The Science Behind Fear and Cold Calling

Have you ever heard of Atychiphobia? Neither had I, until recently. It’s a medical term I stumbled across recently. After my poll, it immediately inspired me to write about it and share my thoughts with all sales candidates and professionals, since most of us at some point in our sales career struggled with this phobia.

Atychiphobia (n.) fear of failure; an irrational and persistent fear of failing at something, and it’s been found to cause anxiety.

A study illustrated that 48% of B2B salespeople are afraid of making cold calls. Instead of prioritizing Jeb Blount’s golden hours for new business development, those 48%ers have a proneness to justify, validate, and defend spending their golden hours on other “important” sales activities.

Unfortunately, salespeople who are nervous about picking up the phone and making that cold call find it hard to achieve their target, are more frazzled and will not make as much money than the other 52% who don’t share this phobia.

The science behind fear

When you’re anxious the blood in your body flows away from the part of your brain which is responsible for logical thinking, reasoning, and managing emotions. Fear then triggers the part of the brain that makes you want to either 'fight or flight' go into overdrive. This is also called the reptilian brain.

The fear of failing at cold-calling, therefore, becomes self-given as atychiphobia causes less blood flow for you to think rationally, which restricts your capability to respond quickly to your prospect, which then results in damaging the number of leads and new opportunities. See where I’m going with this? When your reptilian brain is activated, your approach or questions may throw your prospects off and get that 'fight or flight' reaction. For that reason, prospects either end the call or become cautious. Neither results in accomplishing the end result (new opportunities). This negative cycle is fortified when a salesperson continues to procrastinate and say; “I’m too busy to cold call right now, I have admin to do” or “cold-calling is not for me; I get more opportunities from email campaigns or conversations on LinkedIn”.

Fix the problem, not the symptom

Reluctance and procrastination when it comes to cold calling are just symptoms of the rudimentary problem. Putting yourself out there with a chance of getting rejected is a real fear – people don’t like that feeling. This feeling often leads to avoiding the phones as we try to protect ourselves from something bad before it even begins! My advice is to prioritize tackling the issue (atychiphobia) first and then see what transpires to the symptoms (being reluctant and procrastinating).

By the way, fear is one of, if not, the most powerful emotion and it is what makes us human. So congratulations, you are human!

Cold calling can and should be a part of your routine just as much as eating your breakfast. Once you recognize how your brain reacts to fear, there are easy steps to change it.

Train your brain

The secret to overcoming this self-given fear is to simply get used to it so your body doesn’t sense any fear. The more comfortable you are cold calling = the more confident you will be.

Wait, how do you train your brain to be more at ease with cold calling if you’re anxious about it, you ask? Practice role-playing with colleagues; I’m not a betting person whatsoever, but the odds are they too, feel/have felt the same anxiety from cold calling. Roleplay is an effective and easy way to show the brain that nothing bad actually happens when you cold call.

If you want to be a top sales rep then you’ll need to master the art of getting your prospect’s attention by cold calling. Can’t avoid it (sorry!). Be proud and grateful to work in sales because you are solving problems and adding value to your prospects and customers. Being secure with your value and your purpose, as well as overcoming the fear of failure, will no doubt not only see your sales increase, but it will have a positive overall impact on your confidence and life in general!

Have you ever experience atychiphobia in your sales role or any other role?

How did you deal with it?

Let’s kill the stigma, start the conversation, and be open about it!