Episode 168
How to overcome resistance to making phone calls and why it matters
Why is it that most of us will do just about anything to avoid picking up the phone and calling someone, even when that call might get us a new client or booking?
Coaches and speakers need to be good at picking up the phone. Why? Because in most situations of getting a new client or booking, you're going to make a lot more progress speaking to relevant people than you ever will sending emails and SMS messages.
I'm not saying you can't make sales and bookings without making calls but I am saying that your ability to close the deal will increase when you pick up the phone (or hop on Zoom).
I'm using this episode to explore what I think are some of the key resistance factors and how I overcame them. This really does come only from my own experience and not from any specific research, although some of the wisdom and guidance I have received in this area may well come through and is certainly relevant.
Getting good at something most people aren't willing to do will set you apart. Currently, especially in the world of high-ticket sales, it's proving to be one of the most effective strategies for growing your community and increasing sales. Best of all, you'll relate more to clients and customers, building relationships in a way that most others aren't willing to do.
Be sure to check out Episode 96 with Weny Harris on How to warm up your cold calls and if you want to know more about Wendy, you can find her on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
Lemme start off with a quick apology that there's been no episode
John:or newsletter in the last few weeks.
John:Unfortunately, I picked up a very unpleasant bug on my
John:travels to my niece's wedding.
John:My recovery has been slow and it's still ongoing, and, but my
John:priority has also been getting started in a new professional role.
John:However, I'm back.
John:When people are asked what their greatest fears are,
John:we expect to hear answers like spiders, public speaking, killer clowns, and death.
John:Well, one answer that doesn't come up so often is making calls, especially sales
John:calls, and yet most business owners, entrepreneurs don't want to make them.
John:Sales team managers Often struggle getting their team to make the
John:calls that they're hired for.
John:So what's going on?
John:That's what we're gonna talk about in this week's episode of Pod Fluence.
John:Stay tuned.
John:Welcome to Pod Fluence, the podcast for business coaches and professional
John:speakers who want to build audience and authority through podcasts.
John:Here's your host, international coach, and Speaker John Ball.
John:someone who I love to follow and hope to invite to be on Podfluence
John:at some point is Vanessa Van Edwards, who has several great books about
John:understanding and improving communication as well as becoming more persuasive.
John:I saw saying in her LinkedIn feed, which you can see in the newsletter,
John:I swiped the image and felt inspired to write about it.
John:So if you wanna see the image, you're gonna have to go to the newsletter.
John:Unfortunately, I can't put it in the show notes.
John:In my work and business, I've noticed that I've had a general and usually irrational
John:fear of making calls, which isn't helpful when you need to, when you need to pick
John:up the phone and follow up with people.
John:It's especially not great if you're in the business of high ticket program sales.
John:Now, since I've started a new position that requires me to make outbound
John:sales calls, and I know that when I first started doing this kind of
John:work, I had so much call resistance.
John:I thought I would share some of the lessons and insights that I've had
John:and that I've been led to through coaching and why I believe that we can
John:all benefit from making more calls.
John:Perhaps most importantly, I want to share how I overcame my call resistance.
John:Now, the first thing I'll say here is that the reason I believe this
John:to be so important for coaches and speakers is that so much more can
John:be achieved from a conversation than you can from an email or a text
John:exchange, and usually in far less time.
John:Also, if you are growing your business, you are going to need
John:to get over any call resistance, especially if you are working remotely.
John:Text and emails are great.
John:They're a really good tool and often really helpful, but they
John:shouldn't become a replacement for making calls whenever possible.
John:Examples of times that you ideally want to get in a call with someone are things
John:like following up with a lead or a new inquiry about your products and services.
John:Checking in with people who have previously bought your products and
John:services, reaching out for keynote speaker and workshop bookings,
John:contacting a referral from an active or past client or customer.
John:Advancing a chat from direct messaging or online and perhaps more obviously for
John:coaches running coaching sessions, which we perhaps more commonly do in Zoom.
