Patti Wilson

Call Reluctance: the Cold Call, Networking, Ego-Busting Blues!



Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2007

by Patti Wilson
Career Company

One of the members of a job and career discussion egroup posted a query. His dilemma was familiar. Anyone in sales (which in his opinion includes basically any career there is, in its basic form) has or will experience "call reluctance." It is part of the sales process. You are looking for a job/prospect/contract/customer, and you cannot pick up that thousand pound phone.

Of the dozens of sales training courses he had taken, most recognize it but few give any practical solutions. He had spent at least a month developing prospect lists, all with key executive names and other criteria. He had researched cold-call approaches that should work. He was ready to rock but could not get the motivation! He wanted suggestions. He was inundated with practical suggestions, hands-on tactics, and helpful advice. People offered everything from gestalt transactional rehearsals, script writing ideas to using a buddy system to make the calls.

I am not surprised with the outpouring because call reluctance represents the core ego identity nerve struck in folks as part of the search/career change process. At some time or another, everybody touches this one, even the most gregarious, successful people. Some have sat across my desk as clients with the same questions on their lips, How do I get out there, if I am unwilling even pick up the phone or get out of the house?

Making cold calls, attending networking events, calling known contacts, introducing ourselves to leads and pursuing new career options all bring us up short with our self concept. Making contact with others during a job search inherently means that we are asking for something as in "I want a job or I want a new career. When selling a product/service we are calling with something to offer. We are responding to a perceived need of the customer or client with something other than ourselves. The difference is day and night for most folks because self promotion is intimately connected to self-identity and self-concept.

Outplacement firms, career programs and job search books teach how to talk about ourselves as if we were a product and how to use benefit statements called PSRs (Problem, Solution, Results) to sell ourselves.

ltimately we all still have to make those initial, personally vulnerable connections. Having to ask and promote ourselves is a real stopper. Even dating isnt such a big self-identity confrontation. Our very survival, life purpose, meaning and self-concept are wrapped up in what we do, how we contribute, where we belong and how we are affiliated. Is it any wonder we resist picking up the phone?

Isnt it easier to respond to a request than asking for something? A job posting on an email list, a job board or companys website invites us to respond. We dont have to ask. Our resume is being requested and so we respond endlessly and wait for their reply. It is no wonder the job posting egroups have swelled to thousands of new members.

Monster.com and Hotjobs seem to have endless new competition from niche job sites and lists sliced and diced by geography, gender, profession, industry, ethnic group or salary level. We all are waiting to be selected, chosen, and asked. Given the huge numbers of folks in the same boat, this method, by and large, fails to deliver the results we seek, namely a new job or career.

Even the most balanced, emotionally intelligent, self-secure individual is challenged to find meaning, purpose and a place to belong in an unpredictable economy. Its tough to ask for ourselves and offer ourselves up in the face of potential rejection. I have had some clients ask me if Id act as their agent, make the calls and represent them. Helping people learn to fish is more empowering than generating the meal for them. A number of job seekers continued to over-rely on headhunters for the same reason as they purport to fish for them. Lately their nets have come up empty.

There is no great over-arching solution or answer to the issues of self-concept that engender call reluctance (the tips and tools suggested were on the list were great). We all face it with it affecting us all to some degree. It is the human condition. However, the statistics give rise to concern and a need for understanding employment dynamics in the global economy. The median job tenure for wage earners in the US last year, according to the Department of Labor, was at the most 3.9 years in all age groups. That continues to be a declining number. Eventually a great many in the workforce will be having to ask for a job with more frequency and more confrontation of call reluctance.

From what I have seen, the degree of passion and engagement a person has in a specific profession or business, helps to determine the ease and ability to be out there and involved in it one way or another. If a hobby, avocation, or interest is pursued with more zeal than a current or new profession, then a chat with oneself may be in order.

About the author

Patti Wilson, a well known SF Bay Area career coach, owns http://www.careercompany.com . She has coached literally thousands of executives and professionals on job search, and career building from Fortune 500 and Global 1000 to small business and startup companies. She has a Masters in Career Development and is certified in Myers Briggs, Behaviordynes Behavioral Interviewing and the Predictive Index. Her 5000+ subscribers, online newsletter, http://www.theCareerzine.com , offers insights on employment. In the media, Patti has been frequently quoted or interviewed by PBS Radio's California Report, National Public Radio's Marketplace, Monster.com, Business 2.0/Fortune Magazine, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, CBSs Early Show, and USA Today.

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