Why is everyone afraid of cold calling?

So many people are afraid of cold calling, let alone calling a store as a consumer. So many girls are even afraid of calling to order pizza or get the store hours, for example.

Are you afraid of cold calling or were you? What'd you do to get over it?

I dont get it why would anyone be afraid to talk over the phone or send message on some network, email...

I understand if you are scared in person, physical reactions and shit, but you can hang up whenever you want, people cant make fun of you, you cant lose anything.

After 3 vodkas you are afraid of nothing.

I'm paranoid man as well and idk if it's because i smoke too much weed but most of the time i don't even answer the phone if it's business related. and i know that if i pick up the phone nothing bad can happen but i still don't. it's kind of becoming a habit and im starting to hate it

Scared of rejection is mostly why. It's like why some guys will never go and talk to a girl, they're scared of getting rejected, embarrassed, or be made fun of.

They don't realize you have to risk it for the biscuit.

clockhouse said:

Scared of rejection is mostly why. It's like why some guys will never go and talk to a girl, they're scared of getting rejected, embarrassed, or be made fun of.

They don't realize you have to risk it for the biscuit.

Click to expand...

How is the pizza guy over the phone going to reject you? "Erm, sorry. We don't deliver pizza to bitches like your sir.."

About the girl part, you are right.

macdonjo3 said:

So many people are afraid of cold calling, let alone calling a store as a consumer. So many girls are even afraid of calling to order pizza or get the store hours, for example.

Are you afraid of cold calling or were you? What'd you do to get over it?

Click to expand...

I'm not afraid of it, I would do it but only if my life depended on it. In all other cases, it's annoying, tiring and has shitty conversion rates unless you have many years of experience under your belt. To get over it was very simple: pay people to do it!

Eternal1912 said:

How is the pizza guy over the phone going to reject you? "Erm, sorry. We don't deliver pizza to bitches like your sir.."

About the girl part, you are right.

Click to expand...

Haha I don't know about the girl part, maybe they're scared they'll be judge for the toppings they want?

Its called social anxiety man and it affects quite a lot of people in this world including me. I have been getting a bit better about it and I can finally go to restaurants and order food. I used to stay at home because of this. The struggle is very real. After a few drinks I can do anything.

I know how people think, so I know what to say, how to say it, what offers or incentives to push ... Cold Calling is rough because you need a brain. Most peopel have a underlying fear built in from bad experiences or negative emotions from their family that surrounds strangers, communication, etc.

Good book to read, Go For No.

Really this isn't about making a sale, it's about seeing if,
A. You have chemistry with that person
B. You have timing, and they happen to need your solution
C. You can help them see the importance of the problem by framing long term implications (SPIN selling)
D. It's a priority for them at the moment
E. If it's not a priority yet aka not enough implications to make the problem relevant, and there's chemistry, file this for a pipeline lead

Best piece of advice I ever received when I was just starting out...

"If you make the call and they say no, or you don't make the call, the result is the same. No worse.".

Essentially, if you believe in what you are selling and pitching towards, then you should pick up the phone in a positive frame of mind safe in the knowledge that you have a solution to a problem for the prospect. If they don't care to hear, who cares? Move on to the next...

The uncertainty of the future outcome is what gets me and most people. Social anxiety is simply something we've created through years of conditioning and reinforcement, if you wanted to you can quite easily recondition yourself to exhale confidence instead, its all a matter of psychology and more specifically neuro linguistic programming. I just always enjoyed sales and have always drempt of being able to change someones mind about anything, so I got a job at a call center and sold meat. Now I could talk to El Chapo and be cool with it

People are afraid of being labeled as harassers on top of the psychological pain of constant rejection.

It's 2016.. and as a result, too many people are focusing on the virtual aspect of things.

Cold calling is still effective, and will continue to be effective until phones are irrelevant!

Aluminium said:

It's 2016.. and as a result, too many people are focusing on the virtual aspect of things.

Cold calling is still effective, and will continue to be effective until phones are irrelevant!

Click to expand...

You're right. The old school methods still work, but the virtual world lets us target markets of millions of people all over the world.

MayhemMarketing007 said:

You're right. The old school methods still work, but the virtual world lets us target markets of millions of people all over the world.

Click to expand...

Very true. There are far more effective ways to secure clients now. Facebook Ads and Webinars/Video Series for example. People won't trust you right away. That's how it goes. Over the phone it is even harder. (hats off to those that can)

They see your face for the first time, and they are like eh, I don't WHO this is but is he sharing valuable information.

Next time they feel a better connection after having thought about what you shared.

Then you keep going.

And going. Delivering value and knowledge bombs that they didn't know before.

Then, they see your face and they trust it, they recognize it immediately and the value that you give. Similar to that of a movie or tv series.

You see the characters the first time and you're like ok.. boring, no connection or idea.

Then they grow on you, slowly but surely. Their personalities, their traits and what makes them, them.

That is what you need when you're trying to close clients now a days. It sure as hell beats cold calling.

Instead, you can have these potential clients calling YOU.

Thanks to the internet and Paid Methods. Screw 1000 calls, who wouldn't want leads calling THEM?

Work Smart, Not Stupid.

hateandbreak said:

Thanks to the internet and Paid Methods. Screw 1000 calls, who wouldn't want leads calling THEM?

Work Smart, Not Stupid.

Click to expand...

This is a great point. Building and cultivating a site and having clients come to you is a much better way of doing business. Yes, one can find leads by pursuing them, but it is better to have them come to us.

Before picking up the phone, a series of "What If's" will run through the persons head. What if they hang up on me? What if they swear at me? What if they reject me? It's these fears that can paralyze the person and leave them staring at the phone blankly.

It's also difficult because you are about to approach a complete stranger and ask them personal and possibly invasive questions when you qualify them. Its not like it's your friend who you already have an established rapport with and can confidently approach them.

I was taught Rule No.1 on my first day at cold calling - If you're not on the phone, you're not making money.

I had all these nerves when making my first calls and stopped mid-sentence, said "umm" and "aaah" too much, and forgot to ask important questions and have rebuttals to their objections. Like many things in life, practice makes perfect and builds confidence. I stuck with it and realized that it's not so bad if these people get angry with me or hang up on me, I don't know them, they don't know me, they will forget about me in a few days and I will never see them in person, so what's the problem.?

You just need to psych yourself up, even if it's with a bit of arrogance, because arrogance and confidence are very closely related. This is how I started, I convinced myself that I am good and can easily call anyone with zero fucks given about the way they respond to me unless it involves their money. Once I got a few sales I found a good balance and dumbed-down the arrogance level because I had a serious confidence boost from my sales.

Go to the Philippines for outbound calling .. I visited a BPO (business process outsourcing) company there. They had one guy on staff just doing accent training haha.