Ann Arbor Undressed

Do you have Call Reluctance?

I just finished reading a book by George Dudley and Shannon Goodson, called The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance.

In the book, Dudley and Goodson identify 12 Types of Call Reluctance. With a short test at the beginning of the book, they help you identify the emotional issues that are holding you back from calling and prospecting.

Most of us have a goal or a vision or a BIG WHY in our lives. They are different for each of us, but it is what motivates us day in and day out to do what we do. 

Still we get stuck...

Deep down, we know things are holding us back from prospecting and making those sale calls. 

But knowing and knowing what to do about it are two different things. 

Here is a brief summary of some of the issues. You may have more than one, and this is just a sampling on a very extensive subject, but hopefully it will inspire you to take a closer look. 

1) The Doomsayer: Tend to be worried and stay away from prospective buyers. They tend to avoid risks in social situations and prefer scripts. They may plan to prospect that day, but get distracted during the 2 hours they have set aside.Have you seen this person, they lock the door, put a sign on it prospecting? But, rather than making the calls they are cleaning out their desk? They focus on themselves and not the client, they perceive the worst possible responses when they make the calls.

2) The Over-Preparation: This person spends too much time preparing what they are going to say, how they are going to say it. They tend to be so prepared that they fail to establish report with their prospective clients. One agent in my office use to get a ton of listings, and then he got bogged down in the charts, graphs, market data that he lost the relationship. He was wondering why he quit getting listings....

3) Hyper-Pro: This is a person who by all appearance is confident. They demonstrate this by their mannerisms and image, believing that their image is the determing factor in their success. These "types" of Realtors would stress, who they are, who they know over their marketing. They must drive the best car, weart the best clothes, image is most important.

4) Stage-Fright: These types of sales people are excellent one on one. But, freeze up when they are asked to speak to a group of people, big or small. Perhaps this Call Reluctance behavior could be attributed to not hiring a Assistant when they are too busy to handle all the work, or want to do Home Buyer Seminars but are too afraid to get up and address the people who would show up.

5) Role-Rejection: This person wants to call but due to self speak have not been able to accept the word SALESPERSON. Deep down they may feel a career in sales is beneath them. many would feel more comfortable to be called, Relationship Managers, Trusted Advisors, Consultants. Folks bottom line we are salespeople, we need to accept that role.

6) Yielders: The types of salespeople are afraid to seem pushy,or intrusive into a buyer or sellers lives. They tend to put off the calls until a "right time", "right place", and are afraid that making that call will "bother" or "disturb" the prospect. This type of Realtor or salesperson might want to have a relationship with the person before stating the truth to them, like the price of a house etc...Yielders may have a difficult time with the close, "do you want to write an offer on this home?"

7) Social Self Consciousness: This is an easy one to see or observe. Someone who is socially self consciousness prefers to work in a certain price point. Over the years, they are reluctant to call on anyone or respond to leads if it is a higher socio economic person than themselves. "I just don't like doing business with that type of person", they say to themselves. You can see this in production plateaus. Perhaps as a Realtor you didn't graduate from college and feel inferior working with clients of a highly educated background .

8) Separationist: This is the type of Call Reluctance that people experience when they don't want to ask their friends for a referral, or speak up at an event and say, "I'm a Realtor, can I help you." They are afraid to talk about their business when they are among friends. "Never mix business and friendships" is their moto.

9) Emotionally Unemancipated: Perhaps as a child they grew up with negative stereotypes about sales people stemming from their family environment. A person with emotionally unemancipated call reluctance would not be to even ask their family for a referral, like cousins, aunts and uncles etc. True story that happened in our office. We have an agent who has a twin brother, twin brother calls the office and goes out to look at homes with an agent on floor, writes an offer with that agent. His twin brother is an agent in my office. Do you tell your family members you are a Realtor?

10) Referral Aversion: This is self explanitory, but it is where you are afraid to ask your friends and family, and past clients for a referral. Our past clients are our best source of future business, but do we ask them if they know anyone buying or selling? If not, why not? If you have helped them buy or sell a home and they trust you, what a better way for them to trust you if it comes from a friend or past client.

11) Telephobia: This would apply to a Realtor who is willing to send out direct mail, email, newsletters but freezes up when they have to pick up that telephone. If you are calling a lead or prospect are you relieved when you get their voice mail?

12) Oppositional Reflex: If you are reading this, this far and getting ready to write a nasty comment, this is you. Seriously, these types don't want to be coached or trained, or taught anything. They tend to do the exact opposite of what they are being coached to do. They must have the last word, and are hard to manage.

So, do you see yourself in any of these sterotypes?

Call reluctance can be overcome. This is very hard to summarize all the possible scenerios involved in any of these behaviors in a post, even if it longer than I usually write or you read. (LOL)

However, if you are struggling with prospecting, making phone calls, accepting yourself as a salesperson, I highly recommend this book and taking the short test at the beginning of the book.

There are solutions to call reluctance, and by identifying your dominant one, the others tend to cure themselves.

Think how much higher your sales could be if you were able to overcome call reluctance? 

What is your BIG WHY? ...and I'm not talking just $. 

***I am not paid to review this book,I don't know the authors,I just read the book,attended a 4 week training class at my office and wanted to share what I learned.***