Have you ever felt anxious to pick up the phone and make your first dial? So has every other SDR that has ever existed! Cold call anxiety actually affects 40% of sellers at some point in their career.
This post will uncover some common tactics BDRs can use to overcome this anxiety and boost meetings booked over the phone.
Getting in the Zone 🧘
Until you are an experienced cold caller who is comfortable jumping into an instant conversation with a random person, it's really important to give yourself some mental breathing room before going into a cold call session.
There are a ton of things that are affecting your mental state during the work day, many of which you probably never even noticed.
Close all tabs except the absolutely necessary ones 🙅♂️
Yes, that means closing all 50 Salesforce, Outreach, Salesloft and LinkedIn tabs you have open, looming in the background 😉
You might not be someone who cares about having tons of tabs open, but you'll thank yourself later when you don't accidentally click into another open tab & panic for 10 seconds trying to re-find where you were while on a live call.
The only tabs you should have open are, 1 SEP tab, 1 CRM tab, 1 Calendar tab & 1 Dialer tab.
Get comfortable 🤤
Although the phrase "How you dress is how you will feel" certainly holds some validity, wearing a 3 piece suit isn't always necessary with remote work being more common nowadays.
If you're body is relaxed and comfortable, your mind will be too. The top performing BDRs have praised their tactic of tossing a sweater on, turning their lights off in the room, & dialing the AC back 2 degrees before jumping into a dial sesh. It makes all the difference.
But hey, if you feel the most comfy while wearing a top of the line suit, do it!
Ideas:
- Wear your comfiest sweater
- Turn the lights off
- Close the door in your room
- Get a hot cup of coffee ready to go next to you
- Dial the AC back a couple degrees
- Open a window for a nice breeze
- Light an incense or candle
Have objection handling cards or script next to you 📝
Within 2 weeks of heavy dialing, you probably won't even need to look at objection handling scripts anymore. But when you're starting out, or if you're selling something new, spend a few minutes imagining what you'd say if someone gave you an objection. Then type that out exactly as you'd say it and have those scripts right next to you.
Suddenly, the idea of a prospect telling you they're not interested isn't so bad! You may actually get excited to try out the scripts you've prepared.
Buy a pair of headphones JUST for cold calling 🎧
This is a psychology trick. Through pattern recognition, the body & mind will naturally adjust to prepare for the mental toll of cold calling when you pick up that headset which is ONLY used for dialing. Most companies will allow you to expense a decent headset, but we recommend getting one either way.
Since most BDRs are dialing out of the web these days, it is recommended to buy a headset that is meant for web based calling, as you know you won't run into any issues around bluetooth connectivity.
Our favourite headphones
Pre-call breathing & meditation 🧘
Stabilizing your heart rate & calming the body makes a big difference when you head into calls. Even just 5 minutes of closing your eyes and counting your breaths will make a huge difference in how you feel heading into your session. In fact, every 50 dials or so, we recommend taking a 5 minute break and counting to 30 breaths.
Some apps to look into:
Have your calendar ready to go 📅
Nothing is worse than having a great call then panicking to pull up your calendar to find time to meet with the prospect. Always have your calendar open in another tab, with your AE's calendar open as well overlapping yours so that you can easily find time that works.
How to subscribe to other peoples calendars in your org:
Limit all distractions 🫣
Lastly, put your phone in another room, close the door & tell your roommates to not bother you for an hour while you're dialing. It takes time to get into the zone while dialing, and any time there is a mental distraction your prep work is tarnished.
Seriously, when dialing, just try to focus on dialing. If 1 hour is too long, start with a 15 minute session. Then boost it to 30min. Then an hour.
Eventually, you'll even be able to dial in the background while completing other tasks and feel confident jumping into an instant conversation once someone answers!
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