How salespeople can overcome the fear and rejection of cold calling

Do you feel that fear and rejection have impacted your sales career? Fear and rejection are quite a common challenge for salespeople making cold calls. As a matter of fact, it’s natural for a human being to shy away for situations where they experience fear and rejection. But for salespeople that have to make cold calls for their work, you have to learn to overcome these feelings to be effective at your job. Here is some advice on how to overcome these to paralyzing emotions.


Do

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  • visualize your success
  • ask yourself, “If I knew…”
  • know it’s never personal
  • work on your skill-set
  • understand the success ratio
Don't

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  • program yourself to fail
  • hang around negative people
  • dwell on a no
  • make it bigger than it is

[publishpress_authors_data]'s recommendation to ExpertBeacon readers: Do

Do visualize your success

Whether in person or on the phone, in your mind, see yourself making a successful cold call. Having the confidence that you will be successful is 90% of actually being successful. Play positive, successful occurrences in your mind prior to making the calls.

Do ask yourself, “If I knew…”

Ask yourself a simple question, “If I knew this person really needed my services and was looking for a professional like me, how confident would I be making the call?” Again, we must set ourselves up to win on the psychology side. If you knew you would be successful, the fear goes away.

Do know it’s never personal

If they say no, they are not saying no to you, they are saying no to the product that you are offering. If you were selling coffee and someone says no, would you feel rejected? It’s not you or has nothing to do with you personally, they just don’t like coffee. Being rejected in sales is never about you as a person. They either didn’t need your product or you need to improve your pitch or presentation. An easy fix.

Do work on your skill-set

Once you have your psychology in order, build your skill set. Tighten up your pitch and your ability to overcome objections. Find someone who is success oriented like you and practice with each other 10 times per day. You’ll be more confident and more effective.

Do understand the success ratio

There is no success without failure. You will not sell to everyone you talk to, yet the more people you talk to will equate to more success. When someone says no, in your mind, you can thank them for getting you one step closer to a sale.


[publishpress_authors_data]'s professional advice to ExpertBeacon readers: Don't

Do not program yourself to fail

The most successful sales professionals see themselves being successful. Salespeople who are struggling often times see themselves failing, thus experience a feeling of fear. Don’t ever program yourself to fail. If you think you are going to fail, more often than not you are going to fail. Have confidence in yourself and visualize your success.

Do not hang around negative people

Successful people hang around people who are making things happen. Spend time with others who are doing well. Going out to lunch with peers who are finding success will make a difference for you. Learn from the confidence that they put off on a daily basis.

Do not dwell on a no

In the game of selling, rejection and failure are part of the equation for success. A no means no right now, and that’s all it means. Letting go of the rejection in order to find success during the next call is all just part of the equation.

Do not make it bigger than it is

Everyone in sales experiences fear and rejection. Everyone. The key is to improve on understanding what it really means. It just means they didn’t want any coffee. Don’t make your calls bigger than they have to be either. If you get rejected, accept it for what it is and move on to the next call.


Summary

Fear and rejection are emotions that are common to every sales professional. The key is understanding what rejection really means and how to improve your mindset to process the rejection. Remember, fear and rejection are part of the of the equation for success.

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