Mr.Pickles

Sr. Customer Success Manager

Terrified agent - help!

Good day ladies and gents - I come seeking advice and guidance.

I have a new agent that is terrified of calling. TERRIFIED. He starts shaking, sweating, and stuttering. This is the first time I encounter such a thing since the "common ground" is fierce, highly competitive, passion-driven profiles, and don't get me wrong - this person is great out of the line: full of energy, dynamic, extrovert... But once he clicks the dial icon stress and fear kick in.

We've been working for five weeks now with different approaches to this situation: roleplays, gamification, shadowing, skill transfer, wellness checkup with our internal psychologist - you name it, but when it's calling time, my G just froze.

What would you do differently? Help!

🧢 Sales Management

🎈 Mentorship

50 comments

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FightingFistDrangon

Politicker

Director of Sales

Agree cold calling isn't for everyone. It does make you basically fearless at the bar when it comes to making approaches though

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

haha dating much

letsboogie

Director of Sales

Cold calling is something literally anyone can do as long as there’s an aptitude to learn from mistakes and ambition to improve. Sit him down to try and understand what’s at the core of his fear. If he has the drive and is open to coaching, you just need to reinforce his psychological safety by giving him total and complete permission to fuck up a cold call (within reason). First, communicate that mistakes are a part of the process and that you expect them. Two, make a point to celebrate his mistakes/nerves/stutter as there’s no growth without discomfort. It may disarm his perfectionist paralysis enough to get a win.

E_Money

Big Shot

💰

Honestly, some people just can't cold call- it is one of the hardest jobs out there! If I had a rep who was still this nervous on calls after 5 weeks I would have the hard heart to heart of maybe this isn't the career for you. Sounds like you've tried everything

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

We have - and I couldn't agree more with you: it's one of the hardest jobs. we just want to make sure we did everything to successfully enable his process.

E_Money

Big Shot

💰

Seems like you definitely did

brotato

WR Lieutenant

Head of Sales

- Stand him up- Play some music he likes for 5 minutes- Get a mirror for him to look into- Give him a stack of $20 pizza gift cards- Get him a list of verified dials- Have him cold call that list and pitch the prospects on a free pizza for lunch, no strings attached- Record the whole thang and do a team watching of it all
Let him realize it's not that big of a deal to cold call, get hung up, have some fun, and be himself.

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

You're the VMP Brotato.

Cleb

Member

SDR

Awesome idea

WhereverYouGoThereYouAre

Fire Starter

VP, Sales

There are lots of roles out there that require all of those amazing innate skill sets you just spoke of that don't require cold calling. Perhaps it might be good to work with HR on finding a better situation for this individual. Cold calling is not for everyone.

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

100%

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Love the recommendation to try and find him another role in the company! Too many would just him loose.

And definitely agree cold calling isn't for everyone. It DOES make you basically fearless at the bar when it comes to making approaches though...

WhereverYouGoThereYouAre

Fire Starter

VP, Sales

Indeed it is not! But bars, planes, trains, and automobiles...lol I have sold to so many people on those!

anc

Big Shot

Customer Success Manager / Account Executive

I can relate to this so much! Cold calling is definitely not my cup of tea, I used to get super nervous and my stomach would immediately get knots in it. The key is just to keep doing them, the more you do the better you become. He needs to have confidence in himself and he'll get through it! I also agree with the comment that "cold calling is not for everyone," I think there's other ways of selling that could be adapted from him where he succeeds better in. Definitely agree with reaching out to the HR team or other leaders in your organization to possibly come up with new solutions that work better for him!

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

wow - sounds like you had a bad time back in the days. thanks for the advice

BCD

Politicker

BDR

Couldn’t agree more

Chep

WR Officer

Bitcoin Adoption Specialist

Tell him to detach his worth from the calls and remind him in most cases if they don't agree to a meeting he will never have to hear or see this prospect again.

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

Good stuff - we are overcoming that fear already

BCD

Politicker

BDR

Great advice

AnchorPoint

Politicker

Business Coach

Bingo

MR.StretchISR

Politicker

ISR

Another question I have to ask is the rep from an Asian or Middle Eastern background?

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

noopes

SalesPharaoh

Big Shot

Senior Account Executive

suggest that he tries to change the spot he is cold calling from maybe having experienced salesmen around him is making him nervous from judgement and what not. I was a little like that in the new job so I book a meeting room until I got comfortable making calls around my colleagues.

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

That's a great idea. Right now I'm thinking about how can I make that happens since we are working remotely. Should I go to his place and back him up?

