The Dreaded Cold Call – An Entrepreneur’s Nightmare!
So, (for serious) the dreaded cold call. I had this pivitol moment this afternoon during a cold call, that reminded me how much I loathe that necessary part of any business… in the beginning, when I am trying to create success out of a new venture. I’ve done this several times now, and been successful in waves. It’s exactly the same philosophy of “you have to have a job to get a job.”
It’s such a nerve wracking thing for me to do. I stutter. I end all my sentences in a question, even if it is a statement. I don’t leave messages. I talk really fast. I don’t finish sentences. It feels brutal and for sure it is irritating for the person I’m calling. And I know like I know, that really successful people abhor lack of confidence and mouseyness. I know they reject that person entirely – via homeopathic profiling and also by my own feelings and irrepressible behaviour when lack of confidence and mousey comes cold calling to my door. I always say no on account of the snivelling. I’m a total jerk!
And yet, in the past few months, there has been quite a bit of cold calling! This has come in the form of phone calls, emails, drop-ins and 2 proper stalkings. I’ve done a ton of preparing and had a lot of help getting there. I’ve taken notes and I’ve tried to improve each and every time. When I was painting and having to cold call almost every day, I had the luxury of an already great reputation and my service was something everybody needed. People’s responses fell into 3 categories: not interested at this time, but I will keep your number; yes please!; total irritation at the “telemarketing” that generally turned into a job (actually that was always the weird part) when I would just say the sentence “I’m calling about painting.” Sometimes I would just blurt it out while they were floundering around in their irritation – and come to think of it, I would say it sharply because the irritation irritated me ha! – and it would stop them and then they would say “pardon” and I would get to say it very clearly.
This is hilarious. Hindsight is always 20-20! I could create a default statement for each of the current things I am cold calling about. It is a way of literally cutting through my own insecurities.
Anyway, this is great for me to be thinking this out. I’m thinking already about some new ways to make it even easier.
BUT, the purpose of my little ditty this evening is to look into all the ways I am already where I want to be. The crunch of what is actually stage fright is definitely getting the better of me, such paralysis, and it is honestly so pervasive. It’s tendrils are into every aspect of my vision at the moment and I can’t seem to budge it. It is also causing some interesting rationalisations and also some worm holing. It’s uber frustrating.
Great to have this topic to flush out some awareness about where I’m really “at” in this moment of what feels like zero movement, especially concerning a dreaded but essential action like cold calling. For it to instantly be easy this afternoon was such an amazing feeling. I made the call, and although I had to leave a message, the woman who spoke with me was definitely engaged. What I noticed was the same energy present, that push past her irritation to get the information I needed. I wanted to speak to her boss who wasn’t there today, and she was trying to end the call as quickly as possible by filtering me into one of HER categories (funny) She was rude and that rudeness didn’t shut me down, it engaged me fully.
That’s an energy that hasn’t been there in I can’t determine how long, and definitely not at all yet in the same room as my vision. It was so refreshing.
The bonus is how I felt afterwards. There was no “did she like me/did I say the right thing/am I a loser?” in my head for several hours afterwards. It was just a clear and present certainty that the next action with my beads is to have a meeting with that particular woman, and that that is on it’s way to completion. I got up and went about the rest of my day. I even enjoyed a fun walk with Molly and didn’t think about “how could I do that better next time.”
The double dog dare (oh yeah this was big for me!) is that there are several balls in the air at the moment, and if she doesn’t want to see me when I can see her on Thursday morning, my success will not be affected. I have come out of a very long phase of one thing after another, and only in a certain order, because I have limited resources – beads, literal time, and personal/physical energy. That’s amazing. It means I am rolling along nicely, picking up speed, and keeping up with the opportunities I create along the way, fitting in more opportunities as they appear, and not having to bend so much around other people’s schedules (really my mind’s schedule). This is where the magic happens.
And finally, I am so aware of how much easier it is for me to keep up with these opportunities because of how many of the parts are automated. Those parts are the me-parts too – the fear and the not knowing how and the lack of confidence. Seeing and feeling that in this particular equation, allows me see how soon the stage fright will dissipate (or be solved) and that personal energy will be free to create the actual results that in turn create the stellar reputation I naturally have in my community – small and large – when I am at the helm of a successful business.
