I hate making cold calls. Most of the people I know feel the same way. Why is that? Oh, fear of rejection is most of it. We don’t want our product or service shot down and we take it personally.
For a few it might be the product or service doesn’t really do what we are supposed to say it does. For others it’s a matter of price. If $5000 is the most amount of money you could ever imagine paying for something it’s going to be awfully hard to ask a customer to spend $10,000.
That isn’t my problem. I believe in my offering. The price is right. There’s a market for this service and I think it will change the way small businesses learn to operate and grow their businesses. Win. Win. Win.
So what stopped me? I couldn’t put my finger on it until yesterday.
My daughter is in her rebellious years. Her high school has a dress code. Bad combination. Anyway I decided to talk to the dean of girls because I couldn’t quite get clear on Ashley’s exact violations and what had to change to stop the punishment.
I made a mental outline of what I wanted for the outcome. I wore clothes I thought would immediately express my seriousness of purpose. I planned introductory remarks so I would be concise and to the point (not my strong suit so very important). I intended to understand the dean’s perspective before negotiating.
What a great meeting! We met, we developed a rapport, we exchanged a lot of information. I left the meeting with the promise of a phone call. I actually got it. I asked for a particular outcome. I listened quietly to the explanation of why I was not going to get it although it was better than the original deal. Still, the door is now wide open any time I want to come back.
I realize now what was missing. I placed cold calls in order to get a desired outcome – usually a sale or good lead for a sale. We often place them when we’re feeling desperate or someone tells us we have to. The person on the other end of the phone senses the desperation and who wants to listen to that?
I will be using a different approach now. I am taking the plan I developed out of the passion for my daughter’s success and applying it to my company. Will I be successful every time? Of course not. I just want to make sure that when the time is right to try again the door will be wide open.