I woke up this morning determined to make my first cold call. I got out of bed, brushed my teeth and didn’t even go have breakfast first. I sat down an my desk and started talking to Gemini about how I should approach my first cold call. It gave me script with some different scenarios (one for if I got a receptionist on the line and another for the owner of the business). I was second guessing myself the whole time. I paced around my room for a little bit because my heart was racing and then I finally decided that I should dial the number.

The line was ringing and an automated system answered and said, “Press one for emergency repairs and 2 for other roofing inquiries”. I panicked because I didn’t prepare for an automated system to pickup. I didn’t press anything and the line got disconnected. The reason I froze was because I second guessed myself and thought that they already had an automated system to capture leads, rendering my service useless to them. But upon reflection with Gemini, it clarified that those systems don’t capture, qualify or book leads, they just divert the call to the relevant channel.

So I dialed the number again, prepared to hit 2. I got someone on the line. I said, is this so and so? I’m Kanish, and paused. He said, “Is this about a roofing job?” and I said “No, I’m a” and he hung up. I was shocked for a couple seconds and didn’t comprehend what had just happened because I was so focused on reading the script. After I processed what had happened I felt bad and personally attacked because of being hung up on. It took me a few minutes to sit with the fact that I had just made my first cold call and got rejected in possibly the most brutal way.

After a while, I rationalized the experience my thinking that he probably gets sales calls all the time and is really busy, so he didn’t have the patience to listen to a total noob cold calling him with absolutely no charm or experience. Honestly I would’ve probably hung up on myself too. It wasn’t personal anymore. If he knew about the value that I could’ve added to his business, he most likely would’ve listened. At least that’s what I said to myself.

So what did I learn from all this? I learned that rejection isn’t as scary as it seems. When you want to put yourself out there and try new things, rejection is just a part of the game. The faster you get over that irrational fear, the faster you can achieve your goals. Anytime you find yourself being afraid that someone is gonna say no, just take it to the extreme and play the scenario out. If you come to the conclusion that you will most likely still be alive and breathing, there is nothing to worry about.

I’m glad I didn’t wait for the “right moment” or to be “ready” to make my first cold call. If I had, I would never have dialed the number. Now that I’ve got the first one down, I know what it feels like and will only get better from here on out.

Some possible improvements for the next one:

  • Shorten my intro and get the point ASAP.
  • Maybe even explicitly state that I’m not trying to sell them anything.
  • Talk in a more friendly tone and less like someone reading a sales script.