“How can I make myself do phone calls?”
I have heard this question again and again from clients in industries ranging from financial planning to direct sales to graphic design. There are even coaches who have built their entire practices teaching strategies to get on the phone without fear. But the truth is, there is only a small handful of business owners who absolutely must get on the phone in order to succeed.
I have a different approach, and one I know you’ll like. Ready for the one step to solve your call reluctance? Here it is:
Step 1: Stop wasting your time making phone calls, and instead invest your energy in activities that you’ll do with confidence and without resistance.
Resistance wastes valuable time. Even if phone calling has brought results in the past, if you take 4 days to work up the nerve to pick up the phone, you’ve wasted 4 days you could have been emailing or texting or in some other way reaching out to potential clients.
Times have changed. Stop buying the myth that phone calls are the end-all be-all of marketing activities. Phone calls used to be accepted as most effective way to reach people. These days, the majority of people reluctantly answer their phone (or don’t), they don’t listen to voicemail, and tend to want to spend as little time on the phone as possible. Phone calling is no longer the gold standard for communication with prospects.
No, it’s not a cop-out. Don’t judge yourself for deciding not to make phone calls, and to move on to actions you don’t resist and actually (gasp!) enjoy. It’s your business. You’re allowed to make executive decisions on how to run it. You have tons of options: email, social media, note cards, texting. Find alternative activities that work for your prospects, and lead to the results you want.
So give yourself a break. Keep consistently reaching out to prospects, just do it in a way that doesn’t stress you out.