John:Call resistance can even still come up in those situations, and
John:it's a hindrance to being able to operate your business effectively
John:and to take care of things quickly.
John:Most of us would prefer to send a text message or an email,
John:or even to chat through direct messaging services like WhatsApp
John:than to actually get on the phone.
John:Personally, I think the biggest issue tends to be one around, what will I
John:say when they, before gonna say, when they pick up the phone with emails and
John:messages, we at least have the opportunity to think about it and think about what
John:we want to say and how we want to say it.
John:Even if we don't take advantage of that, or perhaps we end up overthinking
John:it, that opportunity is still there.
John:We also panic sometimes about the uncertainty of the response.
John:We'll get.
John:Emails and SMS messages are easy to ignore.
John:But even when someone phones you, if the number is unrecognized, there are
John:still many people who won't answer, but there are always a percentage who will.
John:Now, I have no idea what that percentage is, but I reckon it's fairly low.
John:Anyone who's ever had to make sales calls can tell you that there are some
John:crazies out there and there are some people who are rude beyond belief.
John:But they are few and far between.
John:Most people function with at least some level of politeness and they employ
John:the social niceties that we need in order to have a functioning society.
John:I can really only think of two times in that last year outta thousands of
John:sales calls where people have perhaps been a bit of an asshole, a bit crazy
John:on the phone, and somehow I survived it.
John:Now, another likely barrier here is just our general
John:unwillingness to suck at something.
John:Most people are not naturally good at making sales calls.
John:The difference between those who are and those who wish they were is probably
John:more often a willingness to be able to go through making the mistakes and
John:having bad calls and learning from them.
John:The conscious, competence stage of making sales calls or any professional
John:calls, I reckon it is reasonably quick for most people because we already know
John:most of the elements instinctively.
John:We just need a bit of structure and practice around it.
John:So the three main resistance points I'm identifying here are one, stress
John:about what to say and how to say it.
John:Two, fear of the unknown of being able to handle unpleasant calls
John:and three, unwillingness to to be bad at something and to keep
John:doing it until you get good at it.
John:Let me be clear here that in no way do I consider myself an expert in this area.
John:I'm just a guy who's been practicing and overcoming his own call
John:resistance and hoping that that experience is beneficial to you too.
John:Sales experts and long-term professionals may have some
John:different conclusions and insights.
John:Much of this is based on my own experience rather than any specific
John:or long-term or detailed research.
John:I will add here though, that there is a thing about how much we have
John:come to associate telesales and mystery calls with scams, and we
John:definitely need to keep that in mind.
John:It's why we should always be able to back up what we say and
John:to demonstrate what we do.
John:But that is not really what comes first.
John:The first thing if you're making potential calls to clients or
John:customers is to discover if they have a problem with whatever you are
John:potentially able to help them with.
John:To overcome the three main resistance points, and this is what has been
John:my own experience born out here
John:. There are three things we
John:One is to take a few moments to plan what you want to say and if
John:helpful, create some bullet points.
John:If you're making a lot of the same kinds of calls, it is worth creating
John:and practicing a script, but not actually using it on the calls, because
John:it probably won't sound natural and people can get very attached to scripts.
John:Don't let that become a crutch for you.
John:It's okay to take some pauses on a call and to think about
John:what you want to say next.
John:It's actually very powerful as pauses are often taken as an indication
John:of confidence, so long as you don't fill up the gaps with ums and ahs.
John:Secondly, stay awake to the reality that most people are very least polite,
John:if not nice.
John:Try to take a step back from anyone who is confrontational or rude.
John:Take a deep breath, and if they're getting personal with you, hang up.
John:If they're making you uncomfortable, it's okay to say that, to label the emotional
John:state, such as you seem angry or you seem upset, or you seem frustrated.
John:Give them the opportunity to correct that, and quite often people will.
John:Most importantly, remember, it's not about you.
