Very recently during Challenge Night, where individuals bring their challenges to a session of The Action Suite and as a collective, we work on solutions for them, we do a Challenge Night quarterly and someone brought up the challenge of ‘cold calls.’
For those that follow my blog and Podcast, you know that I am one of those rare individuals that actually loves making ‘cold calls’ and have trained many to liking ‘cold calls.’
‘Cold calling’ comes down to how you handle the ‘NO’. When you have the tools to be able to handle rejection, ‘cold calling’ becomes, dare I say it, ‘fun.’
When going quickly through the ‘Individual/Role’ ratio, I could literally see a ‘blown mind’ in this particular individual.
I had a trainer by the name of Randy Hnatko that was fond of saying: “You can only control what you can control.” I took this message to heart and started to only worry about what I can control and not stress over the things that I can’t control.
Why do you stress about that driver that cut you off? You can’t control their poor driving habits. Why stress about the weather? You have no control over Mother Nature. Therefore, why stress over a prospect? You can’t control his decision-making process. You can certainly work on making your presentation skills better, you can get the tools to make your appointments effective and productive and you can control the knowledge that you want to implement in order to increase the likelihood of that prospect saying, yes. However, you have no control over the ‘no.’
Here are five tips to get you to started to like cold calling:
First: Join The Action Suite to gather the knowledge and tools.
Second: Make a list of all the roles you play each and every day. These include roles such as wife, husband, parent, caregiver, chauffeur, coach, student, salesperson, driver, negotiator, etc.
Third: Whenever there is a negative response from anyone, consider the role that you were playing at that instant. It is NOT about you. It’s about your role. If you get a speeding ticket, the police are not giving YOU a ticket. They are giving a DRIVER a ticket. If your child calls you the worse parent on the planet, it’s not YOU that they are upset with, it’s your role as a PARENT that they are upset with. If a prospect says no, again, it’s the SALESPERSON or NEGOTIATOR they are saying no to, not YOU.
Fourth: You have nothing to lose. I have found people stress over the notion that is they do not get a YES, then they have lost something. Can we look at this ridiculous notion? It’s a ‘cold call,’ which means that you do NOT have them. Therefore, can someone tell me what there is to lose? The worse possible scenario that can happen is that you are in the exact same position coming out as you were going in.
Fifth: Have fun. Do something completely different, be unique as well as memorable and don’t forget to be believable. When you do, not only do you take all the pressure off of yourself, but your prospect will find it easier to connect with you because you are relaxed.
There are obviously a lot more steps, as well as required knowledge on how to implement the above strategies. The best way to learn them is by joining The Action Suite and with that, you do have control.