"That's stupid! How can anyone be afraid of
the telephone?"
My daughter, Dixi, was responding to my description of telephobia—the fear
of using the telephone, one of the 12 types of Sales Call Reluctance. Her test
scores showed she did not have this type, and her derisive outburst made it
even more obvious. I responded in the only way I could to a teenage daughter
at that time, "Wait until you grow up and you'll understand."
She taught me a valuable lesson by her remarks. When someone does not have
a certain type of call reluctance, it is very difficult for that person to understand
how someone else could have it. Not only do they not understand the fear, they
regard it as a weakness or a fault. In Dixi's case, she saw it as "stupid" and
incomprehensible.
Telephobia is not the fear of the telephone!
Telephobia has actually got nothing to do with the telephone! We know this
because people with high scores have no difficulty using the telephone to order
a pizza or chat with a friend. In fact, they prefer this use of the telephone.
It's only when they have to use the telephone for prospecting or self-promotional
purposes that it becomes a monster machine, ready to bite their ear off if they
hold it too close.
Telephobia is often misdiagnosed. When salespeople avoid using the telephone,
the obvious diagnosis is telephobia, and managers jump on it. However, any one
of six other call reluctances can masquerade as telephobia: Doomsayer, Hyperpro,
Overpreparer, Yielder, Social Self-Consciousness, or Stage Fright. Any one of
these can cause the same apparent avoidance behavior in salespeople.
This is when a more accurate diagnosis is essential. The SPQ Call Reluctance
Test is particularly useful in this case because it pinpoints with laser-sharp
accuracy the types that prevent sales success.
- When Doomsayers avoid the telephone, it is usually because they are
afraid of a bad outcome. It has nothing to do with the telephone itself.
- Salespeople with Hyperpro Call Reluctance often avoid using the telephone
because they are afraid that this does not appear professional.
- Overpreparers never feel ready to make those telephone calls.
- Salespeople with Stage Fright Call Reluctance avoid the telephone but
only in crowded situations when there is a perceived audience.
- Yielders, afraid to intrude, avoid the telephone because they have somehow
intuitively discerned that the prospect is otherwise occupied and not ready
to talk to them.
- Salespeople who suffer from Social Self-Consciousness will make calls—but
only to those they consider on or below their own levels.
When telephobia is telephobia, it is always easy to correct. True telephobia
is the fear of using the telephone to prospect or self-promote, and this fear
is related directly to the telephone. Sometimes even the sight of the telephone
is enough to trigger this fear response.
Without proper testing, this trigger is hard to determine. One way is to
examine the object or event that triggers the avoidance behavior. This is not
easy since the person with telephobia is usually ingenious at explaining why
he or she will not use the telephone.
One of the most common comments from people who score high on this scale
is, "I prefer to deal face to face with a prospect." Somehow, they think all
other salespeople feel the same way.
When confronted with high telephobia scores, denial is a common response.
"Actually, I'm not afraid of the telephone," they will tell me, "It's just the
way the questions were asked on the questionnaire." What they fail to recognize
is that the questions are the same for everyone who completes the questionnaire.
When that is pointed out to them, their next defense is proof. "Anyone who knows
me will tell you that I am on the phone all day."
High telephobia scores indicate that either the salesperson is afraid to
use the phone or is conflicted about the fear. When this is explained, the next
rational explanation becomes, "Well, of course, I am conflicted. It's because
of all those pesky salespeople that call me when I'm about to have dinner. You
get them too, don't you? You hate them too, don't you?" Yes, but that does not
cause telephobia. If it did, then just about everyone in the country would have
it, including the pesky salespeople who call us.
With no defenses left, they resort to, "Well, I need to think this one through."
Telephobia Does Not Mean You Won't Use the Phone!
Too many times it is assumed that telephobia will stop salespeople from making
calls altogether. It probably will not. However, salespeople with high levels
of telephobia will almost always make fewer telephone calls than others and
will tend to stress themselves out more than most because of it. I have watched
salespeople with telephobia "psyche" themselves up to make a call.
In one mortgage office where loan officers were expected to make many telephone
calls during peak calling times, I watched one loan officer make two calls in
an hour, and both times he did not connect with anyone. He looked busy though.
He strained to study something on his computer screen, wrote furiously on a
notepad, then leaned back as if contemplating something profound. When he finally
dialed the number, his fingers were visibly trembling. When he got a recording,
the relief on his face was evident, and he gladly left a message asking the
prospect to call him back. He now had something to write in his log, and he
took some time doing it.
