How to Take the Frustration out of Cold Calling

Why do we avoid cold calling more than any other selling activity? Because we dread the experience of rejection that it often carries. Each time we pick up the phone, we hope it will result in a sale. And so we naturally experience pain and frustration when we are rejected. 

If you're like most people, trained in the traditional mindset around cold calling, you're hoping to at least make an appointment before you even begin talking to the other person. 

The problem is, the person you call somehow always pick up on your mindset immediately. They sense that you're focused on your goals and interests, rather than on finding out what they might need or want.

This short-circuits the whole process of communication and trust-building. And often leads to rejection and frustration. 

All the feelings of rejection and fear come from us getting wrapped up in our expectations and hoping for an outcome when it's premature to even be thinking about an outcome.

When we create mental expectations for ourselves, we naturally experience disappointment when those expectations aren’t met. 

The problem with typical sales goals is that they're about you, not about the potential client you're calling.

Don’t get me wrong -- I know that your intentions are good, and that you want to be of service to your potential clients. But if you're directing all your mental energy and objectives toward a goal that'll benefit you, the people you're calling will perceive it.

Since our expectations usually lead to disappointment, I often say that salespeople become addicted to "hopieum." It's like a drug that many of us take, and we come to depend on it as we make cold calls. It’s especially present when we believe that we’re close to making a sale.

But when for some reason the appointment or sale doesn’t happen, we go from our  hopeium "high" to a "low" very quickly.

It’s time to kick the “hopeium” habit.

Most people who sell start out a cold call with their predictable introduction and mini-sales pitch, then just "close their eyes" and let the "hopeium" kick in.

You probably haven’t told your potential clients your real goal in calling them, but you don't need to. They know, because we've all gotten so many cold calls from so many salespeople that we're oversensitive when the phone rings and it's someone we don't know. We're automatically suspicious about who's calling.

We've also all gotten very good at reading the subtle and not-so-subtle signals carried in the words, voice tone, or voice pitch that tell us the caller has a hidden agenda, which is to make a sale.

All this usually happens within seconds, before you've said anything more than, "Hello, my name is... I’m with XYZ, and we do..." It’s as if any potential for openness gets shut off at "Hello," based simply on the tone of your call and how you began it.

How can we change this? By remembering that our thoughts are always at the basis of our behaviors. We can't create a consistent change in our behaviors without first  changing our thoughts and mental patterns.

So, if our thoughts are fixed on certain goals -- for example, to achieve something

from a call that will lead us closer to a sale -- then those thoughts will manifest themselves as soon as we begin trying to communicate with our potential clients.

This triggers suspicion, which often triggers rejection, and then we find ourselves on the low side of “hopeium.”

If you're hoping that the outcome of the call will be a "next step," then you're in direct conflict with the new cold calling mindset.  You haven't let go of the hope of making the sale, and instead shifted your focus to discovering the truth of your potential client’s needs.

So try to get comfortable with releasing “hopeium,” and accept the possibility of either a “yes” or “no” response to your cold call.  You’ll be far more relaxed with either outcome.   And the usual chronic frustration with cold calling will begin to dissolve.