Selling Boldly

25Use the Phone Proactively

Even though our job as salespeople is to talk to humans and help them, we avoid the telephone.

We don't call because we assume the customer is on the phone constantly, being called by everybody. This is not true. Everybody else is also avoiding the telephone.

We don't call because we assume we will annoy the customer. This is not true. Most of your customers will be happy to hear from you.

We don't call because we assume the customer will call us if they need us. This is not true. They are busy, so they call only when it's urgent. Like us, they call only when it's reactive for them. They do not call proactively. They will simply keep buying things from your competition that you could help them with. And they will assume you are not interested, since you are not calling.

It's our job to call our customers proactively.

But we do not call, because we are afraid.

We are afraid of being rejected—the top fear for salespeople. We are afraid of making the customer angry. We are afraid of being yelled at. We are afraid, ultimately, of losing the customer.

If I call, the customer will get so mad, she will dump me for the competition.

As covered in depth in Part I of this book, this is an automatic reaction. It usually happens unconsciously.

Because they are so ingrained in us, we are usually not even aware of these fears that keep us from using the phone.

But now you should be aware.

Use the “Proactive Call Planner” in this chapter to lay out the people you ...