?
Do you begin your call by apologising, or does your voice tone
demonstrate the pride you take in your job? Just work through these
simple steps, giving yourself time to think this through very
carefully:
Imagine yourself sitting at your desk at the time you
would begin making sales calls. As you imagine starting to dial, what
picture pops into your head. Specifically, whose picture? If you find
sales calls consistently difficult, I'm guessing the picture is of
someone you don't have much in common with who doesn't look pleased to
hear from you.
If you find calls randomly difficult, I'm guessing
there's no coherent picture. In either case, that's good news.
Next, imagine you're about to call your best friend or
someone you like very, very much. You know exactly what I mean. As you
dial, what picture pops into your mind? Now, stop and think about
yourself – are you smiling? Are you sitting upright? Are you dialling
eagerly? When you speak, does your tone of voice reflect this?
So, if you imagine someone who doesn't want to talk to
you, simply imagine reaching out and grabbing the picture, screwing it
into a ball and throwing it over your shoulder. Then simply draw a new
picture of someone who looks like you, who you have something in common
with and who looks pleased to hear from you, or at least open minded.
Imagine calling that person and notice how your voice tone is
different.
Practice this a few times, just repeating the process
over and over. Imagine starting to dial, see the face of someone you
want to talk to, hear your positive voice tone, notice how that feels
nice to talk to someone who enjoys talking to you.
Thirdly, what do you say to yourself before, during
and after the call? If it's in any way critical that's not helping.
Often, the voice in your head has really valuable feedback but you don't
hear it because it just sounds like nagging or criticism. Think again
about sitting down to make your calls and this time pay attention to
what you are saying to yourself.
Change the voice tone to something more
neutral, like a news reader, or to a voice that you like – even
something sexy! Now, listen to what the voice tells you – is the
information more useful? You can also ask questions back. If the voice
is critical, say "Thankyou! Now, how does that information help me?" or
"Thankyou! Now, what do you suggest I do differently?" Oddly enough,
you'll find the same approach works very well with that person in the
office who always offers you helpful criticism.
Last of all, you can't really control what happens
during each call as you are not in control of the person at the other
end. They might be busy or tired and you know the importance of
respecting their state. So, no matter how each call goes, it's important
to treat each call as if it's your first. There are many ways that you
can quickly control your state, and the simplest for our purposes here
is through your focus of attention.
Think of a time in the past when you
felt really confident and in control of yourself. Remember that time in
all the detail you can, recalling what you saw, heard and felt. Maybe
you even remember some smells and tastes. When you have all that, think
of a word, colour or piece of music that seems to represent it. Repeat
this a few times so that the trigger becomes associated with the
feeling. Now, in between calls simply replay the trigger and your state
will switch to the confident, in control state.
After you have practiced all this for a day and then
slept on it, your brain will build it into an unconscious calling
routine for you so you won't even have to think in order to get good
results.
What's this based on? The principle that you are already
following an unconscious process which is working perfectly for you. The
process is fine but the results need a little tweak. By taking conscious
control over the process and making some slight adjustments, you'll find
that you can get surprising results, very quickly. How quickly? You'll
only find out by finding out!