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Overcoming Call Reluctance… Not Just a B2B Sales Training Issue

overcoming-call-reluctanceAll salespeople experience call reluctance at some point in their sales career. Something gets in their way that prevents the seller from contacting a new business prospect or perhaps a customer they’ve done business with in the past. 

Some sales managers and sales trainers think overcoming call reluctance is a B2B sales training issue… these folks are incorrect! You see it is much more than a training issue; overcoming call reluctance is tied to innate talents—behaviors people are born with—also known as sales DNA. 

Which Innate Talents are Linked to Overcoming Call Reluctance?

Beth Sunshine—Vice President of Talent Services at The Center for Sales Strategy—has years of experience using statistically reliable assessments designed to provide insight into sales DNA. Here are her thoughts on the topic of call reluctance and innate talent: 

Essentially, everyone has call reluctance of some sort. For prospecting calls, closing calls, or even post-sale check-ins. The question is, does an individual have enough innate talent in the areas that matter to overcome that call reluctance and move forward? 

The talent assessments we conduct help to better understand the level of call reluctance someone likely feels as well as what naturally powers them to get past that reluctance. For example, when a salesperson with a strong competitive drive is in a situation to compete and win, their desire to come out on top will often push them to make the prospecting and the closing calls they need to achieve. In a very different scenario, a seller who is extremely relationship-oriented and focused on helping and growing their customer’s business might be propelled to make those calls when they have an idea or opportunity that might really make difference to a business with which they are working. It is critical to understand how someone is wired when trying to understand whether they will struggle with call reluctance.

Training Enhances Appointment Setting If Innate Talent Exists

Sellers with the innate talents to overcome call reluctance make more sales calls… more sales calls lead to more sales! As Beth mentioned in this post, all sellers have some level of call reluctance; this is where sales training can help.

Here are some parts of the sales process to focus on during training to help sellers overcome call reluctance:

  • Warning up cold relationships by establishing a strong brand and using social media to make connections with new business prospects
  • Selecting new business prospects who provide easy access to the decision maker
  • Following an appointment setting process with a high frequency approach—nine attempts to set an appointment during a three week period
  • Creating valid business reasons to entice new prospects into a meeting.

Developing a valid business reason to set more appointments makes a great deal of sense. To learn how to develop better valid business reasons download the Using Better VBRs sales meeting kit to master a step-by-step process used by world-class salespeople.

This kit includes:

  • The Using Better VBRs sales meeting kit leaders guide—a script and all the information needed to run this sales training workshop 
  • The Valid Business Reason overview and examples handout
  • The Valid Business Reason worksheet handout.

 Access the sales meeting kit now

 

Sales Consultant Resources for World-class Sellers

Feel free to take these tips for test drive when faced with a call reluctance. To find out more about resources for consultants and training courses and materials check out The Center for Sales Strategy’s Partner Program. This program is designed to improve sales performance and pay a commission to partners in the program.

 

Topics: Partner Marketing