Do you like cats? Have you ever picked up a cat to suddenly find out that the cat does not like to be held? Do you remember how it felt while that cat scratched and clawed their way out of your arms, and back down on the floor where they belong?

Going back to a personal experience I had with a cat, I remember finding a neighborhood cat named Rusty sitting in my back yard minding its own business.  Rusty was a large rust colored tabby, and I guess that's how he got the name 'Rusty'. Well anyway, as my story goes, Rusty was a friendly neighborhood cat, that is from a distance. As soon as you would approach Rusty, he would typically get up and run away like most cats do. However, during this chance encounter, this was not the case at all. Rusty stayed put.

As I approached Rusty, this time he surprised me, and he came closer. So I reached down and picked big old Rusty up off the ground. That was my first mistake. The second mistake was when I began to pet his head. Rusty did not like that at all, and he went absolutely crazy! He scratched me half to death all over my arms and chest, jumped out of my arms like a bullet, and literally jumped clear over a 6-foot stockade fence to get away. That was the last time I ever saw old Rusty!

The other day I made a sales call to a prospect. No, the prospect's name wasn't Rusty, but she exhibited a lot of 'Rusty-like' behavior. Let me explain...

As you listen to this recorded Gold Call telephone conversation you can hear how things started out quite cordially. The usual pleasantries were exchanged, and the gold call format was followed. As we progress forward to the later part of this conversation it becomes clear that this prospect did not like my assertive behavior one bit. That's when this prospect decided to 'scratch', 'claw', and hang up the phone on me. That's when I thought about Rusty.

Some prospects can be very friendly at first. However, things can go terribly wrong when picking up the tone of conversation, and getting down to business. These things can happen when you are dealing with the public, and especially with sales prospects. Like Rusty, some prospects have a natural tendency to get away quickly, and take some flesh with them as they reject your attempts at conversation. Some prospects can be like cats!

The lesson to be learned in all this is to be prepared at all times in your dealings with prospects during first chance encounters. Unless you are a mind reader, there's really no way to know whether you are on the phone with a 'Rusty', or a 'Sylvester'. Just recognize that staying true to your gold call dialogue means that you have done your job, and there is no need to take things ('the scratching') personally. Those 'cat scratches' from 'Rusty' sales prospects will heal, and you can move on to your next call knowing that it wasn't your fault. It was just some 'Rusty' prospect acting like 'Rusty'. It goes with the territory.