My friend Amy wrote this post. Her post inspired this post.
Some people hate cold calling. They say that they hate being shut down. They hate being rejected. They want to prospect using some method in which they won’t be told no and won’t be rejected.
So these cold-call-avoiders switch their effort from dialing to other prospecting methods they believe will be easier, more effective, and won’t come with the hard dose of reality that is not having anything really valuable to offer (the most common root cause of being rejected). But in doing so, they are choosing some other form of rejection.
Here is some pure, unadulterated truth for those who want it, need it, and are big enough to take it.
Your Personal Rejection
When you send an email asking for an appointment or checking in and nothing comes back, you have been rejected. Your dream client can much more easily click the button that deletes your email than they can dismiss you on the telephone. But the end result is the same: you made no progress.
When you connect with your dream client on the social media sites and connect with people without asking them for a commitment of time, you have been rejected. The barriers to connect on social sites are very low. But if you haven’t scheduled an appointment, the end result is the same as if you had called and been rejected.
When you rely only on inbound marketing and your dream client stumbles upon your site, takes a quick look around, and bails without having filled out your lead collection form or downloading your white paper, you have been rejected. The result of that visit was a giant goose egg.
Can You Handle the Truth?
If you avoid picking up the phone, the truth is that you have two problems.
The first problem is that you are too sensitive. You don’t like to feel the rejection because you are attaching too much meaning to it. You’re taking it personal. Business is personal, but this rejection has nothing to do with you. Your dream client has been burned agreeing to meet with salespeople who created no value. She rejects almost everyone. Which is a nice segue into your second problem: value creation.
If you don’t want to be rejected, you have to differentiate yourself by focusing your prospecting message on the value you can create for your dream client. If you ask for a commitment from your dream client, especially the commitment for time to explore an opportunity, that pitch needs to come with a strong sales call value proposition. Your dream client needs to know what she is getting out of it.
Until you learn not to have any feelings about the rejection that comes with cold calling and learn how to make your message about value, you can choose to take your rejection in whatever form that best suits you. But you won’t improve your sales results by avoiding making your calls.
Questions
What is your preferred method for being rejected?
Is it better when your rejection doesn’t feel personal, when you don’t have to hear it?
How do you feel about having your emails ignored? Is that an easier form of rejection?
What would you have to change to feel different about making your calls and dealing with “no?”
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