Cold Calling Without Losing Your Nerve: 3 Mindsets That Keep You Grounded

Clients can Smell Fear.

Call reluctance is gruelling to overcome because you end up researching, re-editing, even deep cleaning your mouse, anything but to make that call. And when you finally do, the monotone shaky voice makes its debut and on the other end of the call, the client not only received an unwarranted call, but the voice speaking is scared to death. I remember shaking in my boots one time asking a lead, “How are you doing today?” and they answered, “I’m doing well, thank you, are you okay, you sound sick.”

It happens to all of us, asking rhetoric questions to test the waters and gauge the mood of the client, but honey they can smell fear. One thing I employ, and I borrow it from the great Anthony Iannarino, is to get to the point immediately, because leads are sceptical answering an unknown number and if it isn’t fishy it’s fear.

Keep it Brief.

At no point should you beg to differ nor digress, you shouldn’t even be begging at all. Begging isn’t in the wording semantically, but the lengthening as well. The call has connected after endless calls to the abyss and there is a nagging spirit haunting you to validate your existence as a sales representative and hammer in the value of the service being offered, using all the English you can summon rounded up to the nearest audacity. That’s when it dawns on you that you’ve been rambling for three minutes straight and the client is yet to chime a single word in.

I would recommend a séance for adverse cases to expel this spirit but if you are like me the easy fix is the succinct one. Under twenty seconds, state your name, business and conclusion. That’s it. What will follow is an assured client who either wants to work with you, set up an appointment or they simply are not interested. The latter is frequent but do not negate from your purpose nor fluff your intentions.

If you are lucky and the cold pitch turns to a warm call, the client will then drive the conversation. A good call lies in brevity and assuredness provided at first contact.

Tame it.

‘Name it, to Tame it’ is a phrase coined by Dr. Daniel Siegel. It refers to the process of calming emotional distress by labeling the emotions. This helps to activate the linguistic rational part of your brain. Sounds pragmatic and intuitive till you are on the other end of a call and a client asks you bluntly “Who are you and how did you get my number?” A nerve is hit but since you cannot and should not hang up, you swallow the gulp and answer ever so sweetly.

After the call, do you take the time and conceptualize which emotion was stuffed down? By naming your emotion and instead of saying, “Whatever, it’s fine,” and instead saying, “I wish that call had gone better, this is getting frustrating and I am getting irritated” — that is a more hands-on approach to soothing your nervous system. Notably, external factors may also be driving our emotions, and a client can amplify that. So instead of whisking it off as, “I’m just having a bad day,” you could instead say, “I am feeling tired because I did not sleep well last night.” The former desensitizes you to your own inner conflict while the latter is an opportunity to re-organise your external factors.

Name it to Tame it is an accretive step to emotional regulation while on call. These internal conversations are necessary to have both while on call and after the call. It’s how we keep checking our engine light and ensure we are running smoothly.

I am tempted to share my playlist and audio essays because it was those rhythms that kept me on my feet as well as the little self-dialogues that kept me sane. It’s crucial that we do not minimise the power of recognition when it comes to addressing a failed call. Failed calls — especially the ones that hang up on you when you are in the throes of explaining with every ounce of your being only to find you’ve been talking to yourself as you were rushing your tongue to catch the next word. That dejected silence follows; the rejection rises and what can creep in to take up space? Maybe shame or even anxiety. Don’t leave it to chance, name it and deal with it.

It’s easy to want to counteract it with dismissiveness but what I find myself doing when the rejection calls are rampant is continuing with the call (to myself) or at least finishing the thought out loud even though the client has long dropped.