The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance: Earning What You're Worth

Book Description
Sales call reluctance is the "social disease of the sales profession." The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance offers practical, field-tested and well-researched technologies to diagnose and overcome career-limiting emotions that keep talented, capable people from earning what they are worth.


From the Back Cover
Performance alone no longer determines success. Pioneering researchers Dudley and Goodson discovered something more important: self-promotion. Some of the most highly paid and powerful people did not attain their positions by being the most technically competent. They did it through purposeful self-promotion. Some people are natural self-promoters. They are born with the instinct to self-promote. For others, often the most loyal, motivated and deserving, self-promotion is emotionally difficult. They are rendered invisible by a spirit-crushing condition the authors call the fear of self-promotion. When the fear of self-promotion victimizes salespeople, emotionally limiting their ability to initiate contact with prospective buyers, it's tagged sales call reluctance. Far more than the fear of making cold calls or using the telephone, sales call reluctance obstructs all forms of prospecting for new business. And it costs. Each year, sales call reluctance single-handedly accounts for over half of all failures in one of the largest professions in the world. Although written primarily for salespeople, anyone who has to practice visibility management to get ahead can benefit from reading this book. Through anecdotes, examples and step-by-step directions, you will discover what sales call reluctance really is, how it cripples careers and how to keep it from limiting your career. "Your most valuable asset is your earning ability, and in this practical, insightful book, you'll learn how to increase your value and your income continuously throughout your career. It's worth its weight in gold." - Brian Tracy "The key to success and recognition...down-to-earth theories and practical advice." - -The London Financial Times "In today's global arena, where change rules and knowledge is power, you either are a leader or a loser. This book is your passport to survive and thrive in the new era. It will get you promoted instead of downsized, teach you how to become CEO of your own life and make your career 'fireproof'." --Denis Waitley


About the Author
George Dudley and Shannon Goodson are recognized as the world's leading authorities on sales call reluctance and the fear of self-promotion. For almost thirty years they have studied the reasons why so many talented, hard-working people fail to earn what they are worth. With backgrounds in science, research to them is not a hobby. It's a lifestyle. SPQ*GOLD, the intricate diagnostic test they constructed in 1982, is without peer as the only diagnostic test ever constructed which measures all 12 sub-types of sales call reluctance. It is one of the most extensively validated psychological sales assessment instruments in use today and is the most widely used test of its type in the world. Dudley earned a Bachelor's degree in psychology from Baylor University and a Master's degree in experimental psychology from North Texas State University. He began working with tests in the Field Testing and Evaluation unit of the U.S. Marine Corps and for many years headed the Field Testing and Research Department of a major U.S. corporation. His pioneering research into the Inhibited Social Contact Initiation Syndrome (ISCIS) and its offspring, sales call reluctance, is recognized by popular and professional media including CNN, the Financial Times of London, the Sydney Times Herald, and the American Psychological Association's Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. He has made countless appearances on radio and television news programs throughout the U.S. and in several other countries. Dudley's work has been honored in Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Who's Who in America and many other honorary publications. He is a member of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, The American Psychological Society, and the Southwestern and Southeastern Psychological Associations, and the Society for Applied Multivariate Research. Goodson holds both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in psychology from Lamar University. An experienced psychotherapist, author, researcher and counselor, she is also a noted expert on women in the business world. Her research is recognized by popular and professional media including CNN, The Australian, Dallas Woman, Texas Business and has been presented to professional associations including the European Congress for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. Goodson's work has been honored in Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who in America and many other honorary publications. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Southwestern and Southeastern Psychological Association.


