595 — “Making call is fun – Aiming at appointments”. The opinion of Mareike Fromme, managing director of TelactivSeminare (Germany).

Dear readers of the sales department, do you belong to those people, whose daily instrument of work is the phone; which you sometimes would wish to be as far away as possible (preferably sent to e.g. the planet Mars, taken into little pieces)? Oh, I’m not speaking about that pleasant situation, when a client is calling “threatening” to spend a lot of money – but rather I’m hinting at those moments which are demanding for you, yes exactly you very specifically, namely: Calling costumers to get appointments.

If you tell me now: No problem! I’m always highly motivated, well organized, working with fun… really, be sincere, than you need not go on reading. Then you’ve already got all that your colleagues are only dreaming about. For all others: Find some time and reconsider your personal situation and your way of making appointments.

Then read this article and the ones to follow and keep to the idea what you can do in order to really have fun and success with the phone and – even more important – preserve this good mood and revive it from time to time. Learn to know yourself better and to think highly of yourself in order to do new things highly motivated.

So, close now your eyes and allow yourself 5 minutes to think how you act at the phone aiming at appointments.

The self-fulfilling prophecy – or: How do I achieve a bad mood?

Please always be careful to avoid this: The vicious circle of self de-motivation. It works in 6 stages.

Self-conception: “I don’t get an appointment anyway, I’ve got difficult clients!” Alternatively: ”My clients are never there!/I have all those old lists/They don’t want our stuff.”

Avoidance of the situation : “I don’t have time to make appointments.”

Lack of practice

Realisation: “It doesn’t work with making appointments!”

Confirmation: “I always knew it!”

See above no.1!

And there you are right at the beginning! Note: There is a devil deep inside each of us!!

Certainly you’ve seen this situation: An action on the phone, aimed at making appointments is to begin soon. You and your colleagues will do it. Don’t ever underestimate the importance of your very personal feeling doing it.
Let’s take a closer look. With prophecies of doom you would strengthen your inner devil significantly. To avoid an unpleasant situation you could find or rather invent many reasons: Why exactly I can’t do exactly this with those addresses this week.

It’s natural that you don’t want to concede this to your inner “ego”. “I don’t have time to phone” you might say. Perhaps you would say: “I have to visit an important client today”, “just now there is a conference which may take a bit longer and I have to summarize afterwards”, “goodness!

This should have been fixed last week already, and I’ve got to talk to colleague Smith, he always has good ideas. About customer care orientation. And after all, phoning for appointments are fitting in this picture, aren’t they?” Do you recognize yourself? Be honest! There always is a reason for not phoning today.

What nobody should underestimate is that a lack of practice will arise if you don’t do it. And then in due course you’ll find yourself unable because of this lack of practice. You don’t quite believe that? Even as an experienced phone-caller you will realize, that interruption is detrimental for your work.

And the longer the work is interrupted, the longer you’ll need to come back into your phoning-rhythm. The more ineffective your calls will be. And, who knows, just one of those warm-up calls is the one you’d have needed to make your day a successful one regarding your profits.

And then there is danger: Now you really have become unable to do your work and you realize categorically firm inside your head: “I can’t get appointments!” So you reach the conclusion: “I always knew!” That’s the devil in everyone, making life so hard.

“The reason is not wanting, not being able to is the pretext” (Seneca). As always in life there are perceptions and decisions which are right or seem to be right and others which are not.

Discerning is essential. Please look at the following statements and decide whether they are right or just seemingly so.

I have got difficult set of clients.

You voted “right”? Perhaps that’s correct. But please consider: Is it always true or only in respect to yourself? Perhaps the clients given to you simply don’t suit your education, experience, inclination.

Again: Is it really the client or is it you? If the answer is you, you’ve found a devil, a false one. But there are real devils do deal with. If there are reasons outside, e.g. if an individual product or service is offered in a segment of the market which is already satiated. Be objective in classifying the devils!

It’s difficult to get my clients to the phone.

If you answered “true” – have you checked why this is so? Can you specify days or hours? You haven’t? Then take a look at this: The best availability of different sets of clients (according Wolter, referring to Germany).

If you always call, for which reason so ever lawyers before noon you won’t be very successful in reaching anyone. The reason is simple: He is at court, which usually meets before noon. We have a real devil here! But it is you who falls into his trap by not calling those who would probably be present!

Clients don’t want this… There are certainly people who simply don’t want your product or service, which you value yourself so much. Learn to live with that NO is among the most difficult tasks working in the sales department. You have to master it.

But still more important remains the distinction between real and imagined devils.

“It’s exactly the inconsequences of a life which just have the greatest consequences” (André Gide).

Dear reader, take some time and try to find your inner devils and learn to work with them. Read in our next article how you can detect more of them and how to handle them in order to become more successful!

Mareike Fromme
fromme@telactivseminare.de
2003-04-07

Telactivseminare is acting in all fields concerning training and motivating people who have to work with the phone. Our activities aim both at outbound and inbound.

Mrs. Fromme looks back on 20 years of professional experience in training people. During her 12 years work at an important international insurance company she trained colleagues: outbound, inbound and executives of both. In this ways she acquired a broad know-how, deepened by experiences and contacts in other areas of business.

She is now leading Telactivseminare and flexibly offers individually composed inhouse-seminaries and open seminaries for outbound and inbound activities.

Em Foco – Opinião