Cold calling is one of my favorite things to do in the entire world.  Does that sound crazy?  It probably does.  Let me put it this way.  First of all I love sales.  Secondly, I love knowing I can control how well we do quarter to quarter.  Cold calling is at the center of any successful sales campaign.  And I love doing it.
 
Rather than make this post a lengthy discussion about cold calling techniques let me make four key points:

1. Cold calling is the start of every revenue generation exercise; especially in a smaller/younger business where references cannot produce an abundance of new prospects.  Starting an exercise that will eventually put cash in your bank account is exciting and fun.
   
2. Empathy is the critical element that takes the sting out of cold calling.  See this link for more details.  Once you don’t feel bad about cold calling it becomes quite a bit of fun.
   
3. Never assume, always diagnose.  Think like a doctor- spend your cold calling efforts on a diagnosis plan.  For example … What ’symptoms’ would your target customer exhibit if they needed but didn’t have your product?  What are the results of not acting?  Develop an answer to those two questions.  Now turn the cold call into an explanation of the potential negative results and a pitch for teaming with your prospective customer to look for any symptoms.  If they agree you now have the access and privileges to dig deep to look for symptoms and the leverage to convince them to act (if your product can truly help them.)  From cold call to doctor call; that is exciting.
   
4. The right level of expertise in cold calling and sales turns your results into a predictable numbers machine.  Almost nothing is better than predictability in sales.
   

Good luck out there and send me a comment - we would be happy to help you with your specific approach and see if we can make it as fun for you as it is for us.