“What are you doing? Pick up the phone. Call some dealers! Are you afraid to talk on the phone?”
This was my boss at my first job out of college. I was an inside sales rep for a small bicycle component manufacturer. My job was to cold call bike shops and get them to let me send over sample units. That’s it. All I needed to do was pick up the phone and ask the person on the other end of the line if I could send them free shit that would help their business. Looking back, this job was easy. There was just one problem, I was afraid of the phone.
If you’re like me, you grew up on the front lines of the texting generation. From high school through college, phone calls gave way to text messages and eventually emoji’s and Snapchats. When friends (or my mother) called I would usually let it go to voicemail and then text a quick “What’s up?” a minute later. This is how our generation communicates. Sound familiar?
Unfortunately, the business world (and most adults) still use phone calls to communicate. Learning to be a fearless phone warrior is not an option, it is a necessity. It will help you with your professional and personal growth.
I eventually left the bike company and landed a gig with an equipment finance company. I was required to make a minimum of 150 cold calls per day trying to sell loans. This was my immersion therapy.
I hated this job. How miserable it was, manually dialing hundreds of numbers per day, getting shut down 49 times out of 50. Day after day, month after month. It was a shitty job, but I don’t regret my time there because it taught me to be fearless on the phone.
Fearless.
The only thing holding us back from picking up the phone, or applying to that job, or signing up for a triathlon, or asking out that girl at the frozen yogurt shop is fear. We are a generation of fear, so scared of failure, of being shot down, of being rejected, of being told we are not good enough, not qualified enough, not pretty or handsome enough. Fear scares us into inaction, and when we don’t take action, we stop progressing, we stop growing.
We all feel fear. Fear can be a good thing. It keeps us from driving backwards on the freeway, or blowing our rent money on Coachella tickets, or jumping in the gorilla cage at the zoo. The problem arises when fear is left unchecked, unquestioned. Irrational fear. This type of fear can mess with our goals and our success.
My boss at the finance company used to say, “What’s the big deal? You are just asking a question. The worst they can say is no.”
He was right. They weren’t saying “no thanks, I do not have a need for your product, and I reject you as a person.” They were simply not interested in the product at this time. Easy. Hang up and dial again. It’s a numbers game.
Life is a numbers game.
If you are afraid of hearing a single “NO”, you will become paralyzed by fear and you will never reach your potential. You won’t find a suitable mate if you are afraid to talk to boys/girls. You won’t find a better job if you don’t apply. You probably won’t get a raise if you don’t ask for one.
The worst they can say is NO, and NO won’t kill you. I promise.
Stop being afraid. Pick up the phone. Start dialing. See what happens. You just might get the yes you want. But if not, no big deal, hang up and dial again.
