These words, unfortunately, sum up what a lot of people feel about the cold calling and telemarketing process they labour so painfully under.

If people buy for two main reasons, namely avoiding pain or attaining pleasure, then how will people ever consider talking to you, much less buying from you, if the calling you do represents these negative stereotypes?

This can be changed largely by ensuring that when you start a call your attitude and approach is based on honesty (how good do you feel about willfully deceiving people?), and that you will ask questions to continually assure yourself and the person you’re speaking with that you both understand each other and are comfortable discussing a given topic or situation. Nothing of mutual value can happen between two parties without agreement.

Let’s look at each word individually:

Pitch: Let’s take a couple of the definitions found online: “Promotion by means of an argument and demonstration” and “inflexible ‘formula’ or ‘canned’ sales presentation delivered in every sales situation without regard to the needs of the prospect.

On a call, that’s exactly what should not be happening. You cannot sell without both you and the prospect first agreeing there is sense and purpose in having a discussion based on situations (aka shortcoming/lack/excess/pain/issues/problems/concerns, etc) that your product or service does an outstanding job of addressing.

Push: What typically happens when someone pushes you? You resist, your force counters theirs. If you push features and benefits, people resist those too. They feel like they’re being sold to. How many people do you know that like being sold to? What happens then are objections… and you created them! Did you mean to start a war of wills? Well, if you’re getting objections that’s what has started and the longer it goes on the less chance you’ll have of developing a relationship with the person you’re warring with.

Pressure: There’s an economic downturn or recession happening currently. Don’t you think people feel enough pressure in their lives anyway without adding to it? You can still remain in control of what you’re doing on a call whilst always making it clear to the person you’re speaking with that they can cut the call short at the moment it makes sense for them to do so.  And if you sense any pressure, say so! Ask the other person what they think could be causing it. Their feedback could be invaluable and you can still save face by accepting responsibility and apologising for it on the spot.

Panic: This can set in before, during or after calls and it can paralyze you in a sense. If it does, the chances are that it’s due to what’s raging on in your head about the Pitch, Push and Pressure you’re subjecting yourself and your prospects to.

If you identify with the issues in this post and want to start tackling them so they no longer hold you back, either:

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

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