How to Find Cold-Calling Motivation After Rejection

Rejection is never the end. Find your source of cold-calling motivation and get your winning game back. 

There’s no getting around rejection in sales. It doesn’t matter how good a salesperson is, rejection comes with the territory. That said, too many rejections in a row, or the wrong rejection at the wrong time can impact us. When that happens, it’s easy to find your cold-calling motivation isn’t what it was. 

The thing about sales, however, is that business revenue and often a paycheck rely on dealing with rejection and jumping back into things. And most of the time, it’s not that hard. We take a walk or commiserate with a colleague, then get back to it. 

Sometimes, though, we need some extra help. Whether from an outside source or somewhere deep within our well, we need to find our sales and cold-calling motivation. 

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Need a boost? Here’s how you can find cold-calling motivation even after the toughest loss.

Why, specifically, are we looking at cold-calling motivation? In many ways, cold-calling is one of the easiest sales strategies to put off. You can’t skip a customer meeting or decide you aren’t going to reply to emails. Cold-calling, however, is easy to avoid. No one is expecting your call. You won’t get a poor review from someone who isn’t familiar with your product. There’s no “loss” for deciding not to pick up the phone and make calls. 

What’s more accurate, however, is to say that there is no immediate negative impact. Lose your cold-calling motivation, however, and you could lose out. Here’s what picking up the phone leads to:

• 57% of C-level buyers prefer the phone as the primary mode of contact.
• 69% of buyers accept calls from new providers. 
• 82% of buyers will accept a meeting from buyers who contact them.

That’s a lot to miss out on. So how are you going to get motivated to make those cold calls? 

1. Set a goal for rejections. Hey, if there are going to be rejections involved, might as well make it fun, right? Set a daily goal for rejections, with the caveat, of course, that you have to give it your best. Can you reach 50 rejections in a day? 100? 300? Rejections tend to hurt a little less when you can make them a challenge. 

2. Look for easy wins. One way to boost your cold-calling motivation is to get a few easy wins under your belt. How? Go to your list of referrals and put them all at the top of your call list. Obviously, there’s no guarantee that a referral equals a win, but these prospects will at least give you a better chance.

3. Review your wins. One of the reasons we can lack motivation is that we don’t feel like there is a chance to succeed. Certainly, it can feel that way when we are faced with overwhelming rejections. In times like this, it’s helpful to go back and review your winning sales. That’s especially so if you have some that are hard one, where you overcame objections and were able to help a customer.

4. Cold call first. As you’re working to rekindle your cold-calling motivation, you still need to make calls. Put these calls first on your calendar every morning, just to get them out of the way. You’ll function better knowing that you’ve accomplished that big task. 

5. Give yourself a gift. I know this seems like the kind of motivation you might give to a reluctant pre-teen. “Clean your room and you can have ice cream.” But it works. Reward yourself with a gift for making a certain number of cold calls each day or in a week. It doesn’t have to be ice cream, either. Use whatever motivates you: A nice dinner out, concert tickets, a new book, an afternoon nap, or anything else that gives you a goal to work toward. 

It’s easy to lose motivation, and it can be tough to get it back. But if you can set aside the rejections for just a little bit, you may find that your motivation isn’t gone; it’s just hiding.