Most of us can relate to at least some of the most common top-ten fears: public speaking, heights, insects, financial problems, deepwater, sickness, death, flying, loneliness, and dogs…in that order, where death takes a backseat to bugs. Go figure.

There is one item conspicuously absent if you're a services executive charged with drumming up new clients and you're new (or even not so new) to sales: picking up the telephone. The thought of picking up the telephone, dialing a complete stranger, and selling yourself and your services to a prospect with as-of-yet undetermined interest in what you have to say creates much angst. To top it all off, the prospect may very well hang up before you have a chance to say anything.

Even after having made tens of thousands of introductory telephone calls for the purpose of selling professional services to senior-level executives, I still suffer from occasional call reluctance. But with a lot of experience comes a little bit of wisdom.

In my case, the wisdom is a five-step approach that will help silence that negative inner voice and pesky self-doubt to which we all sometimes fall victim.

Step #1 – Talk to Your Customers First

Seek out your best customers, those with whom you have a strong rapport, and ask them what deliverables your firm provides that represent the greatest value to them and why. This conversation will do two things: 1) It will help to identify the hot button issues that will likely resonate with prospects, and 2) It will build your confidence by reminding you of the beneficial impact your services deliver for clients.

Step #2 – Select Your Call List Carefully

The greater your chance of moving a prospect into the sales cycle, the lower your call stress. To increase your odds of advancing your initial conversation to the next level, you have to spend some time pruning your prospect list. You may not know in advance who will buy from you, but you do know who your current clients are.

Aside from the obvious demographics these clients probably share such as industry, sales volume, or number of employees, what other elements do they have in common? Internal structure? Changing competitive landscape? Serious industry challenges? Use this intelligence to refine a rented list, or to build one of your own. When you talk to someone who resembles a current client, you will begin to relax and regain the same self-assurance that drives your service delivery.

Step #3 – Set an Achievable Call Objective

The buying process can be agonizingly slow. Do not expect to sell your prospect with your first call; it's just not going to happen. Instead, establish a smaller, more realistic goal for yourself. Some possible goals:

• Uncover the prospect's needs around a specific area then follow-up with appropriate fulfillment and a second call
• Invite the prospect to a workshop, seminar, or speech you may be delivering
• Schedule a face-to-face meeting

Remember, your call stress wanes as your chances of getting to the next step with your prospect increases, so make this next step something highly "doable."

Step #4 – Practice

You can rehearse by yourself, with your colleagues, or – if they can tolerate it – with your friends and family. But you can only truly practice with actual prospects. You'll want to begin with those prospects that are not on your "wish list," as you will make some mistakes as you learn. Practice might not make perfect, but it does go a long way to restoring your composure.

Step #5 – Dial, Dial, Dial, and When You're Done, Dial Some More

There are telephone selling gurus who advise the telephobic to start slow with 5 to 10 calls per day. I say start with 10 and shoot for 25 calls on designated days – more if you can do without food or sleep. Call anxiety is not one of those phobias that can be diffused gradually; you have to take it down with both hands, one on the dial pad and the other cradling the receiver.

Curious fact: the sheer exercise of making call after call will put you at ease regardless of whether or not you're successful. But with a goal of 25 calls, and a modest call objective, success is inevitable. In the end the old saying is still quite true: sales is a numbers game.

Yes, prospects will turn you down. Some will even hang up on you. As a worse case scenario, though, that's not such an awful fate. You won't drown, fall, get stung, mauled, or lose your house to foreclosure. And, if you put these 5 steps to work, you can rid yourself of that knot of anxiety that stands between you and your upcoming best client.