Cold calling is one of the most intimidating tasks for many salespeople. Sometimes, it can be extremely stressful, especially when facing rejection, objection, or indifference from prospects. You can reduce stress and get more comfortable with cold calling by ensuring you are mentally prepared before starting cold calls.
63% of sales representatives said that making cold calls is the worst part of the job. However, cold calling is also one of the most effective and essential skills for sales success. It can help you generate leads, build relationships, and close deals.
Cold calling can be fun if you know how to do it right. The key is to get more comfortable and overcome cold-calling anxiety, fear, and hesitation. How do you get more comfortable with cold calling?
There is no magic formula or secret technique that will make you a cold-calling expert overnight. But there are nine practical tips and strategies that can help you improve your confidence, skills, and results.
9 Ways to Get More Comfortable With Cold Calling
Cold calling is important in business as it increases sales and business reliability. To make cold calling successful in a business, cold callers must get comfortable with it first. Here are nine ways you can get more comfortable with cold calling.
1. Ensure You Are Mentally Prepared Before Starting Cold Call
Cold calling is a mental activity for salespersons. You must have the right mindset and attitude before you dial up the phone. You cannot perform well and connect with your prospects if you feel nervous or doubtful. Also, you will be more likely to give up or avoid cold calling altogether.
Therefore, you have to ensure that you are mentally prepared before starting cold calling. One way to ensure you are mentally prepared is to set realistic and specific goals for your cold-calling session. For example, you can set a goal to make 20 calls, book three meetings, or generate five leads. A clear and measurable goal will help you focus, track, and celebrate your progress.
Furthermore, practice positive affirmations and visualization to be mentally prepared. Affirmations are statements that reinforce your confidence, competence, and commitment. Visualization is imagining yourself succeeding in your cold-calling scenario.
For example, you can tell yourself, “I am a great salesperson. I can handle any objection. I can close any deal.” You can also picture yourself having a friendly and fruitful conversation with your prospect and getting a positive response. These techniques will help boost self-esteem, reduce stress, and improve cold-calling skills.
2. Research Your Every Target Prospect
One of the salespeople’s biggest mistakes in cold calling is to call without researching their target prospects. It can lead to wasted time, irrelevant pitches, and poor rapport. Researching your prospects before you call them will help you personalize your approach and message and increase your credibility.
You can use various sources to research your prospects, such as their website, social media, LinkedIn, industry reports, news articles, and referrals. You can look for information such as their name, title, role, company, industry, pain points, goals, challenges, interests, and preferences.
The more you know about your prospects, the more you can connect with them, address their needs, and offer value. Researching your prospects will also help you avoid awkward questions, assumptions, and mistakes that can ruin your cold call. It won’t make you feel you’re talking to strangers and help you get more comfortable. Also, researching every target prospect can help you find the best time of day to cold-call prospects.
3. Prepare The Questions
Another reason cold calling can be uncomfortable is that you may not know what to say, how to say it, or when to say it. You may struggle to start, keep, or end the conversation. Also, you may encounter objections, questions, or concerns from your prospect that you may not know how to handle or answer.
To avoid these situations, you have to prepare different types of questions for different purposes and stages of your cold call. For example, you can use open-ended questions to engage your prospects, such as “What are your current challenges with …?” or “How do you measure your success with …?”
Furthermore, you can use closed-ended questions to confirm your understanding, such as “So, you are looking for …?” or “Is that correct?” You can use probing questions to dig deeper into your prospects’ pain points, goals, and motivations, such as “Why is that important to you?” or “How does that affect your business?”
Moreover, you can use trial-close questions to test your prospects’ readiness and interest, such as “If I can show you how to … would you be interested?” or “How do you feel about what we have discussed so far?”
Preparing your questions will help you uncover your prospects’ needs, wants, and desires and position your product or service as the best solution. It will also help you avoid talking too much, listening too little, and missing important cues and signals.
4. Get Ready For The Objection Before The Call
One of the most common and uncomfortable scenarios in cold calling is facing objections from your prospect. Objections are statements or questions that express doubt, resistance, or rejection from your prospects. It can be about your product, price, timing, credibility, or anything else that may prevent your prospect from moving forward with you.
Objections can be discouraging, frustrating, and demoralizing, especially if you are unprepared to handle them. They can also make you lose confidence, momentum, and conversation control. So, you need to get ready for the objection before the call.
You must expect and embrace objections rather than fear or avoid them. Objections are opportunities to learn more about your prospects, to educate them, and to persuade them. It shows that your prospect is interested enough to engage with you and that they have some concerns you can address and resolve.
Getting ready for the objections will help you avoid being caught off guard and find cold-calling motivation after rejection. It will also help you show your value, address your prospects’ concerns, and move them closer to the next step.
