Beating Call Reluctance

I recently ran across Portland’s Finest Advertising Blog.  Phil is a very friendly guy with lots of tidbits to share, but one in particular hit home.  As some of you may know, I have started doing a small amount of freelance marketing work on the side and I’ve found it hard to ask for business.  I’m very much a people-pleaser and I often feel like I’m imposing on someone by making my sales pitch. 

The more people you call who say no… the harder it seems to pick up that phone the next.  When you call, you may not even get through the first lines of your pitch before that dial tone is wringing in your ears. So how can you push through it?

One strategy I use it to set a particular time.  So I make a call exactly at 2:00pm.  after that call ends (unless it is hugely successful which requires additional dancing around the room time) I set a timer to make another call at 2:05pm.  In the mean time, I answer emails or file away blog articles for future writing material.  It keeps me moving foward but not bogged down with the cold calling. 

But the post over on Phil’s blog had great advice about another strategy to beat the reluctance:

See how many no’s you can get…

Maybe I’ll set up a board and add a gold star for every no I get.

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