It's a mixed bag in regard to cold calling. Maybe you've experienced it from the other side as a potential lead or prospect and were caught at a bad time. Maybe you were brisk with the person or brushed them off. Whatever the reason, you could have a negative association with cold calling, even before you end up being on the sales side. Then you realize that it's a nervous and daunting task.
Cold calling is effectively reaching out to someone you don't know much about and trying to complete a sale with them. Many may tell you that cold calling is dead, and there are effective alternatives to cold calling through digital marketing.
However, think to yourself, when was the last time that an email marketing newsletter was an effective way to get you to make a purchase? Digital marketing has actually taken away from the personal touch that should be coming from sales. Instead of getting that intimate communication, we end up being bombarded with proposals from all these different angles, trying to vie for our attention.
Table of Contents
1. How to get over the fear of cold calling
Let's get to the heart of the problem. You don't want to appear like a pushy salesperson over the phone when you call. Instead, you want to sound genuine and authentic and try to build rapport with someone. Yet, guess what? You are a salesperson, and in fact, the quicker you embrace that, the sooner you'll start being able to succeed. So you don't want to sound like anything else but a salesperson.
That means you want to come up with a friendly and understanding tone and realize that your profession, in the end, is the most critical to any company. Whether you're a start-up or an established hundred-year business, sales are at the root of every single organization. Without it, a company cannot continue to grow or expand. That means, for better or worse, a salesperson is not only a necessary position but may also be the most important one ever.
From an external perspective, you're there to offer a product that's meant to help alleviate an issue, support an expansion for a business, or even be a way for a company to invest its funds and grow in that direction. Either way, you are there providing a solution to a business that may have a problem your solution can resolve. The key, of course, is to find the right connection.
Atychiphobia is holding you back
And yes, the main reason that you or others may have cold calling fears is that it's actually related to a fear of failing that's medically known as Atychiphobia. It can actually activate your fight or flight sensations because of having that much of a fear of making that call. That doesn't mean you want to use that as a crutch and go around saying you cannot make cold calls because of a label. As with anything you fear, you need to work on overcoming it, and the only method to do that is to dive into the deep end.
2. That first call
Think of it this way; you will only have that first cold call once in your life. After that, it's all about training your cold-calling muscles. Like you do cardio or free weights in the gym, you want to have the ability to train this and keep practicing. Eventually, it'll become as natural as breathing because you've gotten accustomed to it. Of course, it takes a different amount of calls before someone is comfortable, but eventually, you will become comfortable.
The problem can come from even getting through to that first call. Your body will do everything it can, and your fear will go through the roof possibly. What you should do instead is to get it over with as quickly as you can and move on.
Realize that not every call needs to be along the lines of "would you like to buy product x." Instead, it can be something like, "I'm calling today to send you a free analysis." That shows there's no concrete decision that you need to make that day, and it can help convert that cold call into warmer leads down the line. There's nothing to lose, and nothing horrible will happen if someone says no to you or your pitch. It may feel like a rejection, but that doesn't mean it needs to linger with you.
You need to see this as a numbers game eventually, and as you go beyond that first call, you'll start to hone your pitch and your knowledge and start being able to convert those no's into yeses. That can only happen if you're actually trying to do cold calling and close out those deals.
3. Preparation is key with cold calling
One way of getting over the fear of cold calling is the right amount of preparation beforehand. The main worry is that you don't know who you're calling. Figure that out ahead of time. Do some research on the person or at least the company. Get to know and predict where your product can provide the necessary support or solution to the person you're going to talk to.
Speaking of the product, if you must build up the courage, so to speak, to get to that first call, at the very least, spend that time mastering the product you're looking to sell. You need to understand the product the most and adapt the conversation quickly to make it relevant to the person you're calling.
Practice speaking and finding your key talking points. You want to come off as enthusiastic, energetic, and, most importantly, positive. You are making a sales pitch, but that doesn't need to feel like a burden. Show that you care. Bring the authenticity in the fact that your sales pitch is there to relieve a workplace nightmare of sorts and that this call was serendipitous.
4. Understand the rewards of success
Keep in mind that cold calling is only deemed difficult because not enough of the right people are involved in it. As a result, there's a push to get back to cold calling to bring back a more appropriate sales connection than randomized emails, social media posts, or even text messages.
A cold call means effort has been initiated, and it's one of the key skills to master in sales.
If you want to become a top producer in your career and in sales, then this is something that you're going to need to branch out into and start looking at the positives. Then you can stop fearing the cold call and start focusing on the metrics. You can begin to see how long it is between a call and a sale and see that gap shorten over time. You can see that calls you may have made in the past come back to you as warmer leads for you to close.
It's all about getting you out there and knowing that, as a salesperson, your job is to not only sell but solve problems. Always remember the value you bring to any organization, and also remember to celebrate every success; you deserve it!
5. How to get to that success
When you're ready to get moving and empowered with cold calling, you'll want to ensure that you have the right data set in front of you. Remember all that preparation we discussed? That leads to creating a sales data list that is ready for you to take action on. There's no need to expend energy on wrong numbers or not be able to reach the right decision-makers. That's where Nymblr comes in
We help to provide you with over 35 million mobile numbers, helping you find the right leads every time. Our B2B platform is also able as a white label and built to integrate with any systems via API. We keep our pricing affordable and work to validate contact information, especially with emails, to avoid bounce rates in that arena. Get your B2B contact list for your specific industry today at Nymblr.
Try Nymblr for free today and stop overpaying for contact data and user seats.