Call Reluctance: Most AEs won't admit they have it.

Call Reluctance: Most AEs won't admit they have it.

But nearly every sales leader I speak with says half their AEs don't pick up the phone because of it.

Call reluctance happens for two reasons:

⛔️ 1) Lack of enablement

Of course I'll be timid about calling if I haven't been taught how.

There's still this idea many sales leaders have of "pick up the phone and make it happen."

You need a PipeGen playbook that briefs reps on persona-based messaging. Provides talk tracks. Objection handlers. And email snippets/templates they can customize.

Don't expect AEs to make calls without being trained on it.

⛔️ 2) Lack of belief

Are your reps drinking the company Kool-Aid?

Another way of asking this: “If you had each rep rate 1-10 how much they believe in your company’s solution, what would it be?”

If it’s not a 9 or 10, outbound will be tough.

This is key for overcoming call reluctance.

The more you believe in your company, the more confident you’ll be when you’re prospecting. And confidence is a HUGE part of cold calling.

If you’re a sales leader, make sure your team spends time doing the following:

✅ Pouring through every case study, success story, and testimonial relevant to your ICPs & personas in detail

✅ Talking to the veteran, more successful reps

✅ Interacting with customer success or your delivery team to understand the problems you’re helping your customers solve

✅ Talking to the persona at your company that best represents your prospects (e.g. if you prospect to CFOs, have your reps talk to your CFO)

✅ Listening to recorded sales calls and demo calls

✅ Reading every single review on G2 or any other site

✅ Analyzing successful cold calls and cold emails

Bonus points if you:

✅ Run fireside chats with your customers so reps can ask questions

✅ Don't just share sales wins in your Slack channel—share when customers win

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Don't expect AEs to pick up the phone without great enablement. And building up their confidence.