of these problems.
Therefore, because of all the issues and questions it creates, sending an email is actually worse than doing nothing at all!
The Customer Gets to Experience That You Care
I will never suggest that you need to care more.
I think you care more than enough. Most salespeople care a great deal.
The problem is, most salespeople care in silence.
We don't let people know that we care.
How do you let somebody know that you care?
By showing up.
By being present.
By calling on the phone when nothing is wrong and saying, “Tom, I was thinking about you. How is your family? And what are you working on these days that I can help you with?”
When you don't make proactive calls, your customers and prospects do not think about you.
But when you do make proactive calls, they know you care about them.
They know you're interested in helping them (because you will actually say these words – I'd like to help you).
And you're probably the only one showing up like this.
And so, I am not suggesting you need to care more.
What I'm suggesting is that you communicate that care a little bit more.
With some proactive calls.
You Will Build Relationships in Record Time
Proactive calls supercharge relationships, especially when compared with the generally silent competition.
Proactive calls tell customers you are interested.
Proactive calls make you present in front of the customer.
This is impressive to your customers.
When you call, your customers will trust you faster.
They will expand their business with you faster.
Know what else will happen when you call your customers when nothing is wrong?
They will also call you.
Proactive calls generate incoming calls.
And quite frequently, these incoming calls will result in business.
Proactive Calls Take Timing Off the Table
When you reach out to customers and prospects only sometimes, when you happen to think about it, you are at the mercy of timing.
If they don't have an itch that you are offering to scratch at the moment you call, you will not get the business.
That's a hard way to live, because the odds of the timing of their need lining up with your rare communications are really bad.
But when you call systematically, you are constantly in your customers' minds, while your competition is not.
When you are present in their system, it takes the timing off the table.
That is, it doesn't matter when your customer has a need for your goods or services, because whenever they need something, they'll simply pick up the phone and call you.
When you are consistently present, the customer will always think of you.
It's like placing a backscratcher on your customers' and prospects' desks.
And the backscratcher has your name on it.
So when the itch comes, they pick up the only backscratcher on their desk.
They scratch, and you get paid.
There is simply no other communications method that will generate all these benefits.
And there is certainly no other way to create these benefits with such speed.
You could go from an empty pipeline to one that's bursting at the seams in short order if you systematically make proactive phone calls!
WHAT ABOUT MEETINGS?
But you might be thinking, meetings are more effective than phone calls.
This is probably true.
But here's the thing about meetings: you can only have so many in a day.
A perfectly planned, very busy day might get you a handful of meetings.
You can make the same number of phone calls in less than 30 minutes.
If you get voicemail, which is more likely than not, your five calls take 5 to 10 minutes – and that's with leaving a message.
There's one more important thing: we tend to have meetings with people we know well.
Good customers, usually. Often, our very best customers.
Everyone else doesn't get to see us very often.
But phone calls take us well beyond this group.
Phone calls take us to people we don't know as well.
Which means we get to call people who are currently buying at least some products and services from our competition.
With proactive calls, we get to expand our wallet share and our market share – and the likelihood of expanding and growing our business goes way up.
Because we're communicating with people we normally would not meet with.
CHAPTER 5 WHY WE AVOID THE PHONE
If proactive calls are so singularly effective for expanding your pipeline, creating new opportunities, moving existing ones forward, cementing your relationships, and creating new business, why don't more people sell with the phone?
There are a number of reasons – both practical (not enough time) and mindset (fear of bothering or upsetting the customer). I will focus on the real-world, practical reasons in this chapter, briefly touch on the mindset issues, and dive into them in much greater detail in Part 2 of this book.
PRACTICAL REASONS WE DON'T PICK UP THE PHONE
Many of the reasons we avoid the phone are mindset- and fear-based. I will review these in the next section and
