My first suggestion is so important that you can literally take this advice and throw out the other 4 and still get amazing results.
It also comes with an all caps warning . . . THIS IS NON NEGOTIABLE!
1) Make A Decision Already And Stop Stalling! Dr Piers Steel conducted a 10 year study on procrastination (I know what you’re thinking . . . he probably procrastinated for 9 ½ years so let’s just get that out in the open) and he found that at the core of procrastination is a fear that we can’t do the task in the first place. So if you find yourself in a continual, “I’ll do it later” mindset, perhaps it’s time to stop stalling but not necessarily doing the old “Just Do It” thing either. I think it’s better to decide what role (if any) outbound calls will make in your sales mix. Decide, be at peace with your decision and get to work already. The other way (perhaps the way you were doing it) puts you in limbo by clinging to lots of safe activities . . . that put a whole lotta nothing in your pocket!
2) Tell Your Ego To Wait In The Car and go ask someone for help! Is there someone on your team who’s getting the results you want? Perhaps you could observe and listen in? Perhaps they could listen to you and offer some tips. How about your manager? Could they offer some help? Have you asked them for help? And of course you can get outside help too!
3) Build Your Muscles by doing a series of 15 minute telephone workouts that I detail in this post.
4) Support Your Ground Assault with other items from your sales mix. Think about a military strike where ground forces go in. They typically won’t do so without air and sea support. Calling should be no different so make sure you are supporting your phone efforts with other efforts.
5) Focus On Areas Where You Kick Butt. Somewhere, in some ancient self improvement manuscript, we were all sold a bill of goods that we have to focus on areas where we suck. I agree only partially but overall, I think it’s a dangerous philosophy because if I’m always focused on areas where I’m just not good, the areas where I kick ass suffer. In other words . . . why the heck would I dedicate an inordinate amount of time to the phone if I bring home the proverbial bacon quicker and better through referrals or through my social network? For you it might be through creative things or webinars or your blog.
Time Out: I’m not saying we should avoid opportunities for growth, I’m saying that we need to be realistic and NEVER hold strengths hostage while we focus too much energy on weaknesses.
So there you have it folks; 5 things you can do if you suck at making outbound calls. I think there’s lots of other things we could have added but . . .
It’s your turn . . .
What can someone do if they just aren’t good at the phone?
Oh, and something else for your consideration . . .