Excerpted from The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance: Earning What You're Worth in Sales by Shannon L. Goodson & George W. Dudley. Copyright © 1999. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
It's a typical Monday evening at the United Metro Insurance Agency. Nancy, an agent for three weeks, sits at her desk. Now and then she glances at a nearby wall clock. She knows that prospecting for new business is critical if she is to succeed in her new sales career. But that awareness is not enough to immunize her against an involuntary, heart-pounding fear she can't understand or control. The selection psychologist who evaluates prospective salespeople strongly recommended Nancy for a career in sales. The standard paper-and-pencil psychological test administered during the selection process awarded her its highest score. She has the personality, intelligence and motivation to succeed in sales. She had been armed with newly sharpened interpersonal skills, an array of aggressively competitive new products, access to expensive state-of-the-art portable computers, and expert support from the home office. But Nancy is like the caterpillar who said to the butterfly as it winged effortlessly overhead, "You'll never get me to go up in one of those." Though equipped by nature and nurtured for success, prospecting scares her to death and keeps her career from ever getting off the ground. But today she is determined to get an appointment. So she draws a few deep, self-assuring breaths and reaches for the first card in her prospect card file. "I know what to say and how to say it," she reminds herself. Then she dials the number. As the phone rings on the other end, her resolve strengthens but her composure weakens. Her breath rate increases. Each breath becomes shallower than the one before. Her memory, usually saber-sharp, becomes murky and clouded over. Struggling desperately to conceal her discomfort, she begins her presentation in a voice which is now barely audible. "Hello, my name is Nancy..." Larry is a sales veteran. He has fought in the trenches since 1980 selling computer hardware/software products. He is undeniably dedicated and extremely capable in every respect except one-prospecting. While he has changed over the years as a sales professional, his production has not significantly grown. It remains at 1981 levels. Nonetheless, Larry likes to boast that he can "sell anybody, anytime, anyplace," and he probably can unless they happen to be physicians, lawyers, accountants or other up-market professionals and decision makers. Unfortunately for Larry, these groups represent the prime market for his company's new product line. Larry has been asked, begged and ordered to direct his sales calls to the company's primary market. He either can't or won't. He has been sent to psychiatrists, stress managers, and the best sales training seminars in his industry. He has listened to exhortations from motivational speakers, read inspirational books, and learned how to establish eye contact. But he is still downsighted. He can only set his prospecting sights in one direction, downward. His overworked rebuttal is, "I don't make calls on them SOB's." Our call reluctance research, the first of its type, was launched in 1970 under the misguided presumption that we were confronting a one-dimensional aggravation, like "shyness" or "timidity." But the view that call reluctance could be condensed to one or two tidy notions, such as "fear of rejection" or "fear of failure," soon broke under the strain of mounting evidence. By 1986, when the first edition of this book was published, nine types of call reluctance had been identified. Since then we have discovered three more. There are probably others. The custom of down-grading complex behaviors like call reluctance to simple-minded clichs like the "fear of rejection" is a venerable piece of nonsense. For some veteran sales trainers, the practice is still too entrenched to be displaced by objective evidence. Serious practitioners, however, have soundly discredited and permanently discarded these banalities. They know that the dark, mental landscape where call reluctance presides is more complicated than originally thought. It's a province where motivated, goal-directed ambitions are stalked by 12 separate specters, not just one. Remember Nancy and Larry? Nancy is fighting a form of call reluctance called Doomsayer. It's characterized by a paralyzing preoccupation with mental and physical safety that results in relentless preparation for things that could go wrong. Doomsayers tend to presume that things are bound to go wrong. They divert too much of their motivational energy to being prepared for the worst. They're perpetually on "red alert." To them, any risk taking is distressful. Since initiating contact with prospective buyers requires taking social risks, prospecting becomes difficult, if not impossible, for Doomsayers to do on a regular basis. They must first receive corrective training. Larry's sales career isn't suffering from vague psychological aches and pains like the "fear of rejection." He has Social Self-Consciousness Call Reluctance. Social Self-Consciousness Call Reluctance is an emotional condition that makes salespeople feel inferior to prospective buyers they consider socially or economically better off. Larry habitually permits himself to be intimidated by persons of wealth, education, prestige or power. He copes by avoidance-aiming his prospecting efforts downward. He sustains prospecting comfort by sacrificing one of his most lucrative markets. By doing so, he defaults on his performance objectives. It's a bitter trade-off. Social Self-Consciousness is particularly dangerous in salespeople whose companies routinely market to upscale clientele. Without proper training, salespeople with Social Self-Consciousness Call Reluctance can't make the grade.


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