I could only imagine the stress this was putting on his mind and body. As
I watched him, I imagined his muscles tensing, his heart beating rapidly, the
knot forming in his stomach. I could see the tension in his face and the flush
of fear. I could also see the visible loosening like a rubber band that had
just been relaxed when the ordeal was over. This is what salespeople with high
doses of telephobia go through all day, everyday—until they learn to take control.
Is He in the Wrong Job?
Several years back, I spoke to the managing director of a telemarketing company
in New Zealand. He was puzzled because his telemarketers were not having the
success that he believed they should have. After much discussion, we narrowed
it down to one simple fact—they were not making enough telephone calls to sustain
the success rate they needed. After testing, we discovered high incidences of
telephobia in all of the under-performing salespeople.
"How do you explain that?" he asked me. "Why would anyone who is afraid
of the telephone apply for a job as a telemarketer?"
"What do you think?" I asked him.
"I guess they fool themselves," was his response.
"Funny," I told him, "They fooled you too because you hired them."
Perhaps he was right. Perhaps they did fool themselves. Denial plays a major
role in telephobia. After all, it's not logical to be afraid of an inanimate
object, especially one that does not intrude into your life until you pick it
up. Still, there are habitual responses that are hard to miss.
I have performed exercises with a telephone in workshops. You can spot the
telephobics. They are the ones who respond as soon as they see the telephone
even before they know what you're going to do with it. Eyes widen, some appear
to sink in their chairs, some suck in their breaths, while others go pale. They
don't realize they are responding in this way. These are habit-level responses
that hamper their ability to attain their goals and prevent them from comfortably
making the calls they need to earn the money they want.
I have watched salespeople in telemarketing pools. The telephobics tend to
expend an enormous amount of time and energy before they allow themselves to
settle down and make calls. They examine prospect lists, alphabetize them, and
even spell check them. They drink a lot of coffee. They practice their scripts,
then change them because they are not happy with how they sound. More coffee.
They go out for a smoke even though they don't smoke. They go to the bathroom
often because of all the coffee they drink. They stand in line at the bathroom
because that's where they find the other telephobics. At the end of the day,
they look at the time and decide, with relief, that it's time to go home. Then
they do it all over again in the morning.
What they fail to realize is that eventually none of us can escape the telephone.
When they finally make the call, a peculiar thing happens. Their fears are magically
transferred through the wires. The person on the other end does not hear call
reluctance; he or she hears something else that raises questions in their minds,
like "Does he know what he's talking about? Is he trying to steal my money?
Can I trust him? Does he want to marry my daughter?" Whenever we allow other
people to interpret our fears, we should not be surprised when they make the
wrong interpretations.
Telephobia Is Easy To Cure!
In their book, Earning What You're Worth;
the Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance (available from Sales Academy,
Inc.), George W. Dudley and Shannon L. Goodson explain how to fix telephobia
using several different methods. They suggest cures such as Thought Zapping (explained in a previous article)
as well as Thought Realignment and Threat Desensitization.
My favorite cure for telephobia is Threat Desensitization because it works
fast, is easy to do, and allows telephobics to get rid of it piecemeal. Even
though telephobia is easy to fix, telephobics have a hard time believing this.
Threat Desensitization allows them to wallow in this hopelessness while still
getting them to dismantle it piece by piece.
How does it work? Threat Desensitization works on the principle that the
fear of the telephone is not one thing but several pieces of one thing. It asks
you to break down the whole into the component parts and to rank these parts
in order of the amount of stress each one causes. Having ranked the different
parts, it now asks you to attack the least stressful part first and work your
way up through the others.
Elegantly simple, it wipes out telephobia within 2 weeks. After going through
this exercise, salespersons develop new habits, and calling becomes a matter
of doing one's job rather than an event to be dreaded.
Do they learn to enjoy making telephone calls to prospects? Mostly, no. Especially
cold calls. But neither do they fear them. However, they get the job done without
hesitation or avoidance, and this eventually translates into more sales and
more money. It also allows them to sleep better at night!
Other Sales Call Reluctance articles include the following:
Call Reluctance, the Fear-Free
Prospecting and Self-Promotion Workshop, and all related terms are copyrights
and/or registered trademarks of Behavioral Sciences Research Press, Dallas,
Texas. Sales Academy, Inc., is an Advanced Authorized Dealer for the Call Reluctance®
Program. Frank Lee is an international expert on Call Reluctance®. He can be
reached at (800) 898-3743 or at