Cold Calling & Overcoming the Fear
Entering into a new position at any job brings excitement, joy, and a little bit of fear. If your new job has anything to do with sales, marketing or growing the company you work for, you will most likely be asked to make a cold call or two.
As an Account Executive at an Advertising Agency with small-medium size businesses as clients, one of my most recent tasks has been to grow our base and reach out to potential bigger clients through, you guessed it, cold calling.
Through this experience I have learned a few things about myself, cold calling, and how to be a better business woman. Most importantly, I was able to overcome the following hurdles:
1. Fear of the Unknown: One of the worst parts about cold calling is that you don’t know how the person on the other line will respond. Will they laugh and hang up? Will they be rude and condescending? Or will they actually be interested and ask you questions you weren’t prepared to answer? Whatever the case may be you have to put aside your fear of not knowing and just pick up the phone.
2. Fear of Rejection: The main fear of cold calling is rejection. One in ten calls might result in a good connection and potential client. However, that means at least nine people will not be interested. Once you face this fact and build a tough skin you can handle nine rejections. The key to rejections is to not take them personally, thank the person for their time and remind them if they need your services in the future to please remember you.
3. Making Mistakes: We all make mistakes, we’re human! But for some reason, making a mistake on a cold call can seem like the end of the world. The person on the other end of the line is judging you for this phone call alone and making a simple mistake can make or break the call. However, worrying about making mistakes can actually cause mistakes. Fear and nerves can be heard through the phone and confidence will prevent you from making mistakes.
While I still have improvements to make in my cold calling skills, I am beginning to overcome the hurdles that interfere with successful cold calling. Have you had experience cold calling? What hurdles did you have to overcome to be successful reaching out to new business?
Brittany Lough
