I too will be cold calling over the coming weeks and as an introvert I'm bricking it
[Sorry, it is only when I finished typing this, I realised how long it had got]
Are you referring to telephone cold calling or face-to-face?
As some have said in other threads, if it is for your own business then that should give you plenty of motivation, however, that doesn't always work. I can be sat here, just looking at the phone, not able to pick up the handset.
I am not an introvert, BUT I do hate telephone cold calling... yet, it is one of the best ways to get new customers for my business. Here is how I get over the fear and do it:
1/
Research the companies I am going to call. I want to be on the phone for as little time as possible. But if I do have to be on there for a while, then I want to make sure that time is used for speaking to the right person, not being bounced around from one person to the next as they try and find out who should speak to me. So I find out in advance who is responsible for purchasing the office supplies.
2/
Plan what I am going to say. I don't write one script, I write several, and then depending on who I am speaking to I can refer to the relevant one. Now, by "script" I don't mean I have a page full of text that I am going to read parrot fashion. It's just pointers to remind me what I want to say, and targetted at different industries (so if I am speaking to a firm of architects then I will mention the A1 paper on rolls for their plotters; if it's a solicitors or accountants, I mention filing and storage - as they use a lot of this for all their old papers).
3/
Find something that motivates me. This can be anything. When I was the Customer Account Manager for Pavilion last year, the then owner was also my friend. I felt so bad with myself that I was letting her down by not making the calls, that I made a decision: that day I either had to make some calls, or tell Amy I couldn't do it. I picked up the phone and made 5 calls in 30 minutes. Doesn't sound like much, but the next day I did 10 calls in the morning and 5 in the afternoon. The third day, I did 18 calls, one after the other, in two hours. Each day, I had said to myself "If I can't make these calls I have to tell Amy I can't do it, and then I will feel a failure."
Now, of course, I own the firm, so it's "If I can't make these calls, then I have to tell my wife I can't do it and I will feel a failure."
4/
I have specific times when I call. I only call between 10am and 12pm. Then from 2pm and 4pm (that doesn't mean I am on the phone ALL that time). Outside of these times I don't call. Of course, some are going to say I should be calling all day,
but, again, I want to be on the phone as little as possible, and outside of these call times, I feel people are less likely to take a call from me.
5/
I pick up the phone and start dialling. At the end of the day, the only way I am going to make the calls is if I make the calls. There's a great bit in the
Wolf of Wall Street where he says "See those little black boxes? They're called telephones. I'm going to let you in on a little secret about these telephones: They're not going to dial themselves! Okay? Without you they are just worthless hunks of plastic."
So, once I start doing the above, do I still feel fear? Of course I do... and it doesn't go away completely. But it does feel easier.