SalesPharaoh

Big Shot

Senior Account Executive

Oh damn hahaha he works from home and uncomfortable, i don't know if he is by himself and uncomfortable maybe take him to starbucks or something maybe he needs some support around him...otherwise i have no idea

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

haha shitting bricks

SalesPharaoh

Big Shot

Senior Account Executive

yea poor guy

AlphaCharlie

Arsonist

Account executive

Did he finally crush it?

Lenca

Politicker

BDR

Asking the real questions!

Lenca

Politicker

BDR

How did this go? is he still terrified?

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

My G is kicking butt so hard!

Blackwargreymon

Politicker

MDR

Weirdly enough, what helped me out the most was to pull up a picture of the person they are calling before they dial. it humanizes them and instead of calling XYZ Corp's CEO, he is calling Frank, who looks like his dad's friend.

Cleb

Member

SDR

Whatever happens... The fact that you didn't shit on him and send him packing right away says a lot about your organization. Kudos

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

We tried our best

DaveFromCollege

Notorious Answer

Account Executive

I naturally am not comfortable on the phones either. It took a lot until I became comfortable (jaded) enough to be where I can make hundreds a day if needed.

Weirdly enough, what helped me out the most was to pull up a picture of the person they are calling before they dial. it humanizes them and instead of calling XYZ Corp's CEO, he is calling Frank, who looks like his dad's friend.

Another question I have to ask is the rep from an Asian or Middle Eastern background? Or any other culture that has that "listen to your elders" type mindset? I am Asian myself and if that's the case, feel free to message me, that's a much longer conversation.

Incognito

WR Officer

Master of Disaster

Have him cold call all the pizza joints in nyc? 🤷‍♀️

and yes, I did that because I need to get better at cold calling myself!

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

How did it work for you? Or is this a project in progress?

Incognito

WR Officer

Master of Disaster

Just helped me internalize what I was going to say, and practice the pivot.

at the end of the day, though, you need to have the ability to disassociate yourself. Some people just can’t.

MaximumRaizer

Politicker

Sales Manager

Agree cold calling isn't for everyone. It does make you basically fearless at the bar when it comes to making approaches though

Clashingsoulsspell

Politicker

ISR

whodis

Valued Contributor

Irrelevant

I can’t do it either. Tried all the things, got coaching, etc, but I have trauma tied to phones and simply cannot do it. I am and have been the top selling rep on every team I’ve been on that asked me to cold call, despite not cold calling. If the agent is scrappy, they’ll make another outreach method shine. If not, maybe it isn’t the role for them. I had a peer who got into drugs to make cold calling bearable, so I caution against forcing the matter too much when there is clearly more at play here than simple hesitancy.

Razorramon

Sales Manager

If it’s 5 weeks and he still can’t do it, He needs to get out of that role. Cold calling is part of the job and it doesn’t get easier. Time to let him go. This is business. Now is he was geting paid 1099 it’s one thing but if he has a salary. He needs to be let go.

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

No PIP would do?

customeraffiliate

Personal Narrative

Account MGR

I only have basic suggestions like tell him not to take any negative response personally or to heart. Listen to any previous issues they may have had and be sympathetic to their pain and assure them that will not happen with you. If they do not offer previous bad experiences, ask them if they had any so you can smooth over and apologize for others that may have been a jerk for any reason. Practice, practice, practice. If no approach, answer is a no when it could have been a yes. Good luck!

whatsquota

Enterprise AE

Potentially hypnosis might be the only way around this but that’s more on them vs you as the employer. Cold calling isn’t for everyone if they are talent you want in the business might be worth relocating them to another team

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

Let it go... let it go🎵

palmtrees

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

I struggle with cold calls and the only way I can do them is literally have an ultimatum with my self that it’s better than being homeless.

Mr.Pickles

Arsonist

Sr. Customer Success Manager

Damn :/ have you tried any of the advice from the comment section?

Nuke

Fire Starter

Account Manager

What worked for me was cycling to work. I would get into the office sweating and pumped. After the cycle there is nothing that could have fazed me. I was chill the whole day while making 45-60 min calls back to back with only a lunch break to interrupt that.
Workout before work it helps trust me. You get calmer

arjunsarin

Enterprise Sales Manager

I think you should move the agent to the inbound call motion and let themtake calls. Once he gets comfortable in talking in 10 days or so you can transition them to outbound motion. During Inbound motion follow ups would also be setup hence he would get trained on making calls as well.

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Mr.Pickles

Terrified agent - help!

50 comments

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