How to identify the best sales channels and overcome call anxiety
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rejudice against a specific channel comes from reps feeling uncomfortable with using it. The best way to overcome this challenge is to acquire the skillset necessary to manage the channel effectively.
“Quite frankly, most things don’t work if you’re not that good at them. And call anxiety is a real thing. To build confidence though, you have to give people a structure and a framework to make cold calls. I think as soon as you get a methodology to leverage a structure or a format, then things start to get easier: you’ve got an actual thought process to what you’re doing.”
For Richard, once this framework is in place, coaching makes the difference between great and average sales teams. Yet, often organisations fall short on this aspect, and Richard has one key suggestion about it:
“A lot of people feel like what they’re doing is coaching. But that’s not being perceived in the same way by the reps. What salespeople are actually seeing is being interrogated on their deals and the number of calls. What you need instead is a support mechanism, and coaching is a skill that you have to develop, I’m always trying to get better at it myself.”
Approaching the C Suite
Most inexperienced sales reps dread calling the C Suite. The task seems too daunting for them, especially at the beginning of their careers. Richard has one final word of advice for them:
“Typically, they are the people who are most open to speaking on the phone. If you talk about the things they care about, they’re going to hear you out. And secondly, believe it or not, they’re actually the people who are getting prospected less because there’s loads of people who are too scared of contracting.”
durhamlane has developed a program that enables our reps to prospect, on behalf of our customers, into the C Suite with no prior experience. This is part of our unique methodology called Selling at a Higher Level and feeds into the support structure and coaching schedule our SDRs can count on. Reach out today to understand how we can help you overcome your B2B sales challenges, and to hear more thought leadership in sales and marketing listen to The Insiders podcast.