Marketing consultant Kevin Kolman says there’s no place in a sales call or formal presentation for fear.
Kolman, owner of Fairview Park-based Valugraphix, says overcoming anxiety is learning that a prospect’s negativity or disinterest isn’t always based on lack of preference for products. “There are a lot of factors you have to consider,” Kolman says. “Maybe they were just having a bad day. But if you get a guy with the same negativity twice, you leave them alone and go somewhere else.”
That’s because there is always someone who does want to do business with you. “The worst anyone can do is say ‘no,’” Kolman says. “My adage is ‘Some will, some won’t, so what, who’s next?’ That’s how I got through all those objections early on.
“You have to take that negative situation and make it work somehow,” he says. “At least, make the prospect commit to getting what you’ve brought with you—either products or information—and then following up with them for another meeting. But you have to have patience and understanding when you’re out there. Things happen.”
