Cold Calling's Secret Advantage

By Dr. Gary S. Goodman

One of my part-time jobs during undergraduate school was selling advertising for a magazine.
We’d cold call out of the Yellow Pages, and one afternoon I phoned a boating store on California's coast, pitching the owner on a medium size ad.

Later that afternoon as my shift ended, my boss let out an enthusiastic “Yah-hoo!” at a decibel level I never expected to hear from him.

“You SOLD this guy?” he asked me in amazement.

“Yeah, is there something wrong?” I replied defensively.

“No, it’s great, I mean I know him!” he chortled, and then said with genuine awe, “I don’t know how you did it. He’s the most tightfisted person I’ve ever met.”

That sale completely sold the boss on my abilities.

Looking back on this episode, I’m glad I was clueless about the buyer’s hard-bitten qualities before I phoned.

Had I known he was a “tough sale,” I might have tried too hard, or built up a lot of anxiety, or just as easily skipped his name, moving on to another ad.

Which, of course raises a point: You can learn too much about a prospect, and over-think your strategy to the extent that it inhibits and disables you.

You should be loose when you’re selling, and feeling self-confident. If you’re trying to impress prospects or avoiding mistakes, you’ll be uptight, making the buyer uncomfortable and reluctant.

While it’s nice to have some details at hand about the person you’re calling, such as his or her company size, credit rating and the like, it can easily backfire when you’re “over-informed” to the point of becoming opinionated about them.

By not knowing the person you're speaking to, you're tapping into one of cold calling's secret advantages.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is the best-selling author of 12 books and more than a thousand articles. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, (See: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=417455932#) he is quoted often in prominent publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Business Week. President of Clientrelations.com and Customersatisfaction.com, his seminars and training programs are sponsored internationally and he is a top-rated faculty member at more than 40 universities. Dynamic and fun, Gary brings over two decades of management and consulting experience to the table, with the best academic credentials in the speaking and training industry. Holder of a Ph.D. from the Annenberg School For Communication at USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a J.D. degree from Loyola, his clients include several Fortune 1000 companies and successful family owned and operated firms. More than a โ??talking head,โ?? Gary is a top mind that you'll enjoy working with. He can be reached at gary@customersatisfaction.com

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