Nothing happens until somebody sells something. To make sales happen, IMMS.com Key Sales Consultant Randy Schwantz has created a comprehensive series of 43 Producer Success Lessons. Used singly or in combination, these powerful tools can help your producers build their skills - and grow their sales.
Fred finally had an opportunity to call on that big client he’d been thinking about for weeks. As he was about to go into her office, he suddenly had an attack of almost uncontrollable fear.
'All it takes is fifty calls a day. You talk to about 20 of those folks, get about three appointments, make one sale. It’s a numbers game. So why can’t I play it?' thought Susan.
The company wants upper-income clients, but Joe only calls on blue-collar workers. He just isn’t comfortable talking to professionals.
Each of these stories illustrates a type of call reluctance. The salespeople are good communicators, know their products well, and have a desire to do well in the business. In fact, both Fred and Joe are top producers. Susan shows more promise than most rookies. So what’s the problem?
The problem is that their limitation — call reluctance — will ruin their careers if they can’t get it under control.
WHAT IS IT?
Call reluctance is the fear or inability to make calls on clients or prospects. It’s pretty obvious that this is a serious problem for salespeople.
Call reluctance takes a variety of forms. In their book 'Are You Earning What You’re Worth?' Goodson and Dudley describe fourteen types, from the typical ones such as fear of using the phone, to more complex versions such as role rejection. Whatever it’s called, the inability to promote yourself to others is a serious problem.
Although plenty of books have been written to help you overcome call reluctance, it remains one of the major reasons for failure in sales. How can we rid ourselves of this demon?
THE TWO-PART SOLUTION
The symptoms of call reluctance are low prospecting activity and low sales. The cause is deeper. It’s related closely to the reason that so many people have goals, but don’t seem to get ahead. Because the failure to promote yourself through making sales calls provides one example of failure to reach goals, once you’ve learned how to overcome call reluctance you can apply the same formula to attain any of your goals. With that said, let’s look at the two steps that lead to accomplishing goals: goal definition and emotional commitment.
Goal definition is the process that defines a goal and outlines a process for achieving it. Most goal-setting books and tapes do an adequate job of explaining this stage. That’s the problem. Explaining it is an intellectual exercise. Fixing the problem is emotional. So many systems that help you set goals do just that — help you set goals. Attaining them is something else.
The path to goal attainment lies in emotional commitment. If you need an example, try this one. Let’s say it’s January 1 and you need to do your taxes for last year. Because the emotional commitment is to avoid the pain of doing the tax return, you put it off. Now suppose it’s April 14. Suddenly, the emotional commitment is to avoid the pain of not doing the tax return, so you sit down and do it. Although your goal (getting the tax return done) remained unchanged, you modified your emotional commitment to the goal. That’s how it got done
We want to teach you to clarify your goals (plan your work) and to generate enough emotional commitment to accomplish them systematically (work your plan).
GOAL DEFINITION
There are thousands of methods and courses that teach goal definition. We’ve found the SMART system particularly effective. SMART is an acronym for:
Specific
Measurable
Action-oriented
Realistic
Time-bounded
This system can help you develop clear, measurable goals that can be attained realistically.
All goals need to be specific and measurable. Wanting to make 'more money someday' isn’t going to work. Deciding to increase your new, first-year premium income 50% by next January 1 is much more motivating. By measuring your progress along the way you’ll know when you arrive.
Action-oriented goals are those that are written with action verbs, and that require action on your part. 'To build relationships with more Commercial producers' isn’t action-oriented enough. It’s tough to see how building relationships can translate directly to your bottom line. 'Call five commercial producers this month and obtain five introductions from each' is action-oriented. The action is to call and to obtain. You know exactly what you’ve got to do. Notice that it’s specific and measurable too.
Realistic goals are those that you can achieve with your current resources. It’s possible to do almost anything, and it’s not our intention to limit your goal setting. Take the first steps now. If they need to be baby steps to seem more realistic to you, fine. The point is, don’t set goals so high that failure is likely. That’s demoralizing. When IBM was the premier sales organization in the nation, it managed sales so that 70% of all salespeople made their quota. Competitors managed for 40%, and had 60% of their sales force feeling like losers. It’s interesting that IBM was far more productive, even with 'lower' goals.
Time-constrained goals must be accomplished within a specific time period. Wanting to make $1,000,000 'some day' doesn’t give you what you need to make a plan because it’s not realistic. Wanting to make $1,000,000 by the time you’re 35 gives you a time frame.
EXERCISE
Use the SMART strategy to set a goal for getting introductions from Commercial producers.
S:
M:
A:
R:
T:
EMOTIONAL COMMITMENT
The next stage of the formula is emotional commitment. You now have a goal that’s clear. You’re going to get X number of introductions from Y number of Commercial producers within a specific time period. Now, how do you get emotionally involved?
This is a lot like the tax return example. Right now, the pain of following through on this goal might be more realistic than any pain of not attaining your goal in the future. Let’s see if we can change that.
We’re going to go through a three-step cycle designed to eliminate emotional roadblocks that are stopping you from reaching your goal. The three steps are uncovering the Preventing emotion, discovering an Enabling emotion, and then defining Resources that can help you along the way. We’ll call this the PERmit strategy.
Preventing emotions are those that keep you from acting. If your goal is to call five Commercial producers this month, what’s going to prevent you from doing that? If it’s lack of a motivating reason, we’ll say low motivation is the Preventing emotion.
Is there some Enabling emotion that will let you put aside this problem? Ask yourself: 'What would motivate me to make those calls?' If you’d like to buy a new car, your desire for the car becomes the Enabling emotion.
What Resources will you need to allow you to make these calls? Well, having a phone, the names of the producers, and a script would be great. We’ll call these the Resources that support the Enabling emotion.
You might need to go through the PERmit cycle more than once. Most people do. For instance, suppose you have all the Resources together, and you clearly understand your Enabling emotion. Great! So you’ve made all the calls, right? If not, some other roadblock is stopping you.
Go back through the PERmit cycle. What’s Preventing you from making the calls, even though you really want a new car? Suppose it’s fear that you don’t know enough to sound intelligent about the product you’re selling. What will Enable you to learn more about the product? You might want to do a careful review of the product brochure or pick the brain of another producer who has sold this coverage.
If you’re still not ready to make those calls, go through the PERmit cycle once again. At some point, you’ll feel emotionally enabled to make the calls. At this point your original goal of making X calls to Y Commercial producers comes into play. Not only do you clearly know what you’re going to do (through SMART), you’re also emotionally ready and know which resources to use (from PERmit).
Using these strategies is a very effective way to overcome career-limiting problems such as reluctance to prospect or make sales calls. You can also use the formula in other aspects of your life.
EXERCISE:
Use the Permit strategy to emotionally involve yourself in the goal you chose earlier in this lesson. Have your spouse or a friend help by asking you these questions:
- What’s preventing you from acting on this goal right now?
- What will Enable you to take action, even though you’re still subject to this Preventing emotion?
- What Resources do you need to support your efforts to overcome the Preventing emotion?
If you don’t feel ready to take action, go back to the first question. Repeat the process until you feel ready to act.
Go for it!