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More and more e-mails are arriving in my in-box from people who hate cold calling. Here's what they're saying:

• 'Cold calling terrifies me.'
• 'The phone feels like a 10,000-pound weight.'
• 'Every time I have to make a cold call, I freeze up.'
• 'I feel like a fraud when I'm cold calling.'
• 'I can't take the rejection when I do cold calling. It just kills me.'
• 'I've gone from top producer to 'hermit' because of my mental brick wall when it comes to cold calling.'

Cold calling the old way is a painful struggle.

But you can make it a productive and positive experience by changing your mindset and cold calling the new way.

To show you what I mean, here are 7 tested cold calling ideas that even the sales gurus don't know.

1. Change Your Mental Objective Before You Make the Call

If you're like most people who make cold calls, you're hoping to make a sale -- or at least an appointment -- before you even pick up the phone.

The problem is, the people you call somehow always pick up on your mindset immediately.

They sense that you're focused on your goals and interests, rather than on finding out what they might need or want.

This short-circuits the whole process of communication and trust-building.

Here's the benefit of changing your mental objective before you make the call: it takes away the frenzy of working yourself up mentally to pick up the phone.

All the feelings of rejection and fear come from us getting wrapped up in our expectations and hoping for an outcome when it's premature to even be thinking about an outcome.

So try this. Practice shifting your mental focus to thinking, 'When I make this call, I'm going to build a conversation so that a level of trust can emerge allowing us to exchange information back and forth so we can both determine if there's a fit or not.'

2. Understand the Mindset of the Person You're Calling

Let's say you're at your office and you're working away.

Your phone rings and someone says, 'Hello, my name's Mark. I'm with Financial Solutions International. We offer a broad array of financial solutions. Do you have a few minutes?'

What would go through your mind?