3 Steps to Cold Calling: 1. Get an Attitude Baby!

Following my rant the other week about the “don’ts” of cold calling, I thought I’d make a start on some “Dos”. Firstly I wanted to set the scope, as with most things we write about – we are talking here in the broadest terms: you might be calling to sell a product, get meetings with a prospective client, raise funds for a charity, or secure support for an event; the skills are similar.

The first one is obvious, but it really is all in your mind. If you allow your fear of making calls to force you to fall back on lazy habits, “fool-proof” systems and scripts, you will live up to the thing you fear; before you know it, you are human spam.

ONLY call people who you have reason to expect might be interested in what you have to offer, do some research first (although don’t fall into the trap of never getting past the research and not actually making contact). Be respectful, you are interrupting someone’s day – tell them a tiny bit about why you are calling, then ask if it’s a good time to talk.

Don’t take it personally if people don’t want to talk, don’t want to talk now, or don’t want or need your product or service. If you do:
• The person you are talking to may be able to tell
• You’ll take the “No”s too hard and want to cry and/or eat biscuits
• You’ll never pick up the phone again

Love it or hate it, what are your tips on using the phone to generate leads?