A salesperson resisting a sales call is like a carpenter resisting the hammer – it’s going to be a short career. In a recent LinkedIn poll I conducted of over 150 sales professionals, 61 per cent reported they found making sales calls the most stressful part of their job. This means that more than half of the people in your sales team find the central task of their role – reaching out to customers to bring in revenue – difficult.
This is not a new problem. It’s been around ever since Eve got her first job selling apples and found it easier to give them away.
Common ways don’t work
The most common ways of dealing with sales call resistance simply don’t work. These include having a big goal – a new car – that the calls will help you achieve. Or have a small goal – a coffee – after making the required five calls. Or, if that doesn’t work, you should just smile and dial and push your way through the discomfort. Having spent many years as a telemarketer and sales professional, I can tell you that none of these strategies work long-term. The thought of a big or small goal in the future is no match for the discomfort of making those calls now. It just isn’t.
Doing nothing Is a better approach
To understand how and why doing nothing works, we need to get super clear on what we don’t like. Some people actually like making sales calls, and here in lies the key. If some people like making sales calls and others don’t, it mustn’t be the sales call that creates resistance. If it were, then everyone would dislike them. Rather it has to be something else, and that something else is inside the individual. The cause is easy to spot if you know how. Try this little exercise:
- Think of making sales calls.
- Pay attention to the sensations that arise in your body when you have this thought. You might have to look super close to observe them but they will be there.
- How does your body react to those sensations?
If your body reacts with a dislike to the sensations it will trigger thoughts about how to avoid them. You will then conclude, “I don’t like making sales calls”. If your body likes the sensations it will react with a desire to experience more of them and your mind will generate thoughts on how to achieve this. You may end up thinking, “I like making sales calls”.
So, to be correct, it’s not the sales calls that people don’t like. Rather, it’s their body’s reaction to the sensations it experiences when they think of sales calls that they do or don’t like. This is a different and much easier problem to solve. Instead of trying to solve a problem around sales calls, you’re now solving a problem around sensations. So, how do you solve it? Simple. Don’t react….do nothing.
Do nothing about sensations
Don’t react to the sensations – just observe them as they arise and pass away. They will, as nothing lasts forever. Whether it is a dislike of, or a desire for, just simply watch the sensation and do nothing about them. Don’t judge it (I like/dislike the sensation), don’t label it (I’m feeling fear/excitement), don’t own it (I always feel like this when making calls), don’t suppress it (feel the fear and do it anyway), don’t make it right or wrong (I shouldn’t feel like this). Just watch the sensations and see what happens. After some time (less than a minute) the sensation will dissipate, and it will be gone. It then won’t bother you anymore.
The secret is to do nothing and not react to the sensations. Feel them and experience them without reacting.
