How To Get Over The Fear Of Cold Calling To Set Sales Records
Are you sick of having cold calling anxiety and want to get over the fear of cold calling? Well, you aren’t weird, most people feel that way, the fear of cold calling is pretty normal, but it can be fixed. Cold calling anxiety is usually because you have the wrong mindset and approach when it comes to cold calling. In this post, I’ll cover some tips on how to overcome the fear of cold calling.
The fear of cold calling is normal
Here’s the thing, most people think that top sales professionals don’t have a fear of cold calling or that cold calling anxiety can 100% be cured. To some extent this is true, but the reality is everyone deals with the fear of cold calling, but with the right strategies you can greatly reduce call reluctance.
When most people think of cold calling they think of trying to sell and convince some stranger that isn’t interested in what you offer, and that they should buy it. This isn’t really the case. A professional salesperson doesn’t try and convince those who aren’t interested, they sort through those that aren’t interested until they find those who are interested and open.
At this point, you begin the selling process. So one way to get rid of cold calling anxiety and to get over the fear of cold calling is to shift from trying to convince to sorting.
You are still “cold calling” because you may not have had any contact with this person before, but you find out if they are open to your offer first, before trying to sell. If they aren’t open or interested you move on. Following this sorting, not selling approach will increase your sales and help you get rid of call reluctance.
If you’ve ever felt like the phone weighed 100 pounds and you could barely pick it up to make a call, this mindset shift from selling to sorting will help.
Getting past call reluctance and cold calling anxiety starts with your invite
One major area that can create cold calling anxiety and fear of calling, is that your invite was focused on the wrong thing. Most people when they are new to network marketing or building a business, start with a mindset of how can I sell this person.
Again this is coming from the convincing perspective rather than the sorting perspective. When you are focused on just making the sale, and not how can I help this person, you set yourself up for failure.
Being an all-around introvert myself, I had a ton of cold calling anxiety when I first got started in business and sales. Mostly this came from my incorrect belief that selling was trying to convince someone who didn’t want my products or business that they needed to sign up. I combined that with my invites that were focused on convincing, rather than asking probing questions to determine a need first.
In sales, you are looking for people who are looking for you. Click To TweetWhen you adjust your inviting process to focus on finding out if people are open to the benefits of the products you sell, it can be an effective way how to overcome the fear of cold calling and cold calling anxiety.
A general example of this type of invite might go something like, “Hey I’m just curious if I could show you a way to get (benefit from what you sell), would you be open to checking it out?” With this invite, you aren’t trying to sell the product or service, until someone agrees they would like to receive those benefits.
How to overcome the fear of cold calling and cold calling anxiety – Focus on them
When you have shifted your mindset from how can I sell this person, to how can I help this person, it can help to get rid of the fear of cold calling. Start focusing on them, and your cold calling anxiety will start to melt away.
The best way to focus on them is to first see if they are open to your offer by listening to them and looking for pain points you can help solve.
For example, if you were promoting a network marketing business, you might be listening for and asking questions to discover problems around dissatisfaction with their job. Or you could just ask if they would be open to something extra if it didn’t interfere with their current work.
Again you aren’t there to convince them they need to do something they don’t want to. When you find out first if they are open to what you have, and then they are, you won’t have to feel like you are forcing something on them.
Talking to potential customers who are open and interested in what you have can go a long way to reduce cold calling anxiety. On top of that, I would go so far as to say if they are open to your offer, you aren’t really cold calling anymore, because they want to hear about what you have.
Practice your scripts to become great in sales and get over cold calling anxiety
One of the biggest reasons I had a fear of cold calling when I first started in business and sales was because I had no idea what to say. I think this is why most people struggle in sales because they feel like they are going to end up like a “deer in headlights” and be at a loss for words.
This can happen when you don’t have a framework to go by during your selling process. However, this fear of cold calling and the cold calling anxiety I experienced, in the beginning, was coming from not knowing what to say to be effective.
Once I learned the best scripts for network marketing, for example, I no longer felt fearful to talk to people about my business. When you know what to say, and the likely response from your prospects, you now can control the conversation.
You’ll find that the more sales calls that you make, most people have similar concerns, and objections, and often even responses to things you say start to become the same. This is why practicing your craft and developing your sales skills on an ongoing basis is so important.
Once you know exactly what to say, and have practiced it enough to become unconsciously good at it, making sales becomes a numbers game. Check out the video below to learn 9 easy steps to become great at sales!
How to overcome call reluctance by generating your own leads
Another very effective way to overcome call reluctance is to start to generate leads yourself. It’s a lot easier, and less stressful, to talk to people reaching out to you, vs trying to cold call and reach out to random people.
Even with generating your own leads, I’ve found people can struggle with call reluctance issues. I had a lot of call reluctance when I first started in sales. However, If you continue to focus on your prospect’s needs, it gets easier. Learn to ask probing questions and dig deeper on how you can help your potential customer or business partner.
Find out what their struggles are, what they are looking for, or their goals, and it becomes very simple to lead into your solution. On top of that, if you are starting to generate your own leads with phone numbers, those people WANT you to call them.
People don’t leave their phone numbers if they don’t want to be called or aren’t looking for help. When you look at it like that, you are actually doing them a disservice by not calling them.
They are basically asking for help, so you are there to do just that. Knowing that you are focused on finding a way to help your leads and not just sell them, it can reduce cold calling anxiety.
How to generate your own leads instead of cold calling leads
Again if you are having people reach out to you, it becomes a lot less stressful to call a lead. So what are the first steps to generating leads instead of cold calling leads?
Well, you need to lead with value. Leading with value and solving problems your target market has will start to attract leads to you. When you follow this attraction marketing process it can eventually eliminate cold calling altogether.
Let’s take for instance you are looking to generate real estate leads. Well if you are a real estate agent, think about who an ideal client would be for you.
Probably first time home buyers right? A lead that is reaching out to you looking to buy their first home is much easier to talk to. This will be a breath of fresh air to you rather than cold calling someone.
Having first time home buyers reaching out to you, seeking your advice would certainly make it easier. In this scenario, it’s easier to have them use you as their realtor vs hiring someone else. To generate real estate leads you should create content that answers common questions for first time home buyers.
Again, you wouldn’t have call reluctance or cold calling anxiety if someone called you asking for help. That person already sees you as an expert and will gladly take your advice.
Tools to generate your own leads and eliminate cold calling forever!
By now you’ve decided that generating your own leads is the best option to overcome your fear of cold calling. Once you learn how to generate your own leads, you’ll never run out of people to talk to again.
If you don’t feel motivated, it may be because you feel like you have run out of people to talk to. I constantly felt like I had no one to talk to in the beginning, but that all changed when I learned how to generate leads. When you realize you have unlimited people to talk to that want to hear from you, it’s a game-changer.
With that said, some tools you’ll need to seriously start generating leads are an email autoresponder, and a sales funnel system, and a CRM to follow up with your leads. I won’t go into all the details of building this setup in this post, but you can check out this post for more information on building a sales funnel.
So how to overcome the fear of cold calling, really breaks down to having a mental shift. The mental shift of leading with value and helping your potential customers get what they want. When you lead with value and focus on solving problems for your target market, you won’t have to worry about call reluctance or cold calling anxiety again.
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Mike MacDonald
Facebook: facebook.com/coachmikemacdonald
Email: [email protected]
“I help business owners scale their businesses and generate more quality leads with paid advertising and automated marketing strategies”
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