How to be comfortable making sales calls

As a business owner, it’s natural to be confident about running your business, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to making sales calls.

It’s normal to feel nervous when you talk to a potential customer over the phone. And it’s not unusual to find difficult or argumentative clients when you’re just starting out.?

It can feel tiring and overwhelming when those leads challenge your ideas and end up rejecting your pitch anyway. You might even reach a point where you’re asking yourself: Am I contacting my ideal clients? How can I have better conversions through these calls? What can I do to make the process easier?

The truth is, the only way to get better with making calls is to make more calls.?

It takes time to get comfortable being on the phone, overcome objections, and convert leads. The more you make calls, the more confident you become in handling rejections and unexpected curveballs from prospective customers. You also reach more people, increasing the chances of connecting with someone who is interested.

If you don’t make enough sales calls, you can be trapped with difficult customers. Sales calls are a way to take charge and find your customers instead of passively waiting for them to find you.

By producing a high enough number of calls, you will end up boosting your sales once you find your ideal customer (who won’t give you a headache from all the incessant arguing).?

Consistently making sales calls can convert people into customers, which is why taking that proactive approach can bring about better results.

5 steps to be more comfortable with making sales calls

By following these steps, you can be more confident on the phone as you talk to different types of leads (who will surely have varying personalities) and increase your conversion rates in the long run.?

1. Realise what moves your business

One key to business success and to getting more of your ideal customers is having the right perspective for it. While it may sound simple, it can take years to master.?

Only 18% of salespeople in 2017 were considered as trustworthy by customers because they believed salespeople resort to high-pressure tactics and manipulation to get a sale, which is why having the right perspective is important to establish trust.?

People hate hard-sale methods and are more likely to reject an offer when it feels impersonal. Customers buy outcomes more than just products or services. Keeping this mind allows you to highlight the outcomes your own business offers and convince a buyer that it can work for them.

Incorporating this mindset into your pitch can bring positive results in your sales calls because you’re giving potential customers the outcome they’ve been searching for. Aside from just purchasing your product or service, they gain value from them.?

By making your sales calls more personalised, your potential customer feels special, making them more receptive to your pitch.

Stay focused and empower your customer . A purchase is an emotionally based decision on the buyer’s end so make them feel that your offer is important.?

2. Decide the outcome of the call

Think critically and ask yourself: Why am I making this call?

Is it to gather information, make an initial pitch, follow-up with a lead, or gain a sale?

Knowing your objectives will help you become more purposeful in making sales calls. Thinking critically can also help you figure out why you’re having a difficult time picking up the phone.

Deep-diving into your own thoughts regularly can reveal how you make decisions: Sometimes it’s rational, other times it’s based solely on feelings. By directing your thoughts to a goal, you can identify and, subsequently, overcome your fears and uncertainties.?

To ease the pressure of making a phone call, you can write a sales script. A script will give you a better idea of what to say and how to answer questions. It streamlines the process and makes the next call much easier to do.?

Here are some tips for making a sales call:

• Make your goal clear from the beginning - Instead of being vague and possibly causing suspicion on the potential customer’s end, be clear with your agenda so that they know what they’re getting into. Be sure that you know what you want to do, too.
• Be in a position to meet their needs - Identify their pain points and how your business can help them.
• Introduce yourself - By humanising yourself and your business, you can establish trust and credibility between you and the customer. It’s important to exude confidence and to specify your business.
• Build rapport - Create common ground with the customer or make them feel comfortable by pointing out specific details about themselves that they may appreciate.
• Use a positioning statement - You make yourself relevant to the customer by relating to them and their past or present challenges.
• Close - Thank them for their time and give them the option for a follow-up.?

3. Understand that a call is not personal

Overcoming rejection in a sales call can be difficult, and getting one “no” sometimes has more negative impact than the feeling of victory you get from a “yes.”?

But understanding that a sales call isn’t personal and that it’s just business will help you deal with rejection better and identify how you can improve your offer.?

If their response was something along the lines of, “We don’t have a budget at this time” then your pitch wasn’t definitively declined. It just means that you have to revisit that lead at a later time when they’re at the peak of their financial calendar.

They may respond that they already have a solution in place. You can ask them about the products or services they’re using and identify when their contracts will come up again. This gives you time to assess how your solution is still the better option as well as the opportunity to revisit that prospective customer.?

If your pitch doesn’t have any selling point, it won’t encourage your target customer to purchase because it doesn’t address their problem. Knowing your lead’s pain points is crucial so that you can offer a relevant solution and sell it.?

4. Set a goal and commit to it

Establishing a sales target or goals every month can help you motivate yourself and your team to meet that quota and celebrate the win when you get there. It gives you an idea of how much you have to do, what timeline you have to follow, and what can help you achieve your target.

By having that end-goal per month, you can quantify how many calls you need to make and how many leads to generate and customers to convert. Simple math can lead you to dividing calls per staff member and determine how many they need to reach in order to land your target.

Motivating your staff is also important so making the numbers clear and allowing them to see those numbers rise can boost morale and keep them on that path.?

But don’t forget to make those goals realistic in order to keep from demoralising your team. Everyone wants to convert all of their calls but be sensible about the rate of conversion. This will help your team reach achievable goals and feel better about themselves.?

By setting these goals and expectations monthly, you can have a better grasp on where you are on your path to success.?

5. Keep going

Ultimately, you become more comfortable with making sales calls by consistently repeating the process.?

Repetition allows you to hone your selling techniques and ability to engage different personalities through the phone. You learn and improve as you keep going with more calls every day.

By creating a routine with your sales call, you also take active steps in increasing your conversion rate. Regularly making calls can also give you a sense of accomplishment because you’re consistently creating new leads, no matter what happens throughout the day.

Becoming comfortable with making sales calls might be difficult at first, especially if you’re not naturally inclined to initiate a conversation with strangers. But that doesn't mean you should stop.?

By building a process around the challenges you’re facing and adjusting your perspective, you can be more confident on the phone and eventually find that ideal target customer. Once that happens, your business can continue to grow.?

If you want to be more comfortable with making sales calls and boost your business success, book a call with us .?