3 Cold Calling Lessons from Disney's Incredibles
These three techniques will help keep your sales people from falling into the monologuing trap.
By David Walter •
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Buddy: "You can't count on anyone especially heroes!"
Mr. Incredible: "I was wrong to treat you that way, I'm sorry".
Buddy: "See now you respect me because I am a threat that is the way it works, turns out there are a lot of people, whole countries, that want respect and they will pay through the nose to get it; how do you think I got rich? I invented weapons and now I have invented a weapon that only I can defeat and when I unleash ... you sly dog you got me monologuing."
The running joke in the Incredibles is that superheroes can get evil villains to talk about themselves at length. Ironically, Mr. Incredible uses it as an attempt to escape from Syndrome's clutches. It's not just evil villains that can be defeated with a bad monologue, but it's also the weakness of most salespeople and cold calling representatives when they start picking up the phone and dialing.
The number one mistake new cold calling representatives commonly make in this area: monologuing. The truth is that when you start talking at great length about yourself, your product or services, the prospect will disengage. This means they tune out and stop listening to cold callers drone on without asking questions, which makes it extremely difficult for an inexperienced cold caller to succeed.
How can this bad habit be fixed?
1. Know what causes monologuing
The primary reason a cold-calling rep will start monologuing is due to nervousness and the release of adrenaline. This chemical can be responsible for rapid speech patterns and forgetfulness. When this feeling goes untreated, it could cause you to quickly lose your prospect's attention.
Related: 5 Cold-Calling Myths That Keep Businesses in the Matrix
2. Use a breathing exercise
You can combat the negative impact of a nervous adrenaline dump into your bloodstream by using an aggressive breathing strategy. The idea when you start feeling anxious is to take in deep breaths, then slowly exhale. Now combine this breathing exercise with saying a mantra out loud or under your breath. You could say confidence-building phrases like "I'm going to be amazing at starting conversations and engaging prospects by taking a genuine interest in them."
Related: How to Get Over the Most Challenging Part of Cold Calling
3. Focus on what you want
Lastly, don't make the mistake of focusing on the thing you don't way. As Tony Robbins says, Where you focus goes energy flows. So avoid saying that you won't start monologuing in your mantra because you will find yourself falling into the monologue trap more often. Also, make a point to have the questions you're going to ask prospects prepared before you ever pick up the phone and start dialing.
You don't want to end up like an evil villain who can get tricked into monologuing. It's easy for your brain and voice pattern to make you go off on one long sentence, but with these cold calling tips it won't happen.
