Cold calling is an integral part of every sales job. In addition, every sales person works with a number of contacts from existing customers or those who have contacted the company themselves. But these contacts are not enough to achieve sales targets.
Calling unknown people is an activity which sales people usually put off, some are even afraid of cold calling. Using the following five steps can help overcome fear of this sales technique.
- Gain deep knowledge. The more of an expert you become, the easier it will be to overcome your fear. Knowledge will give you power. If contacts hears confidence in your voice, they are more likely to listen to you.
- Improve your sales skills. Telephoning can be taught. Ask your manager to provide cold calling training, or to buy a book about it. In short, do everything possible to get as much guidance on how to proceed as possible. You can then refine the learned tips according your experience.
- Take enough time to prepare. Avoid writing a script, rather try a list of steps to go through during a phone conversation. Preparation must be only in bullet points in order to avoid the urge to read it word by word. In addition, prepare materials about the product, which you will have at hand during the call as "cheat sheets."
- Train and rehearse. This is the most important step in overcoming fear. Find someone and try different variations of telephone conversations. Find your weaknesses and tune everything you can think of. The more you rehearse, the better.
- Build your endurance. Include cold calling into your daily schedule, preferably start every morning. It will help you avoid procrastinating this activity. In addition, respondents tend to be more patient in the morning.
The above five steps represent your action plan. Implement it and follow it. If you have things under control, you will stop feeling like a victim and your fear gradually disappears.
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