The Worst Cold Call That Taught Me The Most

After a horrible day of little to no calling I sat there on the couch playing chess. Internally I felt like a failure and like I was completely hopeless...then my cellphone starts ringing. "Surely it can't be a customer" I told myself they never call (This was literally the first person to do that). "Hello" I answered very nervously...who could it be? "Hi this is Janet". After leaving a voicemail she actually called me back to inquire what I was calling about and so the process began.

Pitching her my services and what my company does I finally stopped asking her questions and paused to force her to speak..."I'm not gonna buy from you she said". "Ok I replied not a big deal, we'll get someone else in your region, may I ask why?". "Well let me be honest" she said, "honesty is what I want most of all lay it on me" I replied. "You sound way too nervous for me to do business with you", "the truth is I am nervous" I replied.

"Why are you nervous" she asked? "Well because I don't know you"...That's when it hit me over the head...if I knew the person I was calling it would be so much easier to talk to them yes or no, no matter their reply. I am very confident in person, but over the phone something slips. I love connecting with people, but it goes out the window when I cold call. "Why is that she said? Tell me more about how you could help us". I went on more confident now after I had acknowledged my nervousness. Still I prodded her to be work with us, however after 4 objections I figured I should use the time to simply learn more.

I knew I couldn't sell her because our product simply didn't fit with her needs, so I switched the topic. In front of me was a CEO who called called a lot. "What advice do you have in terms of cold calling?"I asked. "every no gets you closer to a customer that will say yes" she said...well I knew that, I wasn't impressed. Then came the good advice: "I tell myself everytime that this is a conversation, remember that and you'll be fine, you're just having conversations with people that's what this is about." That statement is where I made my breakthrough. No longer do I feel nervous anymore, if I feel nervous I acknowledge my feelings and they die down. Looking at each call as a conversation made me want to connect with people first and sell second.

People can say no, you don't have to close every call and I now hold comfort in that thought. I can mess up because the next conversation will go better. I treated each call as if it was the last shot before the buzzer, however this game is a marathon not a sprint. I'm sure I'll continue to get butterflies, but there's finally a sun after the storm.