Five Ways to Overcome Your “Fear” of the Phone

Halloween is the season for celebrating all things scary: ghosts, goblins, witches, werewolves, and … the phone?

It’s true. Fear of the telephone—whether making or receiving calls— is surprisingly among the most common social phobias. This fear can be burdensome enough in everyday life, but it’s especially debilitating when the phone is a necessary part of your job.

A recent study by a leading sales training company found that 48 percent of B2B salespeople were afraid to pick up the phone and make cold calls. Imagine how many potential sales have been lost through the years because hesitant reps pushed off making calls until it was too late, or perhaps never made the calls at all.

There are multiple reasons why even experienced sales reps dread the phone, from fear of being considered a nuisance, to fear of being rejected, to an overall fear of the invisible stranger on the other end of the line. (Never mind that the person receiving the call is often just as afraid of you as you are of them.)

Fortunately, there are many strategies callers can implement for overcoming these fears. Here are five that we at VSA find particularly effective:

1. Be prepared

The more comfortable you are talking about the product or service you’re offering, the more relaxed you’ll be on the phone. And the best way to achieve that comfort level is preparation and training.

At VSA, business development representatives (BDRs) undergo extensive phone training when they’re first hired. They then receive additional training specific to the programs they’re assigned to, so by the time they’re ready to hit the phones, the BDRs are well-versed in both general calling strategies and the subject matter they’re talking about.

Preparation involves much more than training the callers, though. It’s also imperative to build an accurate contact list and make sure the messaging is on-point. VSA tackles both these steps during its thorough onboarding period with clients (and continues to revise as needed throughout the campaign), maximizing callers’ chances for success. 

2. Think positive

It’s easy to imagine all the reasons the person you’re calling doesn’t want to talk to you. They’re too busy. They’re too important. But if you expect a call to fail, it almost certainly will. The prospect will hear the negativity or hesitancy in your voice, and often respond by ending the call as quickly as it began.

Assume before the call that the person on the line wants to hear what you have to say. You’ll sound much more upbeat and confident, and that alone could be enough to extend the conversation past the initial greeting.

Even if the call doesn’t end with an appointment, a pleasant conversation can make subsequent calls seem less intimidating. After just a few positive experiences, you might forget you were ever afraid of the phone in the first place.

3. Listen to your calls

Nobody is perfect on their first call. Or their thousandth. Even the most productive caller can find something they could have said or done differently—a turn of phrase here, a vocal inflection there.

VSA’s BDRs receive regular coaching and critiques, which often involve listening back to calls they’ve already made. And while hearing a recording of yourself can be almost as stressful as the call itself, it’s also a great method for honing your phone skills, hearing what you can do differently, and feeling less uptight the next time you dial.

Mock calls with members of your team are another fun way to discover subtle areas in need of improvement and ease the tension of getting back on the phone for real.

4. Don’t overthink it

Sure, you want to be prepared and knowledgeable, but the purpose of a cold call (or even a warm call) isn’t to tell the prospect everything about your product or service. Think of it more as an introduction to a new relationship, just two sides getting to know each other.

One veteran VSA BDR said her phone strategy is to treat every prospect as a new friend whom she’s calling to share good news with. If they want to hear about it, great. If not, there’s always the next call.

If you think of each call as an opportunity for a friendly conversation, the task suddenly becomes a lot less frightening. 

5. Keep calling

Just like with anything else, the more you do something, the better you’ll become at it. Each conversation with a prospect—the meetings scheduled, the hang-ups, and everything in between—is a new experience that can be stowed away in your brain and recalled during future calls. After enough calls, you’ve heard it all, so you’re prepared no matter where the conversation leads.

You quickly learn that rejection is not something to fear and that success is often just one call away. In this business, persistence pays off.

Conclusion

Calling strangers on the phone can be scary, it’s true. But with the right preparation, mindset, training, strategies, and diligence, even the most apprehensive of callers can overcome their anxiety.

However, if your reps are still hesitant to get on the phone, hiring an outside lead gen and appointment-setting firm is always a solid option. At VSA, we’ve got 20 years of calling experience, so our BDRs know all the best tactics for engaging in productive phone conversations.

If you’re looking to outsource your calling needs, give us a ring. We promise there’s nothing scary about getting on the phone with us.