Focused Business Action

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Guest post by Chellie Campbell

“I don’t care how many degrees you have on the wall, if you don’t know how to sell, you’re probably going to starve.”—George Forman

When you think about “selling”, do you get excited and happy? Or do you wrinkle your nose, back away, shake your head, and think, “That’s the worst part of being a small business owner”?

If you’re getting all the clients you want from your internet marketing, fine. It helps if you’re famous, have a best-selling book, have at least 10,000 names in your data base. But if you don’t, and you weren’t in “The Secret” or on “Oprah” or “Larry King”, you get clients because people know you and trust you. They want to work with you because they like you and they believe you like them. You aren’t going to be able to establish that with most people in a generic email.

It takes about 12 “touches” before someone feels safe enough to buy from you. They have to hear about you, meet you, talk to you, read about you, talk to you again, see you speak, read your article, get a couple of emails, talk to you again, visit your web site, read your book, talk to someone else about you, and THEN they may be ready to buy your stuff!

Recently, I asked Joel Libava, The Franchise King, what was the number one reason most business owners were unsuccessful. He answered bluntly, “They can’t sell.” One reason many small business owners can’t sell is because they have the wrong attitude about selling. They think a sales call is asking people to give them money. Especially when you’re in a helping profession – making a call to someone to ask for money is hardly an empowering psychological position.

They have it backwards. Selling is what you do to serve the customer. You are searching for the people who need what you have and you are helping them to have it. There are people praying for a great coach, or chiropractor, or real estate professional, but they don’t know who to hire and they are afraid of making a mistake. Making a sales call is the sacrifice you make on behalf of someone else out of your sincere desire to help them.

Make Gold Calls, Not Cold Calls

Cold calling sounds like what it is—harsh and cold. But since the money is in the phone, I call it “Gold Calling.” I painted gold dollar signs on my telephone which reminds me to dial the golden phone. All the money you want is waiting for you at the other end of the phone, but you have to pick it up and reach out and touch someone.

Cold calling works. But the percentage of sales is very small in relation to the number of calls you have to make. So I prefer to network. Then all of my calls are “gold calls”. I’ve met these people already and we have a mutual interest in each other. This is a much easier phone call to make than a cold call to someone you don’t know.

Making calls to people after a networking event is the single most important action missing from most business owners’ game plan. They are happy to go to the meetings, eat, and say hello to people. They think the idea is to give everyone their business card. They have the illusion that if people are interested, they will call.

Why People Don’t Call You

Let me give you a tip: They aren’t going to call. Why? Because they have a life, they need clients themselves, they have another appointment, it’s their mother’s birthday, they have to wash their hair. They have fears. They have objections: you’re going to charge too much, they really should remodel their house first, it’s their daughter’s birthday tomorrow, maybe you aren’t really the best one for the project, they’d have to convince their Significant Other and that might mean an argument and that would lead to problems and oh it’s just easier to forget the whole thing…

Calling strangers on the phone is scary—that’s why it’s a sacrifice. You don’t know how you are going to be received. What if they’re angry and mean to you? What people want most in the world is love and acceptance and the biggest risk when you call a stranger is that you not only won’t get loved, but you’ll get screamed at.

“Let me Tell You About Me!”

Then there are all the people who do pick up the phone and make the sales call, but who do it badly. They call and immediately start talking about themselves: “Hi, this is JimmyBobLinda. Let me tell you about me!” That’s an immediate turn-off. And right then, when their prospect is turned off, they launch into a long presentation about themselves. You instinctively know this person is focused on their own needs and problems and not on serving you.

Call people, but don’t try to sell people your product or service in the first minute. Get to know them. Ask them about themselves. Ask questions to find out if they might be someone who needs what you have. Wait until they ask you before talking about your product or service. Then they are a willing listener and you have an opening to interest them in what you have to offer.

But no business is going to get transacted after a networking meeting unless someone makes a phone call. Somebody has to go first. And since you’re reading this, that somebody is you.

And let me give you another tip: What goes around comes around. If you want people to return your phone calls – return theirs!

Chellie Campbell is the creator of the Financial Stress Reduction® Workshops, and author of The Wealthy Spirit and Zero to Zillionaire. She has been prominently quoted as a financial expert in the Los Angeles Times, Good Housekeeping, Lifetime, Essence, Woman’s World and more than 50 popular books. She can be reached at Chellie@chellie.com

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