I am always amazed at how difficult we make a simple effort of finding someone interested in what we have to sell. Sometimes I get to watch folks get so waxed up about picking up a phone and asking someone if they want to know more about the offering that they get all hivey and dance around like lunatics on a full moon. Gotta wonder what that is all about but frankly I suppose it is unfair because I am not one of them. Can't hardly walk a mile in that pair of moccasins when talking to strangers is something that came natural when I was a wee lad.
For those who don't see it that way however, it almost seems like getting hit by a truck would be more fun. I have been fascinated by this thing for sometime and I think I have come up with the answer. Anytime we are in a position to judge ourselves "not good enough." we are pretty persistent in bailing out of that environment.
Pick up a phone? Ask a stranger for money? What am I, some kind of nut-case? Well OK, the truth of that not withstanding, really that is what a salesperson is asked to do kind of regularly, ya know. So I have this vision of the me who I am not (you) getting ready to pick up a phone with mini-me on my shoulder screaming what a horrible person I am for the audacity to bother someone at their home or place of work and (sigh) ask for money. And there I am believing the voice of mini-me which puts me smack dab in the middle of my own little judgment gate unable to do my job because all the 10,000 voices mini-me represents is pretty much how I felt before I picked up the phone in the first place.
The thing is, if you can't see how you are bringing value to your prospect you can't make it in the business. Stop. If you can, than you really would be at an advantage when you recognize that NOT calling is the real disservice. If you bring a service people need, and you are dignified and integral on the phone than the thing to do is recognize how many people will be lost without your service.
These days, I spend a lot of time with a company that provides remote, on-line, data back-up automatically to small business. Now I don't know about you, but if my computer died and I couldn't get the info back, I would be out of business and broke pretty quickly. So having this kind of service is not really a disruption but a huge value to me once I recognize it. A year or so ago though, one of the guys on the team was having a terrible time prospecting. My job? pump him up. We had a long discussion on how many people would be hurt if he didn't connect with them to save their data and essentially their businesses. Really kind of broke it down to families having to file for bankruptcy if he didn't do his job. OK, so maybe I overdid it a bit. At the end of the day the guy recognized how much value he brought to his community and lived to fight another day.
That is my hope for all the "call reluctant" folks out there. Remember how important what you do is to the people you serve. Then god love you, pick up a phone.
Very truly yours.
Michael Goodman
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