Prospecting is not a priority for Real Estate agents and business-to-business sales people.
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Sales scripts and prospecting scripts present a complicated problem for business training and sales training. Business-to-business salespeople and real estate agents consistently say that they like everything about their sales career but hate to prospect. The most difficult part of the business-to-business sales career is prospecting. Business-to-business salespeople and real estate agents agree that the worst part of their job is making a prospecting call to a potential customer.
Countless surveys show that the “number-one” reason in business-to-business sales and real estate agents is that they don't like making prospecting calls. The fact is that they don't have prospecting scripts to use to answer questions and objections that prospecting requires.
Business to business salespeople find it even more difficult because they’ve had more chances to experience the dreaded effects of making those sales calls. That old feeling never goes away. Who hasn't put off a sales call and prospecting call they didn't want to make?
Business to business salespeople and Real Estate agents may excel at what they do but get tongue-tied when it comes to approaching a new prospect. There is very little that is more intimidating then making prospecting calls without using a prospecting script to potential customers that they are unfamiliar with and don't know.
“Reluctance” or as it is called “rejection” is stated to be at the core of why salespeople hate their jobs.
The starting point of all business is prospecting and making the initial contact. Someone must make the call. If you don't make the call your competition will. In order talk about how to succeed in selling we must talk about why a salesperson fails. It’s a problem looking for a solution.
The greatest frustration of Business-to-Business salespeople and real estate agents and real estate trainers is getting people involved in prospecting for new business. They're faced with problems at every step of the prospecting process but they can't pin down the real problem. They don't even know what the real problem is in business-to-business prospecting and real estate sales that prevents a salesperson from prospecting for new business.
Making a prospecting call is the most disliked activity business-to-business sales and in real estate sales. In business-to-business prospecting, the fear of rejection, failure, and humiliation are not caused by what others do, but by what they say and how they say it. It’s never a physical attack but a verbal attack. The only way to avoid any type rejection is to avoid making phone calls in the first place. To avoid hostile prospects is to not make any calls at all and is not a good alternative.
Salespeople say they love to sell but hate sales prospecting. They dislike sales prospecting activities because of the perceived disapproval they get when making a phone contact to a potential prospect. Human nature tells them they are being personally rejected during the course of making a prospecting call to someone they don’t know.
Business-to-business salespeople and real estate agents calling new prospects may involve being subjected to humiliation and derogatory criticism. It is perceived as a personal attack that is hurtful and difficult to cope with. Salespeople may not have the skill and ability to counteract the things that other people are capable of saying to them.
Some cannot master the skills required for telephone prospecting of business-to-business sales and real estate sales forcing them to rely on other less effective methods of getting new business. Others spend enormous amounts of money on advertising, direct mail, and passive marketing in hopes of reaching the same person by making a prospecting call for free.
The avoidance is so strong that really state agents and business-to-business salespeople would rather sacrifice their potential success then take the risk of getting their feelings bruised. Some real estate agents and business-to-business salespeople salespeople would rather abandon their real estate career then deal with fear and rejection. No matter how much they like their work, getting a new prospect can be intimidating.
It all depends on “if" the salesperson has an unending "source of business." Conducting business-to-business sales and practicing your profession is only possible after you’ve done the prospecting for new business. If you have a steady source of potential business-to-business sales prospects or real estate prospects you need only to engage in the job at hand; that of exchanging products and services for money.
The key word is “if” you have a steady source of business sales. If you had a product that you could call a monopoly you would only need to fill out order forms & count your money. In a business world without competition that steady flow of customers would always be there.
The only way to avoid any type rejection is to avoid making telephone prospecting calls in the first place. To avoid hostile people is to not make any prospecting phone calls at all, .... and that is not a good alternative.
Business training and sales training teaches us that handling rejection instead of avoiding it is the key to success. Business-to-business salespeople and real estate brokers and real estate agents should understand that it is better to take rejection in stride instead of finding ways of avoiding it. They avoid making any prospecting calls to all but people they know. They should understand that the only thing keeping them from succeeding is the "fear" they harbor deep down.
Business-to-business salespeople and real estate agents take rejection personally. Their perception is reality in their mind. The real problem is not other people are not so friendly; it’s the inability to handle other people so they are not a problem in the mind of a salesperson. Rejection and fear are so personal that taking a logical approach to dealing with the problem is easier said then done.
Business-to-business salespeople and real estate agents communicate emotionally but disagree logically. Most sales scripts and prospecting stay at the emotional level of the prospect. Real estate agents and business-to-business salespeople hey rarely rise above the emotional level because they are taught to sell the prospect logically whenever possible. Instead of reacting coolly, salespeople tend to get involved in the conversation at hand and are reacting on the prospects terms.