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Would You Want to Call You?
by Julie Chance
What is your attitude towards a ringing telephone? Do you consider it an
interruption of your busy day or the source of potential business? When the
telephone rings do you think, "What do they want now?" or "I wonder what awesome
opportunity awaits me at the other end of the line?"
For most of us our initial contact with prospective customers is via telephone.
And it seems increasingly that we are answering our own phones - at all times of
the day and night. So what message are you communicating when you answer the
phone? Is the tone of your voice telling customers and prospective customers
that they are the most important thing in your life at that moment? Or are you
telling them - simply by your tone - that they are an unimportant interruption
to your busy day? Does the way you answer the phone - and I'm not talking about
what you say but how you say it - make people glad they called and cause them to
want to develop an ongoing relationship with you and your business?
One of my college roommates used to insist that we let the phone ring twice
before we answered it. After all, we didn't want the guys to think we were
sitting by the phone waiting for them to call. And this is good advice when
answering your business phone as well. Not because you don't want prospective
customers to think you are sitting by the phone waiting for them to call - but
because it will give you a moment to change your frame of mind - to shift your
attention from what you are currently doing to the incredible opportunity that
may be awaiting you when you pick-up the telephone.
Pausing a few seconds before you answer the phone will give you the opportunity
to give the ringing phone your undivided attention and change your frame of mind
from "What do they want now?" to "What fabulous opportunity awaits me?" If you
can't give the call your undivided attention, if you can't muster the enthusiasm
to greet the person on the other end of the line - regardless of who it is --
like you have just been waiting to talk to them, then don't take the call. The
caller doesn't know they are intruding on your lunch meeting or that you have
just started an important meeting, so if you choose to answer the call, be
careful not to make them feel like an interruption.
Do you want to capture the power of the telephone as a sales tool? It doesn't
require hours of dreaded cold calling. It simply requires answering your phone
each and every time regardless of what you are doing and regardless of what may
appear on your caller ID like there is an amazing opportunity awaiting you on
the other end of the line.
Next time your telephone rings stop what you are doing, say to yourself, "I
wonder what tremendous opportunity this call is going to bring", and answer the
phone like you are expecting this to be the call that brings you the that big
break - the big sale you've been dreaming of, or that contact who can put you in
touch with the CEO you've been wanting to meet. Put a note on your phone if it
helps that says "This call is bringing me a remarkable opportunity" and harness
the power of the telephone as a sales tool.
© 2007 STRATEGIES
More next month...
Best wishes,
"There is marketing that snores or bores. Then there
is marketing that roars. Make your marketing roar!"
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