Explaining Why You Struggle to Pick Up the Phone (And Highlighting the Opportunity That Exists If You Overcome Your Phone Fear)

Follow-up calls are among the least favourite tasks for many. Yet, there's so much opportunity behind every call of this nature that you shouldn't miss out on.

Jared wanted to meet new people and grow his business. And those were the primary reasons why he joined The Business League.?

However, what he got out of it was much more than he expected.?

He received an education on the crucial aspects of being a business owner and his business thrived as a consequence. And through The Business League, Jared came into contact with other members and started cooperating with them.?

It opened up for Jared an amazing way of making new connections. Still, the real results only came after Jared started making follow-up calls.?

The reality is that the phone is an old-school tool that continues to offer massive outcomes. Yet, many people refrain from making phone calls, especially follow-up calls.

It's not uncommon for people to be wary of picking up the phone even though it's a natural progression to the first meeting. If that’s how you feel as well, there could be several reasons behind it, which we'll examine in this article.??

You'll also find out how to master the phone follow-up to create real success with networking.

Why Won't You Pick Up the Phone?

If you often hesitate to get on the phone and do a follow-up, there are four possible reasons for it.

The first reason might be your fear.

We have a way of justifying our fears and coming up with seemingly rational reasons to avoid whatever intimidates us. And those justifications can look like different things for different people.

In the case of follow-up calls, you might fear calling someone and coming off as a pesky salesperson. It can also be about the fear of rejection, where the other person tells you to bug off. Or, you could fear getting into a heated argument.

The next reason could be that you don't have the proper structure.

A good structure goes a long way because it makes performing any task, including making follow-up calls, easier. You can follow a step-by-step process and get the work done seamlessly.

However, if you don’t have that structure, you might feel as if you’re not standing on solid ground. At that point, every aspect of work could become dreadful.

The third reason can be accountability.

Whenever we aren't accountable for our numbers, those numbers tend to drop off. But when you're running a business of your own and you don't have that accountability, it gets easier and more tempting to do something else.

Finally, the fourth reason, the one we'll be tackling in more detail, is the idea that?you don't understand the missed opportunity.

With every call that you don't make, an opportunity goes away. Now, you might think that it's not so obvious that every missed call costs you an opportunity, but there's a reason for that, too.?

Right now, you can't clearly articulate the opportunities that you can create for your business by making those calls. And because of that, you default back to fear and uncertainty and simply don't pick up the phone.

Luckily, there's an exercise you can do to overcome the issue of missed opportunities…

The Opportunity Exercise

Step #1. Estimate the Amount That Not Making These Calls Costs Your Business

You can try to guess how much those missed calls are costing you. In fact, you can have a guess right now.?

Grab a piece of paper and put down a number. Take all of the active calls into account, whether they're to prospects, new connections, or follow-up quotes.

Now that you've got your estimate, think about this subject from a different angle:?

Take your average price for a job and multiply it by the number of calls you don’t make.?

The number you've got is probably a lot higher than what you've guessed.?

But since you won’t always land a job with every call, this formula could use some tweaking:

Write down your average client value over a specific period.?

However, you still won't get the amount that every missed call is costing you right away. That's why we'll need to go to the next step of this exercise.

Step #2. Work Out the Number of Calls Needed to Generate Work

With the average client value in hand, you should now calculate how many calls you need to make to generate new work.

This will depend on your list of prospects, but you can use our example to come up with a useful formula:

If we make 20 calls an hour, we get into 6.7 conversations. Out of those conversations, we create 1.2 opportunities and we convert 70% of total opportunities.?

In other words, we make one sale out of every 40 calls.

If you can work out a similar formula, you can come up with an approximate number of calls you need to make to generate work.?Once you have that, you can move on to the final step in the exercise.

Step #3. Ask Yourself the $100 Per Call Question

Divide the number of calls needed to get new work by the average customer value. You'll arrive at the average price per call. That’s how much every call is worth to your business.?

Remember, it doesn't matter whether the prospects say yes or no at the end of those calls. The important thing is to understand that the dollar amount you've calculated represents the value of your business opportunities per call.?

Once you get that per-call value, ask yourself:

If you could receive $100 for every call made, would you pick up the phone?

Of course, that could be whatever value you came up with earlier.

That's the mindset that you should have when making follow-up calls. Think of every call as money on the table and you won't want to miss the opportunity to take it.

Get On the Phone and Take the Opportunities

The exercise has hopefully clarified how wasteful it is to avoid follow-up phone calls. However, if you can turn your mindset around and start thinking about those calls in terms of profit, you'll become much more effective.

Remember, without following up, no amount of networking will help your business grow. That's why it's crucial to become a master of phone calls.

If you'd like more guidance on how to set up your business for success, don't hesitate to:

• Join our free workshop
• Join our business networking event
• Book a Brainstorm Call