My boss wants me to cold call, but I have call reluctance, because I'm not very good at it. Help!

If you are going to cold-call - first make sure that you're ‘buying-in' and not ‘selling-in'!

Words are meaningless without emotion and emotions are very hard to experience over the phone. In fact, over 50% of communication is achieved via non-verbal cues, such as facial expression, gesture and posture. That means most cold-callers, even the really good ones, are still limited by these phone related challenges. So be mindful, if you are choosing the telephone as your initial point of contact and introduction with a potential customer, you are already on the back foot, which means you need to work smarter.

A sales tip: Don't cold-call unless you are ‘buying-in' with your customers. That means; understanding when they pick up the phone they are expecting a buyer or at the very least someone that is going to add value to their business and their lives, not a seller - so don't disappoint them - buy-in first!

‘Buying-in' is an empathetic approach to selling that enables you to cut-through to your customer's feelings and see the world through their eyes. This requires taking a genuine interest in them and their best interests. Moreover, how you can help them achieve their goals and aspirations in some way. Simply attacking a database with an open calendar and a positive attitude is not good enough. All the Glengarry leads are well and truly long gone!

Make sure your introduction and subsequent dialogue is all about helping the customer. You have to demonstrate you are ‘interested' to be ‘interesting'. If you are receiving this response: "Sorry, I'm not interested, goodbye!", what the customer is really saying is: "You have not demonstrated you are genuinely interested in me or my wellbeing enough for me to be interested in listening to what you have to say".

For many companies ‘buying-in' is too hard. They just don't make the time, nor do they possess the desire to create and develop ‘meaningful' conversations with customers - the dialogue is all about themselves and little else. Before you make your next call, ask yourself: Am I genuinely calling because I am interested in helping and contributing to someone in a positive way? Or am I simply calling to push my own agenda and make a sale to get paid?

If your response is motivated by the latter, I recommend speaking with your boss immediately and coming up with new and compelling conversation strategies that enable you to ‘buy-in'. Also, I suggest that you (and other sales team members) would greatly benefit from regular sales training and coaching that develops you to engage and lead customers to a place where positive testimony and referrals are born. Then you will enjoy cold-calling more, and you won't need to call as much - your customers will call you.

For more Selling Strategies advice, click here.