How to Overcome the Fear of Cold Calling?

You may have heard that cold calling is an excellent idea for expanding your business. However, you may still feel anxious and choked while conducting this outbound marketing. This can be caused because of the fear of cold calling. 

As a salesperson, having the fear of cold calling is not uncommon. Even the most seasoned professional may have experienced this at some point in their career. Fear of rejection, failure, sounding unprofessional, social anxiety, and lack of preparation are the most common reasons for this. 

In this article, we will give our expert opinion on how you can overcome the fear of cold calling. Recognizing the reasons behind the fear, preparation, and practice, building confidence, and a positive mindset play a significant role in this matter. 

What is Causing Your Cold Calling Anxiety?

Several factors can cause the fear of cold calling or call reluctance. As a telemarketer, you will need to make unsolicited calls to potential clients or customers, which can be quite daunting as a job description. In addition, you will have to overcome your personal traits and reservations.

All these together, it is common to hesitate even to pick up the phone. Here is a table that may have been causing your cold-calling anxiety:

While all these factors are reasonable, it makes your business suffer and does not allow it to flourish to its full potential. With proper measures, it is possible to overcome these and generate the best possible outcome from your cold-calling.

How Can You Overcome the Fear of Cold Calling?

 

There’s an old saying, “You don’t learn to walk if you don’t trip.” The same is true for your cold-calling measures. You will never know how to escape your fears if you don’t face them. Knowing what is holding you back and practicing is the key to getting better at cold calling.

We have been offering cold-calling services to a wide variety of industries for more than 10+ years now. We have learned a lot over the year and have an extensive success album. According to our experience, here are the factors that help you rise above your cold-calling anxiety:

• Understand the reasons behind your fear
• Be prepared and practice
• Build confidence
• Keep a positive mindset

Still confused? Let’s discuss these in detail:

1. Understanding the Reasons Behind Your Fear

The first thing you need to get rid of your cold calling anxiety is to pinpoint what is causing this fear. It can be the fear of failure or not sounding professional enough or anything. Once you acknowledge your fear, you will know what you can do to mitigate that factor.

Replace your negative thoughts with positive ones. Don’t dwell on “What if the lead does not want to talk with me?” Rather, make plans for what would happen if they talk with you. This will help you face your fears and conquer them.

2. Be Prepared and Practice

To have the best possible success of your cold calling measure, there is no alternative to be prepared. You should have a good understanding of the product or services you are promoting. Only then will you be able to speak with authority and expertise about the product you’re selling.

Having a well-written script helps. Scripts give you a visual cue of what questions you should ask and how to gather your thoughts. However, your scripts should be well-structured and flexible at the same time. Otherwise, you will be struggling to navigate the conversation between you and your lead. Here is an example of a script you can get help from.

Role-playing with your friends and colleagues can help you prepare as well. You can ask them to be your lead and prepare the answers to the most difficult questions. Overall, when you prepare yourself properly, you can even defeat your most sinister anxiety.

3. Build Your Confidence

Confidence is the best possible accessory you can add to make your cold calling meaningful and covert leads. To build your confidence, start with a short list of numbers. As you go through these numbers, you will learn more about what is working and what is not.

Learn from your mistakes. Each time your call is rejected, find out what mistakes you made and avoid making that mistake again. Focus on your product’s value to your leads and personalize your script accordingly. Once you close your sales, celebrate it. This will eventually make you confident about your cold-calling.

4. Have a Positive Mindset

A positive mindset goes a long way. So, rather than viewing cold calling as a threat, consider it an opportunity that you have yet to uncover. That shift in view could be very helpful in reducing your anxiety around talking, even connecting with a stranger. 

You should maintain a positive attitude throughout the call. This can even affect your lead and make the conversation effective and valuable. Overall, be grateful for the opportunity to connect with your lead. If your lead doesn’t convert for any reason, do not let it affect your next call.

Additional Tips

If you have included all the tips mentioned above in your arsenal, you can add some more to get your nerves in check. Here are some additional tips you can practice to make your cold calling effective:

• Mindfulness and deep breathing techniques can give you a better perspective and calm down your nerves
• Positive affirmations can make you brush away negative feelings and give you the energy to conquer the next call
• If you are constantly feeling anxious despite taking preventive measures, seek help from your mentor or colleagues

All these measures can help you get better at cold calling and gain better results by converting leads and bringing sales.

Final Words

As per the discussion above, it is evident that being prepared, building confidence, and having a positive mindset go a long way toward your cold-calling success. With these weapons in your arsenal, you can easily overpower your fear of cold calling.

If you are still anxious about your cold-calling success, you can contact CallingAgency for a free consultation. Our professionals will be more than happy to assist you with this outbound marketing strategy.