Sometimes making cold calls gives us a strange feeling in our gut. We become stuck, flustered and the phone turns into the heaviest dumbell you are ever likely to pick up. Unless you combat this feeling I'm afraid it only gets worse, even getting to the point where we are a nervous and hate the phone.

However, practice makes perfect and such reluctance is normally more evident in people that are new to cold calling and telemarketing in general. Well here's the good news, cold calling doesn't have to be the nerve tingling dreadful experience we all know it can be.

In telemarketing we tend to create our own fears. For example we may be put off making a call to a prospect because he'll be offended if he's busy, or if we call during lunch he'll be upset, or he has probably been called a thousand times before about this particular product, deal or service. It is human nature to make matters seem worse than what they actually are, thereby creating our own fears.

As human beings we have great tendancies to make excuses, and this is especially so in the telemarketing profession. This can become a sticking point when it comes to cold calling or even when calling warm leads. We subconciously tell ourselves that we don't have the correct resources to get the job done without some other form of external help. We may feel that we should send some more information first or ask them to fill in yet another survey.

Three tips for cold calling success

Don't care what anyone else thinks - Separate yourself from that part of your personality that thinks cold calling is wrong and a bad way to find new business. Stop kidding yourself and telling yourself that there is a better way to drum up new prospects and business which suits your personality better, such as email, media advertising or direct mail. The real truth of the fact is that nothing is as effective as telemarketing when it comes to winning new business.

Define your reluctancies - decide that your call reluctancies can be managed effectively by highlighting tendancies and excuses outlined above. Use an approach that seeks to gain feedback from your calls, and will hopefully show that your fears are totally unfounded.

Tell yourself you CAN - in telemarketing it is necessary to tell yourself that you CAN make those calls, and when you do more new business will follow. Most tendancies and fears are based on a projection of what you think a prospect will say to you when you call. This fear builds to the point where one part of your personality tries to protect the other from what is only presumed harm, and in actual fact will more than likely prove to be a falicy.