| Tricks of the Trade© |
Morning edition Wednesday June 28, 2000 |
Lose the Fear of Cold-Calling
Surveys have shown that more people are afraid of public speaking than they are of death! While cold calling isn't exactly the same as public speaking, it does evoke the same types of fears in most people. This is somewhat curious when you think about it since we all generally enjoy communicating with other people. However, when you are standing in front of a group, or you are knocking on the door of a stranger, it isn't unusual to get sweaty palms, butterflies in your stomach, and a strong urge to take off running in any direction.
Some people don't have any such fears but I believe they are in a very small minority. For the rest of us, not conquering these fears can be costly. In my opinion, cold calling, by door-to-door canvassing, is the quickest, least expensive, and most effective way to obtain new painting business. If we overlook this method of lead generation because we are scared to talk to strangers, we are going to be giving up a lot of jobs to other contractors.
I personally have discovered several ways to overcome these common fears. The least inventive way is to "just do it". Quite a few years ago I found myself looking for a job. The market was tight in Houston and the only job I could land was in sales. This particular job required that I give 15-20 public speeches a week to groups of 5 to 100 people. Talk about being scared! Before I took that job I almost never opened my mouth in public, but after a few weeks of dreading every day of work, I finally overcame my fears. But there are easier ways.
The one thing that helped me the most was a public speaking course. Even though I had been giving speeches for several months, I decided to take the course in order to learn the correct way to get my message across to the public. This is the best possible investment you can make if you are involved in sales. If you complete such a course it will greatly increase your self-confidence and almost completely rid you of those "cold-calling blues".
Another thing that helps is to have the right mental attitude. By that I mean that you should understand that your cold calling really is in the customer's best interest. If he needs a paint job and you are willing to give him a free estimate for the work, then you are doing him a service just by knocking on his door. If for some reason he says "no", then he is the loser, not you. If you can keep this thought in mind when someone says "no" you won't feel rejected. Your only emotion in this case will be one of sympathy for the homeowner who just passed up a great opportunity.
So, first take the public speaking course at a local community college. If you can force yourself to do this you will never regret it and you will never worry about cold calling again. That's the hard part, the rest is easy. All you have to do now is to convince yourself that cold calling is in the best interest of the customer--which it is--and, finally, you just have to do it.
Bruce
A&B Construction
Houston, TX
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