Radio Interview!

Overcoming Sales Call Reluctance Must Be Done to Build Business

Eliminate Your Call Reluctance – Elevate Your Sales

Inner Game of Prospecting

Inner Game of Recruiting

Radio Interview!

Aired: March 10, 2003

TG = Tom Gunn CK = Connie Kadansky

TG: Good morning, and welcome to Small Business Focus. I’m Tom Gunn, executive director of the Arizona Small Business Association.
Our guest on the show today is Connie Kadansky. I’ve known Connie for some time. She’s a professional speaker, and does very, very well at it, as a matter of fact. And we’re going to talk today about Sales Call Reluctance®. Welcome, Connie.

CK: Thank you, Tom.

TG: What’s the definition of Sales Call Reluctance®?

CK: Sales Call Reluctance® is the emotional hesitation to prospect and self-promote.

TG: Hmm.

CK: Feeling uncomfortable emotionally, initiating contact with a prospective buyer.

TG: And that could even be like at a mixer – and meeting people – the same thing?

CK: Oh, yes. It can be at a mixer. It can be asking somebody out for a date. It can be seeking employment.

TG: Fascinating. So Call Reluctance®, then, can actually neutralize any career, right?

CK: Oh, yes. Any career. Even people that are in non-traditional occupations. If they’re not comfortable promoting – some people, they get passed up for promotions.

TG: Yes, they do. I understand there are 12 types?

CK: Yes. There are 12 types of Call Reluctance®.

TG: Let’s talk about a few of those.

CK: One is Referral Aversion. It’s very easy to overcome . . . where people feel that they will jeopardize a relationship with a current client if they ask for a referral. Our research shows that people that are not asking for referrals consistently default on about 19 percent of business a year that could be theirs if they would simply ask for the referral.

TG: Fascinating.

CK: Another one is Role Rejection. That is where people are secretly ashamed that they’re in sales. They attempt to deflect their identity, and say, “I’m here to share something with you. I’m not here to sell you anything,” when we know the world is driven by sales.

TG: Absolutely. Who are the number one carriers of Call Reluctance®?

CK: Oh, what an interesting question. The research shows that the major carriers of Call Reluctance® are either the sales manager, the sales trainer, and one is motivational speakers, who are actually contaminating the very people they intend to inspire.

TG: Do they intimidate people, Connie? Is that part of it?

CK: Well, it’s not intimidation. But when they are so close to sales, they tend to want people not to act like a stereotypical person that is greedy or a peddler . . . so they try to get people to think of themselves more as a professional. And in doing that, sometimes they make people feel there’s something wrong with being in sales.

TG: Which there certainly isn’t, as we well know.

CK: Right.

TG: It’s the thing that makes the world go round, as we well know. Where does Call Reluctance® come from?

CK: Well it’s an interesting personality predisposition. Some personalities are more prone to Call Reluctance®, such as the Yielder. The Yielder doesn’t ever want to be pushy or intrusive. And that has a personality predisposition link, and interestingly, heredity. Some people . . . it is shown that Call Reluctance® is passed down through generations. The number one way people get Call Reluctance is exposure to others with Call Reluctance. We have to stay away from people who have cooties! For example, if a colleague is down about prospecting and they start complaining, whining, being a victim and saying things like “It doesn’t work to cold call.” Or “Monday is not a good day to make prospecting calls.” Or “It doesn’t work in our industry to network at chamber mixers.” They are spewing Call Reluctance!

TG: Fascinating. Describe a technique, Connie, for overcoming Call Reluctance®. What do you do about it when you realize that you have it, first of all?

CK: Well, the number one technique is to recognize that it’s all in the way we choose to think. And so, to get people to really slow down and to watch their self-talk, what they’re thinking when they’re making their prospecting calls. But another one is what we call a sensory injection. The sense of smell is the most evocative sense. And so people can actually use aromatherapy when they’re making their calls, because they can smell a particular scent that will take them to a beach in Hawaii, and it transitions where they’re thinking about that and then they just pick up the phone and make the call because they’re thinking about their vacation in Hawaii. You cannot be thinking two thoughts at once. Aromatherapy can help some people.

TG: Amazing. That’s most interesting. For our listeners who would like to get in touch with you, Connie – how can they – assuming – if they would like to have some training for their own sales staffs, let’s say, how can they get in touch with you?

CK: My Web site is www.exceptionalsales.com. My phone number is 602-997-1101.

TG: Great. How do you specifically help people overcome Call Reluctance®, Connie?

CK: Well, I have a four-week program, where we do a pre-workshop assessment that really zeroes in – 30 years of research behind the assessment tool – so we can identify the Call Reluctance®. Then a one-day workshop that is scientifically engineered for people to eliminate those emotional, self-limiting barriers. Then I provide a four-week one-on-one follow through. Just going to a workshop doesn’t really change behaviors. However, four weeks of one-on-one coaching usually helps people hit the ground running.

TG: And that gets right to the point. Of course one-on-one is always the most . . . you know that, right? What’s the number one commandment for profitable prospecting?

CK: Oh, that’s interesting. The number one command is “Do not kid thyself.” Have courage to be honest with yourself that you’re not making as many prospecting calls, that you’re not getting in front of the ideal prospect.

TG: Just face up to it, then, in other words.

CK: Right. To hide and deny and suppress it is really useless.

TG: Connie, that’s absolutely fascinating. And I know you’ve done a number of workshops at our facility as well, and so it’s marvelous that you’re doing this. Sales people always seem to need a lot of help. Not necessarily just motivational or cheap sales tricks or whatever – but to really understand what they’re doing. Well, I want to thank you for being on the show today. It’s been most illuminating.