Why are Salespeople Afraid of Making Cold Calls?
When you’re sending an email to a prospect that you don’t know, you can take your time to write and edit what you want to say and how you will say it. When a salesperson makes a cold call, they have to be able to think on their feet quickly.
Unlike a passive email, making a cold call on the telephone means a prospect could challenge you, tell you they are not interested or become antagonistic.
But I think in reality, a lot of people are afraid of making cold calls even though they are critical to a salesperson’s success because:
- Salespeople don’t understand the importance of cold calling.
- They don’t understand the reason why they make cold calls.
- They don’t have a method or techniques to use on the telephone.
- They don’t have a follow-up process to capture the prospect’s attention after the call.
A Behavioural Science Research Press study acknowledges that nearly 40% of salespeople have significant call reluctance to make cold calls, even those with years of sales experience.
The secret to making cold calls is to not try and sell something on the first call but instead open the door to gauge the prospect’s interest in your offer. In the book SNAP Selling by Jill Konrath, the author promotes the idea that a cold call should be about a simple introductory message that allows a salesperson to articulate a message aligned with the prospects’ business goals.
The reality is that prospects don’t really care about the salesperson. What they do care about is their own issues and problems, so when a salesperson has an initial conversation with a prospect, it should be based on a simple value proposition to get the prospect interested in learning more.
If you’re a sales manager, is that the strategy that your salespeople currently undertake when they cold call? Are they cold calling? Would you like them to be more open to making calls each week to prospects? Do you acknowledge that your business can always do with more customers and that you would like your salespeople to turn more prospects into customers?