It's often said that sales is a mental game. Nowhere is that more true than in cold calling.
You can have the best product in the world. A sick offer. A quintillion satisfied customers.
Doesn't matter: if your job is to book meetings on the phone, the cold call life will beat you down. Occupational hazard, no way around it.
That's why the best sellers master the art of endurance. They figure out how to keep building pipeline day after day, even when it sucks and they feel annoying and nobody picked up the phone.
Now, we at 30MPC usually avoid talking about "mindset.” Not because it's unimportant, but because we want you to walk away with something you can use tomorrow.
In cold calling, that usually looks like specific talk tracks for your opener, problem pitch, objections, and booking the meeting. (If you want those, our course is a great place to start.)
But there are 3 additional (self) talk tracks you can use tomorrow that will have a positive impact:
- The Offer: Use this before your dial block.
- The Eff Off: Use this right after a prospect is rude to you.
- The Win Audit: Use this at the end of your dial block.
I use these 3 STTs™ on every call block to keep my mentals strong and the dials flowing.
Here they are.
STT 1: “The Offer”
Use this before your dial block.
The problem: When you're cold calling, it's easy to internalize what I call "seller self-hate." You start feeling like your whole job is to bother people, to pull them out of their day for your own benefit.
The truth: But that’s not true! You have a product that, when you find the right person, is genuinely valuable. People are paying for it, and I'll bet some of them actually like it. Which means that you, whose whole job is to talk to your ICP buyer, are an expert. Talking to you is inherently valuable, even for people who never buy.
What I do: Before I start dialing, I take a breath and say this:
"I am valuable. Speaking with me is a worthwhile experience for my prospects. I am offering my perspective, and whether anyone takes me up on it is none of my business."
My job isn't to force anyone to talk to me, just to offer an expert perspective. When I find someone who recognizes its value, I'm going to book a meeting.
With that framing, it's a lot easier to rip 40 or 50 straight dials and deal with people saying rude things to me. Which brings me to the next track…
STT 2: “The Eff Off”
Use this right after a prospect is rude to you.
The problem: People are going to be mean to you. Fact of the job. Plenty of people will say "don't take it personally,” but that’s easier said than done. Over time, I really felt the weight of all that negativity.
Until I realized…
The truth: Getting told to eff off is a positive signal. It's reverse pipeline math.
- There's a subset of buyers who HATE cold outreach, and some of them will vocalize it.
- There's a subset of buyers who NEED your product, and some of them will vocalize that too.
If you’re not getting ANY of (1) you’re almost certainly missing a bunch of (2).
(To be clear, this doesn’t apply to people who are being legitimately unprofessional.)
What I do: Now, when someone's rude, I (a) shake my arms and shoulders, (b) physically pat myself on the back, and (c) say out loud: "Good job, buddy!"
Every meanie I find tells me I'm closer to my next meeting. I let myself feel it for three seconds. Then I dial again.
STT 3: "The Win Audit"
Use this at the end of your dial block.
The problem: A call block with no meetings booked feels like a failure, and that bad feeling makes the next block feel less appetizing. This matters because how an experience ends has a disproportionately large impact on how we feel about it. (Daniel Kahneman calls this the "peak-end rule.")
The truth: Booking a meeting is only ONE goal of a cold call. Another is getting to the truth. Any time you get to the truth, you've succeeded.
What I do: At the end of every block, I take 60 seconds and identify at least 3 specific wins. I might write them down or just say them out loud. A few examples:
- A buyer told me they're locked into a multi-year contract.
- Win: I got to the truth and can move on.
- I noticed a voicemail says "Chris," not "Christopher."
- Win: my next touch is more personalized.
- I hit my full dial commitment without shortcutting.
- Win.
- A new opener kept someone on the line one beat longer.
- Win.
Ending on a high note reshapes how I feel about the whole block, which reduces my dread of the next one.
Okay, go make some dials.
None of these tracks will change what you say when you open a call, hit an objection, or find an interested party. (For that, check out our courses.)
But they will change your energy before, during, and after every block. That energy warms up prospects and gives you the endurance to keep showing up.
Sales is a mental game. The seller who can find a way to go back day after day builds real pipeline, which turns into real revenue, which turns into a real commission check in your very real pocket.
The math works. But only if you keep dialing. Hopefully these (self) talk tracks will help.
