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What happens when you’re talking with a prospect during a cold call and you start to realize there isn’t an honest “fit” for your product or service? Your prospect doesn’t have a problem, hassle, or challenge that your product or service solves. Well, the old cold calling mindset is “Chase everybody possible and focus on the sale and never take no for an answer!” So how does this new cold calling mindset work? Well, if you keep trying to push people into something they don’t want, you increase the chances of them rejecting you.
Overcoming Old Sales Conditioning Learning to walk away may be the hardest part of selling. We’ve been so conditioned to pursue anyone who we think could benefit from our solution or who shows interest in what we have to offer. It’s especially hard if we’ve been doing cold calling for a long time. We’ve been living with those beliefs for so long. Those old tapes are shouting, “Persist for that sale and never give up!” Those tapes play even when our intuition is telling us that it’s wrong and useless to go on pursuing. You may find it helpful to keep some written reminders, like “Go for the truth, not the sale” in front of you for a while so you can keep reminding yourself not to fall back into traditional sales thinking. The Benefits of Being Open It’s so easy to get hooked on “hopeium” in our cold calling. We’re hoping it will work out with each new prospect. We’re hoping they’ll buy. Even if you’re operating out of this new mindset, you may still find yourself hoping for positive responses, because you want there to be one. Remember that when you let go of your own agenda, the other person feels more comfortable having a real conversation with you. They realize you’re concerned about their needs, issues, and problems, and not about making the sale. When they realize and appreciate that you’re not going to try to pressure them with a solution that they don’t need, then they start to trust you.
And when they trust you, they’ll share their truth with you. If it turns out that the match isn’t there, you both know where you stand. You know the truth and won’t try to chase them down a road that will lead nowhere. Knowing When to Walk Away The are significant rewards of learning how to walk away and are a natural part of this new cold calling mindset. When you have a deep inner sense that there’s no match or fit possible, you may just want to thank them and let it go. You’ve built a trusting relationship because you were natural, genuine, and honest. And that could turn into referrals or a sale down the road. You also stop playing the numbers game. It’s no longer about how many people you call. Rather, your cold calling stays firmly focused on whether you can help people solve their problems. And as a natural part of this focus, you recognize there will be times when the answer is “no.” And you’ll stop wasting hours chasing prospects who will never turn into actual clients. Instead, you’ll conclude the conversation gently and politely, and then move on to spend your time with other possibilities. Cold calls are one-on-one transactions in which you’re reaching maybe a dozen people per day. So it’s vital that you focus your time talking with people you can possibly help. How To End The Conversation Once you realize that you don’t have a fit, here are a couple of ways you can end the conversation graciously: • “Thank you. That’s not a problem at all – my only goal was to identify whether I could help you or not. It sounds as if in this situation that I can’t. Thank you for your time, and have a good day.” • “Not a problem -- I just wanted to make sure that there wasn’t something here that I could help you with.” Then sit back and observe what happens. I’m sure you’ll be genuinely surprised to find that your cold calling efforts in general will have much better results.
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