The following article was contributed by: http://sealthedealsuccesskit.com/
©Suzi Pomerantz. All rights reserved. Excerpted from Seal the Deal: The Essential Mindsets for Growing Your Professional Services Business
Phone Fear
It is not uncommon to find that you experience phone fear when faced with the idea of calling prospects. It seems like a contrived outreach at first, and can be very uncomfortable. This is normal. The only way to alleviate your fear is to practice making calls. After making lots of calls it will eventually, I promise, start to feel better. Will you completely overcome your phone fear someday? Not likely, but calling does get easier with practice. Good thing, too, since we now understand that the number of calls we need to make to keep and manage a full pipeline into the sales process is pretty high!
The Phone Fear Exercise below gives you some questions to help you see what gets in your way, or what is beneath your phone fear. You can use them to explore these issues by yourself, or you can have a friend or your coach ask you these questions so that you can focus on the inquiry, voice your reactions and perhaps get some feedback.
Exercise: Guided Inquiry about Phone Fear
Have a friend or a colleague ask you these questions so that you can process them aloud. If you can’t find someone to work with you, you can write your responses to these questions, but you will lose some of the power of the exercise that comes from speaking your thoughts and feelings to a trusted coach, colleague, or friend.
1. What are you really afraid will happen or not happen?
2. What obstacles or barriers get in your way in selling?
3. How do you prepare to call prospects?
4. What is your perception or assessment of the person on the other end of the phone line?
5. How do you view or think about the person you are calling? Who are they for you? What assumptions are you making?
6. How do you think the person on the other end of the phone perceives you?
7. How much importance do you place on creating relationships with the targets you call?
8. When have you had an experience of fun or play when making phone calls?
9. What would make calling fun for you?
10. What motivates you to take action?
11. What actions or risks are you not taking, the taking of which would open unforeseen doors for you?
