SolveYourProblem Article Series: Networking
How To Successfully Network Yourself

Cold Calling and Email To Get More Contacts

Many people absolutely abhor the task of calling people up without having ever had contact with them before. The ‘cold call’ is the call that arrives out of the blue, with no solicitation on the part of the receiver of the call, and no prior business or personal contact with the person who is calling. Cold calling is a very hot topic in the 21st century. Why more so now than in previous business eras? The answer is simple—email. Email is now the most common means of establishing initial contact with a business and also frequently the first contact where personal communication is at hand. Our culture has pulled a complete 180-degree turn when it comes to establishing communication. It’s almost considered rude to contact someone by telephone for the first time if you haven’t at least prefaced your phone call with one email.

To some of you, this idea might sound like a bizarre one; however, take a step back and think for a second. How do you feel when someone calls you and says, “Good afternoon, this is Ray calling from (insert company name here) and I’d like to…” For a lot of people, that’s the end of the sentence; many people don’t even hear what it is that Ray wants because they’re trying to figure out if a) if the voice sounds rehearsed, is it a telemarketer? or b) if the voice is friendly, should I remember Ray from somewhere? In most business domains, the 21st century is not the era of telephone calls. It’s the era of emailing; it just seems to be the preferred means of communication, especially when it’s communication that is just breaking the ice between two people or two businesses.

If you solicit a company for something on the telephone, they have to tell you either yes or no over the phone. Granted, this is not as difficult as it is face to face, but it is yet easier over email than it is on the telephone. If someone receives a solicitation over email they can reject it or accept it via a returned email or by calling the person back. Alternatively, nor responding simply means ‘no’.

All this being said, there are still many domains in which cold calling is necessary. Understanding the above-mentioned situations is crucial to honing your cold-calling techniques; you have to understand what the person you’re calling is thinking in order to have the best result of the call. Since you’re now aware of the type of situation, think of the things that would make you most likely to positively respond if someone were to call you up for the same reason. The bottom line is that successful cold calling lies in having good people skills and good manners.

In the 21st century, this means being warm, but in a very business-like way. Think of your voice and your intonation. Cold calling should resemble a firm handshake accompanied by a genuine smile. Cold calling should be personable; you should ask the person how they are doing today, but it should be done in a professional way. Again, think firm handshake as your analogy for the kind of speech you’re going for, not an inside frat-boys’ handshake. Everything you do in your cold call must be personable, but professional. Your voice must be kind, but authoritative and down to business; you have to be interested in the person to whom you are talking, but in a way that is clearly business, and not personally, oriented. People, who have this kind of telephone communication skill, especially when it comes to cold calling, make the best business associates for phone-related tasks.

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SolveYourProblem.com : 2007

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