How to feel more comfortable when making sales calls

If you dread picking up the phone to make a sales call or speak to a client then you are not alone. Even extremely good salespeople can sometimes feel nervous when they have to speak to people on the phone.

It can be extremely frustrating because you know you need to make the calls to find new customers, to keep in touch with existing customers or to chase unpaid invoices. However, you just keep putting off picking up the phone or you breathe a sigh of relief every time you get no reply. That, of course, isn't good for your business.

There are several reasons for this behaviour.

• You might find it difficult to relate to people when you can't see them.
• Maybe you don't enjoy your job.
• You might be worried you will get a rejection.
• You might think that no one is interested in your product or service.
• You might feel uncomfortable asking for money.

We all have a preferred way of interacting with our surroundings and taking in information. Some people are visual and respond best to what they can see, others respond more to sound and others need to be able to be part of the situation. If you are a visual person then when you speak to someone on the phone you are cut off from your primary method of taking in information. You can't see how the person is responding; you have to purely rely on the sounds of their voice and what they say.

You might find phone calls easier to make in future if you find a photo of the person (maybe on their company website) so that you have an image in your mind of the person you are talking to.

You could use a service such as Skype to make a webcam call. This can also be a useful way of cutting down on the travel time taken up by going out to meet clients but you can feel more comfortable because you can see and hear the other person.

If you don't enjoy your job then it could be time to think about a new one, or to address the things that make it unpleasant. This might involve training courses to improve your skills or life coaching to help you understand what you want in life. You could talk to your colleagues about changes that could make a positive difference.

The final 3 reasons for your anxiety about making phone calls could be helped by hypnotherapy. Anxieties and concerns are often a result of past experiences and the thoughts you build up around them. Some common causes of anxiety around making phone calls are feelings of inadequacy as a child, a need for perfection, low self esteem or associating phone calls with unpleasant news.

If you are working in a highly competitive industry you can often be concerned about making mistakes. If you work in an open plan office where other people can see and hear you then you might be afraid of their criticism. If you have targets to hit then that can add to the pressure and anxiety gets worse if you are below those targets.

Hypnotherapy allows you to explore the problem and to start to think about it in a different way. This enables you to feel more comfortable about making phone calls. Then, the more confident you feel the easier it gets and the easier it gets the more confident you feel.