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"When I have to cold call, I feel yucky," read the email to coach. "Can you help?" Of course! Here are tips on preventing frustration (and that sick feeling in your stomach) when cold calling. You may feel yucky because you're worried about being perceived as a pushy telemarketer. We call this the "root canal effect": We don't want to be like those guys who bother us at home--but we often fall into that habit without realizing it. We feel bad, and we're not succeeding. Part 1 of overcoming the root canal effect is pretty easy: Make calls that are direct and to the point, don't assume you've got what prospects want or need, and use your own words. It's also helpful to know that a sudden need for Tums can be due to the challenge of adopting new behaviors or skills. When you're learning to cold call, you're actually building new neural connections and the old ones are fading away. Your brain is actually working hard. This is physically tiring. "Leap and the Net Will Appear" Last, but definitely not least, when you adopt a new style of cold calling, you're taking a leap of faith it will indeed work. Only experience will demonstrate that consultative cold calling not only feels better, it works great. As you take that long leap, there are some specific techniques that lend support. Make sure you have prepared a script that sounds like the real you. Practice it out-loud, in advance of making calls. Set a small goal for calling. Try 5 to10 calls per day. Remember that your goal is just to call. You're not in control of whether someone picks up the phone, or even if the phone number is correct! Your goal is to make the calls: period. Train your brain with rewards. When you have finished your 10th (or 5th) call, even if it "failed," then stop and take a reward. Call a friend, take a short walk, go get an iced coffee, do something small and something not business-related. DO NOT make reaching the end of the calls your reward! Get a calling buddy. You and your buddy will make a couple practice calls on each other, right before you start with the real calls. This often helps get you over a feeling of anxiety for the first call. You can also buddy-up to make sure you persist long enough to experience the benefits of consultative cold calling. Make a pack to stick with it, check in on each other, and keep going! Use a tracking sheet (See tips on the Tracking Sheet in this section). Cold calling is the very beginning of what can be a looong process. Checking calls off as you call tells you that you are indeed making progress! Use Statistics as a Tool Calculate your ratio, or percentage, of voicemails to dials; and next-steps to dials. To do this, simply divide the number of voicemails by the number of dials. Example: 37 voicemails ÷ 50 dials = 74% 4 next steps ÷ 50 dials = 8% There's no need to calculate percentages every time you complete a calling session, if you don't want to. However, it is important to keep your tracking sheets so you can use the information to help pinpoint strengths and weaknesses. Check your calling trends every one to three months, depending on how often you cold call. This will tell you how you're doing. (See page 133 in the book for troubleshooting, or contact us for help.) |