A Blog On Cold Calling

When I cold call, it’s not a prospect on the other end of the line. It’s not a data point, as in dial number 23 of 100 assigned dials. “It” is a human being.

I’ll never forget 10ish years ago when I reached Scott while cold calling during lunch hour.

“Is this an okay time to introduce myself?” I asked Scott when he picked up the phone.

“Well,” he responded curtly. “I didn’t call you, you called me, so I’d say it’s not a great time for you to introduce yourself to me.” Then he hung up.

That was in May.

In September, I was scrolling through my list of contacts when I saw his name again and I remembered our interaction. It had been such a short call before, and he didn’t say “Don’t ever call again!” Instead he’d said it wasn’t a good time and took the initiative to cut the call short. Plus, by title and by company he worked for, he seemed like such a great ideal prospect, and I still had my original research notes about him, so I thought I’d try him again. What the heck. If he was curt again I’d consider that strike three and simply cross him off future calls.

“Hey Scott,” I said when he picked up the phone a minute later. “This is Rob. I reached you briefly a few months ago but it wasn’t a good time to introduce myself then. Is this a better time? Should I call you back another time?”

“No, no,” he said. “I remember you*. I’m sorry I was so short before but I had some things going on. I can hear you out now.” And so began the first step in what would be a two year relationship with one of the best clients I ever had, and one who invested nearly a million dollars in my employer and who we all respected working with until a family situation precipitated his taking a leave of absence.

People are busy. They’re preparing for an important call. Suffering through low blood sugar. Or maybe they’re going through a divorce. Or getting sued by their neighbor. Or were alerted by their boss that their job may be eliminated. Of course, when I call them, I have no idea what they are going through in their life at that particular minute or hour or day or year. So maybe they snap at me on that day. But that doesn’t mean anything other than they’re human. It doesn’t even mean they won’t ever be a client, as Scott proved. But sometimes what someone is going through means they absolutely won’t be a client.

For exampe: Today I reached someone for the first time, and he was rushed. “I can give you a minute, but no more than that,” he said when I asked if I could introduce myself.

After explaining who I was, he explained that he had recently moved out of town to take care of aging parents. That he’d picked up his life unexpectedly and now was in a new city looking at purchasing a new house in that particular city, so he wouldn’t have need of my services, especially since he was already working with someone in that city. In short, there was no chance of his needing my services or help. But at that point, I didn’t care about that. I only wished I could heal the pain of aging parents, something that since I’m not god (despite my occasional claims otherwise hahaha) is totally out of my control of course. So I just told him how sorry I was about his parents. “Yeah, it’s hard,” he said. “They’re in a rough time and it’s not going to get better.” And then he shared some of what he was going through with me while I listened best I could before he had to end the call to move on with his day.

My favorite thing about cold calling remains the people at the end of the other line. The opportunity to occasionally hear another person’s story beyond “yes” or “no,” and sometimes beyond whatever service I’m proffering. Just like I myself am a person trying to pay my bills when I reach out to a prospect, a prospect is a human being trying to pay their bills and navigate their own life as well. Sometimes this can mean an unpleasant conversation, but more often than not it can lead to a human connection, regardless of how fleeting/brief it may be.

This realization and keeping this thought forefront in my mind when I cold call makes cold calling just a little bit less intimidating and also a lot more fulfilling. A cold call isn’t a number — it’s reaching out to another soul just like me.

Toward that end I wish a special place in purgatory for those sales reps who hang up quickly/rudely on us the moment we say we aren’t interested, or for those business owners who employ robocallers or emphasize the number of dials over everything else or employ callers in call centers armed with soulless scripts. These folks are missing the point IMHO.

(*) Note: I’m amazed that there are people who truly remember me from a short call months before, but it happens occasionally. The reality is that there are some people out there with shockingly-strong recall. Scott was one of those.