How to beat cold call anxiety

Cold calls are an unavoidable part of our profession.

Many of the people who actually end up making purchase decisions are old enough to remember landlines and payphones. Phone calls are what sales people need to be making if we want to contact them.

However.

When it comes to people under thirty? Weellll….

Research released by CommBank just last year tells us that Gen Z is decidedly not a fan of the phone. 90% of them would prefer not to get on the phone to their own friends or family. This comes from a generation for whom social media and direct messages are a bigger communication channel. Even our appointments are usually made via a web form. Phone calls are seen as intrusive, and as prioritising the convenience of the caller over that of the recipient.

But what do you do if you’re one of the whopping 48% of salespeople who are averse to cold calling?

Look, most jobs come with necessary tasks we don’t love. But the MarketBase+ team has a few tips you might be able to use to help take the bite out of cold calling.

1. Gamify your sales calls

Introduce elements of point scoring, competition or reward that help you change your view about making a call.

This tactic works particularly well if you’re part of a team: you can assign bragging rights or free cake to the person who makes the highest number of such calls for the week.

But if you’re on your own, you can still gamify the cold calling grind by competing against yourself.

2. Practice until you have a routine

This tip is two-fold. Firstly, it’s to stop you from making the cold call the worst part of your day and building it up into a dreadful object inside your own mind. Secondly, it’s because you get better at doing things when you practice them.

Anxiety is your brain telling you that something is dangerous. If you don’t make phone calls unless you’re in dire straits, then it stands to reason that you’ll begin feeling like dire straits are what’s happening the moment you pick up the phone. So if you’re anxious about doing things, regular practice can help convince your brain that they’re really not as scary as it suspects.

Call regularly. Call often.

3. Focus on the “why”

If you read that subheading and thought, “Mate, I’m calling so I get paid,” then… yeah, you are!

Drawing a direct line between the ultimate goal (get paid!) and the task you have to do (phone call!) to get there can help you get it done. It’s a little like reminding yourself of your fitness goals before you go to the gym.

4. Reframe the idea of failure

Most auditions aren’t successful. Most manuscripts don’t get published. And most cold calls… well, I reckon you can figure out the pattern here.

Sometimes the idea of cold calling actually makes you nervous just because humans absolutely hate rejection.

But statistically, a lot of the people you call might not buy whatever you’re selling. When we cold call someone and they don’t buy, that isn’t us failing. That is normal.

Knowing this can help to create emotional distance. This is hard, but practice makes perfect. In the end, you have to make the call, but you don’t have to take whatever happens in that call personally.

5. Make sure you have the correct numbers

It can be quite a blow to your confidence to call someone up and discover you’re not talking to the right person… three times in a row.

Make sure you find the right B2B data partner for your market, so you can prospect with confidence! Although we obviously think you should use MarketBase+ for your Australia and New Zealand business data needs, we also know that we can’t be everyone’s perfect match. You can read our article all about how to pick a good B2B data partner here.

And if none of the above tips help, I’ve got one last suggestion.

6. Embrace philosophy

Keep your daily stressors in perspective.

When you’re doing these tasks day in, day out, you do start to lose that perspective. Getting philosophical about the big picture can put the nerve-wracking need to pick up the phone again into its proper context.