Your First Selling Experiences?

[Fnesse]

Selling is scary.

I've wasted far too many days on planning on how to sell and actually get results.


Curious to know your stories and first experiences on selling and getting over the fear.


Any advice / nudges in the right direction would be REALLY APPRECIATED!

 

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[policebaton]

You learn through desensitization over time. When I first started doing sales about 5 years ago... I was scared. I thought people would chew me out, and it did happen from time to time, but I eventually stopped caring so much.

Most of the time, your prospects aren't going to answer their phones tbh. It's going to be a process of calling them 5, 6, maybe 7 times before you give up and come back 6 months later to do it again.

When you do this over a period of time (for example making 20 calls a day, new batches of leads coming in and recycling with the ones not answering), you start to realize just how little that individual phone call means if someone isn't nice or it doesn't go well.

Especially when it's your own business, you care even less because you don't have someone paying you to do this and you F*ck it up.

Once you get a few wins under your belt, you'll start to associate it more positively. Here's my advice-
Research before you call. Don't just cold call some random number. If you have a talking point, that's terrific. For me that's looking at their Linkedin profile and any new products that may be out that we can chat about. Maybe they just made a good Linkedin post that's hyper-relevant to what I'm going to talk to them about. Preparation makes a big difference. Also, know your product and how you can help add value to their business.

 

[Fnesse]

You learn through desensitization over time. When I first started doing sales about 5 years ago... I was scared. I thought people would chew me out, and it did happen from time to time, but I eventually stopped caring so much.

Most of the time, your prospects aren't going to answer their phones tbh. It's going to be a process of calling them 5, 6, maybe 7 times before you give up and come back 6 months later to do it again.

When you do this over a period of time (for example making 20 calls a day, new batches of leads coming in and recycling with the ones not answering), you start to realize just how little that individual phone call means if someone isn't nice or it doesn't go well.

Especially when it's your own business, you care even less because you don't have someone paying you to do this and you f*ck it up.

Once you get a few wins under your belt, you'll start to associate it more positively. Here's my advice-
Research before you call. Don't just cold call some random number. If you have a talking point, that's terrific. For me that's looking at their Linkedin profile and any new products that may be out that we can chat about. Maybe they just made a good Linkedin post that's hyper-relevant to what I'm going to talk to them about. Preparation makes a big difference. Also, know your product and how you can help add value to their business.

Thanks for the advice!!

Will go get those few wins!