Every time you fail to pick up the phone, the gap between you and your goals widens. Real estate coach, Tom Ferry, said this (and he’s not alone). Ask any coach or top prospector and they’ll say something similar. So why do real estate agents regularly resist prospecting and cold calling when they know it generates listings? The common answer: phone fear.
If fear is your default feeling to “dialing for dollars,” then let these remedies resolve your phobias so you can narrow the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
6 Remedies For Anxious Agents With Phone Fear
Remedy 1: Ask Why You Are Really Afraid Of The Phone
Remedy 2: Move From Pain to Power
Remedy 3: Let Money Motivate You
Remedy 4: Visualize Your Value
Remedy 5: Create the Right Environment
Remedy 6: Practice Makes Perfect
Remedy 1: Ask Why You Are Really Afraid Of The Phone
In Feel The Fear… And Do It Anyway, author Susan Jeffers says, “It doesn’t matter where your fears come from. What matters is that you take action to develop trust in yourself and choose to change for the better.”
Jeffers explains some fear is instinctual, healthy, and exists to keep us alert to trouble. The rest of our fears (those holding us back from growth) are destructive and can be blamed on your conditioning.
So the next time you’re afraid of a prospecting call ask yourself, “Why am I really afraid of calling?” You might discover your fears aren’t instinctual, but a learned behavior that you can easily un-learn.
Rather than focusing on the fear and allowing it to stop you from prospecting or cold calling, you can shift your focus away from fear with these three words: I’ll handle it.
Keep this phrase in mind on every call, and it will slowly (but surely) boost your trust in yourself and allow you to prospect with higher degrees of confidence.
Remedy 2: Move From Pain to Power
Phone fear causes many real estate agents to feel a looming void of helplessness, depression, and paralysis. But if most agents feel this fear, how do so many still make money cold calling and prospecting, despite the dread? Is fear itself really the problem?
In her book, Susan Jeffers provides an answer that might surprise you. She explains, “The real issue has nothing to do with the fear itself, but rather how we hold the fear.”
The underlying principle of “how you hold fear” comes from a branch of psychology called dialectics (pronounced: die-a-leck-ticks), which involves developing new skills to manage painful emotions.
Practicing dialectics for real estate teaches you how to hold your fears with power versus holding them with pain. It elevates your perspective on pain and empowers you to choose how you react to phone fear.
The more responsibility you take over your perception of fear, the more you can ask, “Is this the condition I truly feared?” Next time you reach for the phone, keep this question in mind, and watch your fear shift from pain to power as you control your fears of prospecting.
Remedy 3: Let Money Motivate You
Mark Twain once said, “The timid person yearns for full value and asks for a tenth; the bold person strikes for double value, and compromises at par.” Let that quote sink in, then imagine your bank account 60, 90, and 120 days from now…
With that number in mind, how many appointments, listings, and closings will you need to turn the impossible into the inevitable? Seems like a lot, right?
Well, if you don’t have a specific plan to connect your calls to commissions, it’s easy to let phone fear paralyze you from “doing your dials.” Even if money isn’t your main motivator, the experiences, comfort, and time with family that money buys, will be.
Since your motivations lie with something that money helps you achieve, what you want and why you want it is going to be your best money motivator. Once you’re clear on your “why,” the next step is mastering the “how.”
Whether you call it “cold calling” or “prospecting,” it’s a simple science that predictably makes money. Get good leads, a good dialer, a good script, and a good schedule.
However, just because it’s a simple process doesn’t mean it’s any easier to pick up the phone. So as a remedy to reluctance, the clearer you are on your motivation for money, the stronger this remedy will work to improve upon your fears and anxieties.
Remedy 4: Visualize Your Values
Real estate agents who list and last know their “money motivators” and keep visual reminders of their goals, dreams, and values front and center when cold calling. Stacking this remedy with the previous one delivers maximum results.
This is how Expireds master, Paula Burlison, dials daily. She keeps her vision board of goals and dreams in her line of sight. When she encounters negative people radiating negative emotions, she looks at her board for a reminder of what she’s working towards, and keeps going.
Listing machine, Edward Estrada, keeps a Who I Am card close by wherever he prospects. On the card are reminders like, “I’m a great person. I’ve got a positive mindset. I’m helpful. I’m grateful. I’m here for myself. I know who I am.” Whenever he’s having a bad day or is on a difficult call, he reads the card to reboot his attitude and refocus on his prospecting.
Your goals, dreams, and values power your mindset and motivation. Keep them in front of you so you can push past your phone fears and remember why prospecting is the path to your prosperity.
Remedy 5: Create the Right Environment
Prospecting in the right environment can diminish phone fears. One of the best solutions is to create a dedicated space (or room) just for prospecting. A space dedicated to prospecting trains your mind to know when it’s time to prospect.
Think about a dedicated space like an empowering costume or uniform. When you put it on, how does it feel? Because like astronauts, pilots, or race car drivers “suit up” and buckle in, stepping into your own “command center” will help you turn nervous energy into positive productivity.
Top prospectors who follow a “dedicated-desk” approach keep a computer, phone, and notepad at their desk, along with a vision board or goal list. That’s it. They keep their prospecting space clear of other distracting “stuff,” and the only thing on their screen is their leads.
Now, if your head isn’t clear, it doesn’t matter how dedicated your workspace is. If you bring in trash, your session is going to stink. That means cultivating a healthy “mental environment” is also essential to make this remedy work.
The concept is simple. Nix the negative news, people, pop culture, and other mental junk food from your life. Instead, create a bubble of self-improvement by immersing yourself in real-estate-centric audiobooks and podcasts to keep your mind out of the gutter.
If followed, this two-part remedy will radically reduce your phone fears and cold calling concerns by “dialing in” the right physical and mental environments.
Remedy 6: Practice Makes Perfect
The best remedy to overcome your phone fear and cold calling anxiety is practice. It’s the “get your hands dirty, say the wrong things, and fall on your face” style of practice. Nothing else beats fear like preparation and experience.
Now you have two options (and you can try both):
The first is “safe mode.” In safe mode, you find script practice partners who roleplay the lead types you prospect. There are literally hundreds of agents everyday looking for someone to practice with.
If you’re going to take this first option, avoid working with only one partner. Top prospectors rotate between three to five different partners so they don’t get accustomed to one personality type. They also recommend 30 minutes of practice before a call session. This warms you up and prepares you for objections.
The second option is “live-fire mode.” This is where you learn on the job. You load your leads, get your scripts, and dial. Your mental model should be “get through the script” rather than “I fail if I don’t get an appointment.” Recording your calls and reviewing them later (with a coach) will help you turn up the accuracy on your live-fire practice.
Although there’s no way to 100% predict what will happen during a prospecting session, when you show up prepared, you show up to win! It may sound cliché, but practice really does make perfect.
Swallow The Pill
The ultimate remedy to your phone fear and cold calling anxiety comes down to one thing: get comfortable being uncomfortable. It’s possible. Most top real estate agents have confronted these fears and discovered everything they ever wanted was on the other side of courage.
Prospecting may never become your favorite thing to do, but top prospectors agree – every time you pick up the phone, you narrow the gap between where you are and where you want to be!
About REDX
REDX offers real estate professionals a complete all-in-one prospecting platform for generating listing appointments. The platform includes seller leads, a dialer with up to three lines, and a lead management tool for simple follow-up. REDX maintains the position that all agents should be compliant with state and federal telecom laws – learn more here. Call (800) 731-7339 option 1 to learn more about prospecting FSBOs, Expireds, FRBOs, Pre Foreclosures, GeoLeads, and our Power Dialer – or visit www.redx.com
