When asked service professionals “What is your greatest challenge in sales?” they chose cold calling and prospecting. When it comes to sales, Cold calling and prospecting are the main challenges for small to medium level business.

It seems that many service professionals who are successful at generating sales from existing clients are reluctant to make calls to generate business with new clients. The root of this reluctance is often more to do with their individual attitudes and beliefs about the service they're selling, how they prepare for the calls, and how they manage the responses.

Prepare for the Ten Responses You'd Prefer Not to Hear

Professionals who are reluctant to make sales calls become more confident once they are better prepared for the responses they are likely to get. Anyone making regular calls will realize that the same responses come up again and again. It is therefore quite helpful to create a list of the 10 responses one would prefer not to hear when making a sales call.

Typical regulars on such a list might be:

• We are happy with our existing provider.
• I'm in the middle of something, can you call back?
• Send me some information about your company/service.
• I am not the right person to speak to.
• Can you drop me an email?
• We are not spending any money at the moment.
• How did you get through to me?
• What can you offer me that my current provider does not?
• (Voice Mail)
• Secretary - Can I take a message?

When a professional uses this list to decide how best to respond, the prospect of encountering such responses becomes less daunting. In fact, the same responses actually come up repeatedly and, with a little preparation, it's not difficult to use them to move things forward.

Personal Development Through Selling

Sales is a wonderful activity for personal development. To improve performance, you are always pushing at the boundaries of the comfort zone. To succeed at higher levels is not just a matter of technique; you need to be able to control your thinking.

It would be nice to think that there was one simple way to develop sales skills. We all have our own learning styles and preferences. Some learn best through activity, some through book-based study, others through reflecting and questioning.

Indeed, learning is such a personal pursuit that some currently believe self-directed learning is where individuals and companies should be headed. Companies should aim to provide the infrastructure and learning environment whilst motivating and encouraging employees to take personal responsibility for their own skills development.

It's a cliché, but the reality is that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. You can provide a training environment and pile on training courses, books and even personal coaching, but if employees are not motivated to learn, then they will not learn.

A coaching relationship is confidential and personal, allowing an individual to open up and discuss things that motivate them and things that may be de-motivating them. By bringing these concerns out in the open they can then take action to move things forward.

When working with professionals on cold calling and prospecting, a coach's initial focus is on helping the individual to build self motivation, to get them to want to make the calls in the first place and then to help them put the task into perspective and remove any mental blocks that could potentially hold them back. Through short, regular sessions, a coach can help ensure that the professional forms good habits and resolves promptly any issues that come up.

Personality Types of Professionals Who Sell

Even though each person is unique, these general personality types appear in many professionals who sell:

Motivated Achiever
These are the “professionals.” This type of person is always looking for ways to get better results. They are highly self motivated and will take whatever sales development assistance you provide. Often they will personally fund their own development. They are keen readers and may have a personal development tape in the car.

Know It All
These people have been around a while; been there, done that and have the scars to prove it. They believe that they know how life is and you are not going to convince them otherwise. Know-it-alls are generally fairly closed to learning. They tend to be reasonably effective at selling although sometimes patchy and could do even better.

Pleaser
These are very good at looking after customers because they like pleasing people. They can develop some very strong business relationships and customer loyalty. Pleasers often shy away from cold calling and prospecting until they can see the function in terms of helping people. They often cannot understand why, having attended all the training programs and read all the books, they still have difficulty in making the calls.

Reluctant Salesperson
This is someone who doesn't really enjoy certain parts of the sales role or has temporarily lost interest. They avoid making the calls because they either don't feel like it or they can't be bothered. It's a motivation issue rather than a learning issue, although they are unlikely to admit it. Most training is wasted until the motivation is there.

Steady Eddie
They will make the calls on a regular basis because that's just part of the job. This person will go on any course they are told to. They are unlikely to request a course for themselves and will just get on with it. They are comfortable with their way of life and although they would like things to be improving are not going to set the world alight without help to build much bigger goals.

Whether by working with a coach or through other means, professionals charged with cold calling and prospecting can improve their comfort level by planning ahead, and by developing the right kind of motivation for their own “selling personality”.  (xzy2)