I Got Punched for a Living: Why Cold Calling Isn’t Scary

Cold calling terrifies most salespeople more than losing their biggest account. The rejection. The hang-ups. The voice telling you that you’re bothering people who don’t want to hear from you.

Before transitioning into sales, Steve Munn spent nine years as a professional hockey defenseman. As a hockey player, his job was to make life difficult for the other team and absorb whatever they dished back. 

“Part of it was getting punched in the face,” he said on a recent episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast. “If I get a no from a prospect, that’s maybe a bad day, but it’s certainly not as bad as getting a concussion or a broken nose again.”

That perspective shift, understanding what actually constitutes a threat, changes everything about how you approach cold calling. It goes beyond being tougher or having thicker skin.

Your Fear Isn’t About the Call

Most sales professionals will do anything to avoid call blocks. They’ll update their CRM. Reorganize their pipeline. Respond to emails that could wait three days. Anything but pick up the phone.

The problem isn’t the person on the other end of the line. You don’t want to be the one who fumbles, doesn’t have the right answer, or proves you don’t belong in that conversation.

Imposter syndrome thrives in sales because every call is another opportunity to prosecute yourself. Every objection becomes evidence that you’re not cut out for this. Every hang-up confirms what you secretly suspected: You’re bothering people who have better things to do.

That internal narrative is all in your head, and it’s costing you deals.

Get Your Mind Right First

You can’t make effective cold calls when you’re living in your head. Anxiety, overthinking, or trying to sound perfect makes every conversation feel forced. Nothing bad actually happens on a sales call. Your life isn’t in danger, and a hung-up phone or curt “not interested” barely registers as a problem.

The best cold callers aren’t fearless. They’re prepared mentally before they start dialing.

Find what gets you into the right frame of mind: review recent wins, remind yourself that you’re solving real problems, or call a colleague for perspective. The goal is connecting with another human, not executing a perfect pitch. People can tell the difference.

Separate Message From Delivery

When someone says “we’re all set” and hangs up, they’re not making a judgment about your worth as a salesperson or a human being. They’re communicating one thing: They’re not interested right now.

The delivery might feel harsh, and the tone might sound dismissive. But the message is simple and impersonal.

Athletes learn this early. Coaches scream. Teammates criticize. Opponents talk trash. If you react emotionally to how something is said rather than hearing what’s actually being communicated, you become ineffective.

In sales, the same principle applies. When you stop taking the delivery personally, you can actually hear what’s being said. Sometimes what sounds like a hard no is actually “you haven’t given me a reason to care yet” or “call me back in six months.”

You Don’t Need to Know Everything

One of the biggest barriers to cold calling is the belief you must have all the answers. You hesitate because you think, “What if they ask something I don’t know? I’ll look like a fool.”

Here’s what that thinking misses: You have a team.

No salesperson operates in a vacuum. You’ve got service teams, technical experts, partners, and colleagues who collectively know far more than you do individually. The expectation that you should show up with encyclopedic knowledge is self-imposed and unrealistic.

What matters on a cold call isn’t demonstrating expertise. It’s demonstrating curiosity and commitment. 

When you release yourself from the pressure to be perfect, cold calling becomes about investigation rather than performance. 

Ask Questions Nobody Else Does

Most salespeople treat cold calls like a race to present their solution. They barely understand the prospect’s world before pitching features and pricing.

The top performers do the opposite. They ask questions competitors ignore. Instead of, “Can I get fifteen minutes to show you our platform?” try, “What’s changed in your business in the last six months that’s making you rethink how you handle [specific problem]?”

Lead with understanding rather than your product. What are they dealing with that nobody else is asking about? What assumptions are they operating under that might not serve them? 

This approach positions you as someone who cares about their situation while giving you information that makes every future conversation more valuable.

Not Yet Isn’t No

You’re going to lose deals you thought you had won, make calls that go nowhere, and have weeks where it feels like every door is closed.

That’s not failure. That’s the process.

Deals lost today often become wins 12 to 18 months from now. Budgets shift, new decision-makers emerge, priorities change. Every no is simply “not yet.”

If you internalize that, cold calling becomes less emotionally charged. You’re not getting rejected—you’re planting seeds, gathering information, and building a pipeline of future opportunities.

Athletes understand this intuitively. You can’t dwell on the last play. Maybe you got burned. Maybe you made a mistake. Doesn’t matter. What matters is what you do next.

Bad call? Someone hung up on you? Got rejected? Move on to the next conversation. Your success isn’t determined by any single interaction. It’s determined by whether you keep showing up.

You’ve Already Earned Your Spot

If you’re in sales, you’ve already proven you belong by getting hired and closing deals. 

Stop waiting for permission to be confident. The voice in your head telling you to wait, prepare more, or improve is lying. It’s protecting you from discomfort, not danger. Cold calling requires perspective and repetition. The more you do it, the more the worst-case scenario barely registers as a problem.

The salespeople who excel at cold calling aren’t special. They’re just willing to be uncomfortable more often than you are. They’ve done the mental work to separate their self-worth from their call outcomes. They understand that this is a numbers game and a skill that improves with practice.

You can do the same thing. You just have to start dialing.

The Real Competition

Your biggest competitor isn’t the salesperson at another company. It’s the voice in your head that convinces you to do anything except pick up the phone.

That voice will always find reasons to wait. More research. Better timing. A warmer lead. These are perfect conditions that never actually arrive.

Meanwhile, the salespeople who are winning aren’t smarter or more talented. They’re just dialing while you’re hesitating.

Silence the self-doubt and dial. Then dial the next one. 

Take your prospecting sequences to the next level, set more appointments, build deeper relationships, and close more deals with the techniques in our FREE guide, The Seven Steps To Building Effective Prospecting Sequences.