John:There is no good reason for somebody to answer the phone being rude
John:or potentially even bullying.
John:Thirdly, put mistakes into their proper perspective.
John:They're not the opposite of success.
John:This isn't just in sales.
John:This is everywhere.
John:Mistakes are not the opposite of success.
John:They are an essential part of success.
John:You're not going to get good at this without fucking up a few times.
John:And a few times more beyond that.
John:It can be embarrassing for sure, and you will learn from it if you are
John:recording your calls, which you should do, if only for training purposes.
John:And ideally ask permission to do that.
John:Use them to listen back.
John:And if you do have a coach, get some feedback.
John:Let your coach listen to, I'm not saying it's not gonna be uncomfortable sometimes.
John:But it will be worth it.
John:And very few worthwhile things were ever achieved by staying comfortable.
John:My experience is that there are a few substitutes for picking up the
John:phone and having a chat with someone.
John:And once you get over the initial fears of that, you'll start to notice things
John:like people's energy, their tone of voice, and whether what they're saying
John:matches up with how they're saying it.
John:Let me get onto something I consider very exciting and vital labeling.
John:Chris Voss talks about labeling in his popular book never Split the Difference.
John:And it's a great technique.
John:It's the technique where you don't tell somebody what they're feeling or how
John:they sound, but rather what you are feeling and hearing as a way to check in.
John:And I mentioned this just a bit earlier, so it is really about showing that you
John:are listening and labeling such as things.
John:I'm like, oh, you've seen a little frustrated right now.
John:Is labeling an emotion, labeling what you hear going on, and ideally labeling, using
John:words that they may be using as well.
John:Not just the words, but also labeling the tone.
John:And it's something that Chris calls tactical empathy.
John:Now I say this is someone who's been in coaching a long time, but labeling
John:is one of the most useful coaching tools I've encountered to have a
John:client feel heard and understood.
John:As it's not projection or leading, but rather an opportunity for them
John:to clarify further and feel that a mirror is being held up to them.
John:It also encourages the coach to shut up for a bit and let people speak.
John:Remembering that both coaching and sales calls are a process of discovery.
John:Aim to discover things, ask discovery questions, and encourage
John:them to tell you more about anything of interest that arises.
John:I do believe that my sales work is also helping me to become a better coach and
John:a better communicator, and a big part of that is turning up those listening
John:skills, tuning into verbal and emotional inconsistencies, and being able to
John:label things and ask some challenging questions in the discovery process.
John:It's important to be a friend to people on the calls, but the kind of friend
John:who really wants the help and doesn't tell people what they want to hear,
John:but what will help them the most?
John:My only challenge to you this week is to pick up the phone and make a call,
John:especially if you would otherwise just be tempted to email or WhatsApp them.
John:Let's see if we can't deepen some connections and speak to each other.
John:To wrap things up.
John:I was fortunate enough to have Wendy Harris is a guest
John:on my show some time back.
John:And this is an area that she specializes in.
John:So I'm throwing in a link in the show notes to that episode.
John:Uh, and it's in the newsletter as well, so you can go back and take a listen
John:to that from my previous iteration of the show as Speaking Influence.
John:Wendy is great.
John:I highly recommend checking her out on LinkedIn and her own podcast as well.
John:But this is what she talks about helping people get on the phone.
John:You'll find some gems in there as well.
John:my recovery from illness is going well.
John:My job is settling in nicely and I look forward to being able to get
John:back into a regular pattern of release with the show and with the newsletter.
John:So do stay tuned for that.
John:If you're not already subscribed, please do make sure you are subscribed, not just
John:to the show, but to the newsletter as well, where you'll get some extra little
John:bits and goodies from time to time.
John:And of course, if you subscribe on the main newsletter channel, you'll
John:get my free giveaway, which is my pre podcast guest checklist for the all
John:the things you want to make sure you check in and have ready before you go
John:on an episode and record with someone.
John:So do check
John Ball:that out and I'll look forward to seeing you again on
