The Not So Cold Reality of Cold Calling

“I could never work in sales. I would hate cold calling.”

It’s no secret that the sales profession carries a stigma that turns many people away. They assume that salespeople are telemarketers; calling unsuspecting victims around the clock (and always at dinner time) to sell something they don’t need.

Then there’s the caricature of the used car salesman — the one who will prod, manipulate, and force you into buying something, just to make the sale.

It seems that many people are turned off by sales for one simple reason. They don’t want to bother people who don’t want to buy. They cringe at the telemarketer, and at the used cars sales person. They hate the idea of becoming versions of those stereotypes.

In reality, cold calling in sales is much less intrusive than people might assume. Let’s explore the reality of cold calling, and why it’s such a valuable skill to have on your resume…

We’ve all received the phone call at the dinner table from someone trying to sell us a credit card or someone who wants to come pick up our old clothes for a charity. To clarify – this is telemarketing. And it’s different from cold calling.

Telemarketing is defined as “the practice of marketing goods or services by telephone,” while cold calling is “solicitation of potential customers who were not anticipating such an interaction.”

The key phrase here is “potential customers”.

Telemarketing is about making a ton of phone calls to reach as many people as possible, while in sales, you are calling on a prospect who is targeted to the product you’re selling. I never view a cold call as an annoyance; I’m simply informing my prospects about what’s happening in their industry and hopefully helping them run their business better.

When making sales for startups at Skaled, we’re excited about telling big brands and agencies about these emerging technologies they’ve likely never heard of. We’re helping them discover something that will benefit their business — and that’s a far cry from a used car sales pitch.

So how does cold calling help you develop as a professional?

Think about how pervasive the process of selling is to everyday life. The chair you’re sitting on right now – there was some sales rep who called some furniture store, told them about these awesome new chairs, and asked if they could set a meeting to come and show the prospect their chairs. The prospect probably had lots of chairs to choose from, but that salesperson successfully communicated why THEIR chair offered something special — how it would appeal to office workers and give them back support for long work days. They convinced that prospect to buy THIS chair instead of the others.

Being the person who drives these decisions every day is a solid skill to build a career off of.

Cold calling also builds character.

No matter how much you believe in your product, there will always be people who are not excited to hear from you. You will get hung up on. You may even get yelled at if this isn’t the first time someone from your company has called. But guess what? These types of interactions and rejections are going to happen again and again in both your personal and professional life. There will be a customer who is not pleased with your product that rips into you.  Your boss will be dissatisfied with a report you’ve put together and confront you on it. You’ll apply for an apartment and the management will ignore your phone calls regarding your application. The list goes on and on. By simply having these difficult interactions on a daily basis, you will not only learn that tough conversations are not a big deal, but you will learn how to handle them with ease and grace.

Cold calling helps you develop a thick skin and improves your communication skills — two benefits that will prove worthwhile to any career path.

Do you have experience in cold calling? Tell us how this skill has helped you in the comments section below.