Calling up leads and customers can be wildly uncomfortable for some people. It’s up there with the fear of public speaking. Just reading about it may make you a little sweaty.
But that’s a shame. Because if you can talk to people on the phone—it’s a superpower. Calling customers on the phone is the easiest way to close. Full stop.
This simple action can be worth tens of thousands of dollars per month in new business.
So why are we so scared of sales calls in the first place? It comes down to two reasons:
Reason #1: Fear of the Unknown
It’s human nature. A lot of people prefer the terrible known over the uncertain unknown.
Dialing a potential customer without knowing how they’ll reply is intimidating. We don’t know how they’ll respond. Utter rejection? Angry you may interrupt something? Will they hang up while you’re mid-sentence?
The open-ended questions work against us here. We don’t know what we don’t know. And that terrifies us.
When you call up a lead, there’s always the discomfort of not knowing where the conversation might go. The more unknown the outcome is, the more we can invent worst-case scenarios.
That’s why your first goal should be clarity. More on that in a minute.
Reason #2: Fear of Rejection
It doesn’t matter how well your business has been doing up to this point. Someone telling you that you “no” will feel like a rejection. And no one wants to put themselves in the path of rejection.
It’s not just that you don’t know what you’ll encounter during a customer call. You may feel certain that a customer will tell you something bad about you, your business, or your offering—and that kind of rejection can feel completely demoralizing.
The fear of rejection usually comes from a poor mental attitude about the reason for the conversation in the first place. You’re looking for a customer’s “yes,” which means you’re opening yourself up to a possible “no.” And if you get one, it hurts.
For this reason, most people would rather choose the comfort of inaction or procrastination than the discomfort of rejection.
Therein lies the “superpower” aspect of gathering critical feedback. If you can find a way to reframe this situation as a win-win, you can motivate yourself to make the call and get the critical information you’ve been missing.
True: rejection is always a possibility. But if you change your internal mindset for what you’re trying to accomplish, the possibility of rejection doesn’t have to be such a paralyzing factor.
One of the most powerful things they learn is how to reframe a speech as a positive, even if it doesn’t go well, according to Harriet Cummings of Toastmasters—the organization where public speaking students learn to overcome their fears.
Especially if it doesn’t go well.
If a student gives a speech for the first time and is overwhelmed by nerves and stutters, a teacher might reframe it as a success: “That took a lot of courage.”
Here’s how you can leverage that same superpower in sales.
The Role of Clarity and Vision in Overcoming Fear
The Toastmasters effect is so powerful it can even reframe a disaster of a public speech as a positive.
Do the same with your customer calling.
Of course, you can’t simply flip an internal switch and think: “Oh, I’m not afraid anymore.” A reframe alone isn’t enough. To truly make that internal switch, your customer call needs two key elements: clarity and vision.
Clarity: Why Failing to Define Success Prevents Action
One reason calls are so scary? Business leaders have no idea what they’re trying to accomplish.
This creates the terrible unknowns I was talking about earlier. If you don’t know what you want to accomplish, think of all else you don’t know about the call:
- You don’t know what success will look like or if the call will be worth it.
- You don’t know how to handle objections.
- You don’t know how to structure conversations to maximize the lessons you get out of it.
Do you want to make a call without knowing any of the above? I certainly don’t. Without clarity about what you want to achieve, the whole thing sounds like a waste of time, and the fear certainly isn’t worth getting over.
So, how do you achieve that clarity? Ask yourself some questions before the call:
- What do I want to achieve with this call? What does success look like?
- How do I get over any objections they have?
- What answers do I need to get out of them?
- How should the conversation go in terms of structure?
- What are the different scenarios that can unfold in this conversation?
Once you have answers, there are fewer unknowns. You know the possibilities—and how you’ll react to them.
The Importance of Positive Vision in a Phone Call
When people lack vision, they don’t feel prepared. Yes, you may like the energy and excitement that a positive vision creates. But if you don’t have faith that you can call a trial user, for example, and find out some key information, you won’t be motivated to make the call.
And if your motivation doesn’t exceed your fear, it’s all too easy to give up on the idea altogether.
So, you need a reframe. It’s no longer “I’m putting myself out there, vulnerable to rejection.” Instead, it’s “I’m building these skills and learning about my service.”
Suddenly, negative feedback isn’t a day-ruiner. It’s not something you fear. It becomes something you jot in your notes and, at the end of the call, something you say “thank you” for.
Not so scary after all.
How to Eliminate Fear by Practicing Communication Skills
Why Communication Skills Matter
Most people aren’t practiced communicators. And that’s okay! You don’t have to be. But you should reframe each call as an opportunity to practice communication skills. Turn it into a little drill:
- Plan an opening line
- Handle objections
- Lead with value
- Practice active listening
- Structure conversations
- Adapt to tone, voice, and style
These are skills we all need in business. But few of us possess all of them naturally. Since we don’t practice them, we don’t do it well—which means we don’t enjoy them. That gives fear the edge over the motivation to get better.
The Feedback Loop of Practice
When you don’t practice, you tend to perform worse. This creates a negative feedback loop: “I’m bad at this. Because I’m bad at it, I don’t like it, which makes me not want to practice it. I remain bad at this.”
Instead, build a feedback loop that improves your skills. Each call is a chance to build better conversations and, when it clicks, get positive outcomes from the call. That gives motivation the edge over fear—and it starts building a positive feedback loop.
Reframing Fear as Practice
I won’t sugar-coat it. Rejection isn’t fun.
But if you view it as feedback in your practice, rejection isn’t a death sentence, either. Rejection is less intimidating when you view it as a chance to level up your communication skills.
Shift your focus from “What if it goes wrong?” to skill-building. Each call becomes a new opportunity to learn something about interacting with leads and potential clients. And the more calls you make, the more likely you’ll pick up those mini-skills you need to make each call genuinely worthwhile, thanks to the feedback your prospects and customers provide.
Conquering Your Fear of Talking on the Phone
You can’t wave a magic wand and make your fear disappear overnight. Sales calls and feedback are scary sometimes.
But if you lean into it, give yourself some positive reframes, and get clear about what you want, the motivation to make the call can exceed the fear. This gives you the superpower of daring where others fear to tread.
Stick to the basics here. Acknowledge and understand your fear is due to a lack of clarity and vision for the future. Give yourself clarity by asking key questions and answering them as you prepare for the calls.
Finally, reframe your calls as a chance to get better at them—which creates a positive feedback loop that gives you key insights into what your company can improve.
Start your calling practice today with the Close dialer. 😎