5. Find Out Prospects’ Pain Points
One of the most important and effective ways to get more comfortable with cold calling is to discover your prospects’ pain points. Pain points are the problems, issues, or frustrations your prospects face, which your product or service can solve. Pain points are why your prospects need and will buy from you.
If you can identify your prospect’s pain point, you can create a more relevant and compelling value proposition. It will show your prospects how your product or service can help them eliminate their pain and achieve their desired outcome.
Additionally, pain points can help build a more emotional and empathetic connection with your prospects. It will show your prospects that you care about their situation and can relate to their feelings.
You can ask open-ended questions to find out your prospects’ pain points. Practice more and more to identify prospect pain points successfully. It will help you get more confident and comfortable with cold calling.
6. Familiar with the Word “No” & Take it Easy
Hearing the word “no” from your prospects can be stressful in cold calling. No matter how good you are, how well you prepare, or how hard you try, you will face rejection and hear “no” more often than “yes.” It is the nature of cold calling, and you cannot change it.
However, you can change how you react to and deal with it. Hearing “no” does not have to be a negative and painful experience. It does not have to stop you but to motivate you. Take every ‘no’ as feedback and improve yourself constantly.
Familiarizing yourself with the word no and taking it easy will help you cope with and overcome the negative effects of rejection. You can do it by exposing yourself to it more often and learning from it. Take it easy by not taking it personally and not letting it affect your mood or performance. You can also use positive self-talk, feedback, and support to boost your morale and resilience.
7. Do Not Try To Sell
One common mistake salespeople make in cold calling is trying to sell their product or service right away. They think that the goal of cold calling is to close the deal as soon as possible. Cold callers may think the more they talk about their product or service, the more likely they will convince their prospect to buy.
Trying to sell in cold calling can backfire, making you more uncomfortable and less successful. It can make you sound pushy, desperate, and aggressive. Moreover, it can make your prospects feel pressured, annoyed, and defensive. Also, trying to sell can create resistance, distrust, and objections.
Instead of trying to sell, try to help. Try to understand your prospects’ problems, needs, and goals. Offer prospects value, solutions, and benefits and focus on building rapport, trust, and relationships.
By not trying to sell, you will sell more. You will make your prospects more interested, curious, and eager. Doing so will create a positive impression, a memorable experience, and a loyal customer and get more comfortable with cold calling.
8. Do Not Speak Too Much
Most salespeople try to speak a lot to impress, persuade, and convince their prospects. They think talking more can prevent their prospects from hanging up, objecting, or saying no. However, speaking too much can have the opposite effect.
Speaking too much can make you sound boring, arrogant, and disrespectful. Speaking too much can make your prospects feel overwhelmed, confused, and ignored. It can cause you to miss important information, signals, and opportunities. Your prospects may feel ignored or confused if you speak for a long time.
Instead of speaking too much, balance talking with prospects and listening to their responses. Successful cold calls often have a 55:45 talk-to-listen ratio. Listen to what your prospects are saying and what they are not saying. Concentrate on their words, tone, and emotions and try to identify their pain points, goals, and motivations. Listen to their questions, concerns, and feedback.
You will learn more and get comfortable with the call by listening more. You can also understand your prospects better and personalize your pitch accordingly. It will also show your prospects that you care, respect, and value them.
9. Use Nice Words
Using nice words is a simple and effective way to get more comfortable with cold calling. Nice words convey a positive, polite, and professional tone and create a pleasant, friendly, and respectful atmosphere. They make you and your prospect feel good, making your cold-calling experience more enjoyable and successful.
Some examples of nice words that you can use in cold calling are:
- Please and thank you: These words show politeness, gratitude, and courtesy. For example, you can say, “Thank you for taking my call. I appreciate your time and attention.”
- You and your: These words show personalization, customization, and focus. For example, you can say, “I understand your situation. I have a solution that can help you achieve your goals.”
- Name: This word shows recognition, familiarity, and respect. For example, you can say, “Hello, John. It’s a pleasure to speak with you today.”
- Sorry and apologize: These words show empathy, sincerity, and humility. For example, you can say, “I’m sorry to hear that. I apologize for any inconvenience.”
- Great and awesome: These words show enthusiasm, excitement, and positivity. For example, you can say, “That’s great to hear. You have made an awesome decision.”
Verdict
Cold calling is not impossible to master. With the right preparation, practice, and mindset, you can get more comfortable with cold calling and make it a rewarding and effective part of your sales process.
Being uncomfortable with cold calling can lead to call center attrition. So, getting comfortable with cold calling is crucial. Comfortness in the cold calling process will improve call center agent performance and make cold calls successful.
By following the nine ways of this article, you can improve your confidence, skills, and results in cold calling and turn your prospects into customers. So, get more comfortable with cold calling and start calling.
