My job requires me to cold call sometimes, which I think is a very misunderstood skill. Cold calling is often associated with those pushy annoying people who phone your house at 9am to sell you phone licenses or some other shit you don't need. It conjures an image of endless cubicals in a callcenter where people work 9-5 in a deadend job.
Of course these situations exist, and yes they probably fucking suck. But I'm here to tell you that cold calling, if done occasionally, can actually be a very educational experience! I've found out that it's varied and obviously it depends on who you work for and what you're selling. I work in the Business-to-Business sector, which means my company sells solutions to other companies. It's a whole other mindset entirely. I'm not bothering people at their house, I'm calling into their office with a proposition to some very real problems that they're facing.
When I cold call it's for maybe 2-3 hours and it really is a good way to practice a sales pitch, warm up for meetings later in the day and generally is a useful skill to practice and keep well oiled. Cold calling salespeople, managers of all types and even chatting with receptionists have given me more confidence, and boosted my interpersonal skills. It has allowed me to pick up the phone without being anxious. My first time cold calling was pretty scary, I got to admit, but once I did it a few times I realised it was just in my head.
So if you're the type to not wanlike picking up the phone and you ever get the chance to cold call at your job, maybe try it out for an hour or so, after a few times you might be surprised at how easy and rewarding it can be :)
