Sales call reluctance can destroy sales careers. If you haven’t experienced the emotional torture of being ‘call reluctant’ the chances are you will do sooner or later.

Researchers in this field have found that call reluctance is responsible for 80% of sales people’s failure in their first year. And, it accounts for over 50% of failures in the sales profession.

What is call reluctance?

A ‘call reluctant’ salesperson feels immobilized to initiate new business calls, either by phone or in person. Therefore, the mental and emotional energy required to sell is redirected to other more comfortable and ‘safe’ activities. These activities can even include talking to others in the office and taking extended coffee breaks!

Call reluctance is a fear of being assertive: the sales person believes in and acts on self-belief excuses and thus fails to do what they know they need to do.

Call reluctant behaviours manifest in various ways:

* An increase in activity levels with corresponding drop in productivity levels
* Sales reports have twice the information compared to top performers’ reports
* Complaining to get attention and attract like-minded people
* Shifting blame to others and not taking personal responsibility
* Finding excuses to spend time in the office instead of out prospecting
* Over-servicing of existing clients
 
What to do

Firstly, there is no reason to feel embarrassed to admit to being call reluctant. When you have admitted it, at least to yourself, you can reprogram your thinking and correct wrong beliefs. Whatever triggered your call reluctance was a learnt response and whatever you learnt can also be unlearnt.

Put simply this is done by replacing call reluctant behaviours with positive goal focused behaviours. Once the cycle has been broken your proof will be new business and more sales – and you will feel uplifted!

Five Easy Actions

1. Set goals- they need to be realistic and stretch slightly beyond your comfort zone. Being focussed on achieving your goals can re-energize you.

2. Invest in training – the initial expense will pay dividends. Find an experienced sales coach with whom you can speak to candidly and whom can teach you great skills.

3. Catch yourself in the act - if you start thinking negatively challenge the thought. Ask yourself “What is the worst thing that can happen?” The answer may be “I’ll be rejected”. Accept it – you’ll live through it! Counter to this imagine what good could come from the call.

4. Deploy a CRM - good Customer Relationship Management software can be revealing and highlight where you’re falling down and how you can better manage sales opportunities.

5. Build your armour- build your resilience by networking with other professional sales people either face to face or via the Internet, where there are many good groups. Fill your mind with good material, participate in webinars on sales and invest in your ongoing education to build your confidence.

Try and tackle these one by one starting today.

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About the Author

Kurt Newman is the co founder and Managing Director of a Sales Consultant's Pty Ltd. The company works with clients to increase sales and reduce the cost of selling. Kurt’s expertise is in developing sales people’s selling competence to level 6, the highest level in professional selling.