It's been nearly a month since last I posted. I've been hard at work in my new job for 6 weeks now and, although I'm not breaking any records, I'm starting to see some results from my hard work. I've had a few stumbling blocks along the way -- the chief one being making cold calls. Quite simply - I seem to have a phobia about the whole thing. I even went to a hypnotherapist to try to overcome the nasty bug... I'm still working on it. I have absolutely no trouble calling people who've expressed an interest in insurance -- I just can't go down the myriad lists and "dial for dollars", so to speak. I'm sure it's due to some deep-seated sense of inadequacy or some such drivel from my past or my childhood... all I know is that I have to make 50 calls and day and I don't have 50 warm leads... so that means the bulk of them will be... you guessed it... cold.
There has to be a better way -- but this is the method for which I'm accountable to management... so I guess I'll just have to trudge through and do my best. Does THINKING about calling someone count? Does having the conversation in your MIND count??? Ugh! Why is this such a big deal? What's the worst that can happen? Someone hangs up on me or cusses me out or calls me names or politely says, "I'm not interested, thank you." You see, I just SUCK at handling rejection. Perhaps I should have given that a bit more consideration before going in to this line of work, huh?
All of this being said, I really do like what I do -- the helping people part of it, that is... not the dialing for dollars part. I guess I'll just have to figure out a way to make it work... preferably BEFORE I go broke!!!!!
1 comment:
I am so way late in reading here Lauren but just wanted to offer support. My DH went through a similar thing although different circumstances. As a chaplaincy intern in a hospital he was assigned to the surgical waiting room. Basically, you "cold call" on people in crisis. The first day he was assigned there, he literally walked by the door a dozen times, never went in. The second day he walked by a few times, walked in and sat down. Didn't actually talk to anyone, was too freaked out. The third day he walked right in and sat down, didn't talk to anyone. By the end of the week, he was able to walk into the room, sit down and introduce himself. It just got better and better.
It does have something to do with fear of rejection... I don't think we are human if we don't have at least a little part of that in us. OTOH, as you said, what will it hurt if they do hang up on you? It IS a call made.
Hoping for the best for you in this job, much, much success...
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