Fear of Phoning?

Recently while discussing a young man's business with him, he spoke about how hard it is to get on the phone and call people. Using the "fear of phoning" phrase, I pressed the importance of making appointments. Rather quickly, he corrected me; "I'm not afraid of phoning. It's just such a waste of time because nobody picks up the phone anymore."



In the past, and probably today too, we were afraid to call because we knew what the answer would be - "no", "too busy" etc. Add to that not being able to reach someone and "fear of phoning" takes on a whole new level.



This is an area where goal setting is advantageous. Decide on the number of phone calls to make each day. Set a minimum number of reaches you will accept. Have your thoughts together so that when you do reach someone you'll speak intelligently. Perhaps in the middle of your calls you should call a friendly customer so that your spirits will remain strong. Make the calls at odd times of the day - before 8 a.m., during lunch (not everybody goes out!), after 5 p.m. Leave concise messages and perhaps follow-up a message with a piece of snail-mail like a post card etc.



Don't hate the process. It is what it is and it needs to be accepted as part of business and move on. But this does underscore the fact that when you get the face to face meeting you must make a good impression, start a relationship and leave yourself in a position to be able to reach the client or get the call back.



What do YOU do to reach people? Let us know !