Instead of wasting your time trying to hammer the wrong people into meeting with you, why not just call enough people and find the ones who are interested now?

My mom is the best cold caller I know.

She’s retired now but she was so good at cold calling she lost her job. That’s because she sold the entire inventory her company had available. (It was cemetery plots that time.)

Seriously, she has sold everything from burglar alarms to siding to charitable donations starting with cold calls. And she was the top performer in every company she worked for.

So what is her secret?

It is so simple you’re going to wonder why you didn’t think of it. Here it is:
She never tries to convince anyone to set an appointment when she calls.

What???

Isn’t that the point of the call?

Not according to Mom.

You see, she views calling as a survey. The purpose of the call is to sort people into three lists:

• People who are curious about what you are selling
• People are not ready to talk about what you are selling
• People who are too dumb to be curious about what you are selling

As she tells it, when you cold call someone who isn’t already curious about your product and you push to convince them to set an appointment, all you end up with is a crappy appointment.

Instead of wasting your time trying to hammer the wrong people into meeting with you, why not just call enough people and find the ones who are interested now?

Recognize that the ones who say “no” are really just saying “not now”. You can always call them back at a later time when they might be in the “yes” pile.

If you’re skeptical about how this would work, imagine this scenario.

I give you a list of 100 people to call. Your job is ask them 1) if they like chocolate ice cream and 2) if they would like a free sample if they do.

That’s it. I’ll pay you $100 to do the survey and give me the tally sheet of results.

Could you do it?

Of course you could! A survey is so simple to do because you don’t care about the outcome. You aren’t trying to convince people to like chocolate ice cream; you are just seeing who does and who doesn’t. And you only offer the free sample to people you know want it.

That is all that cold calling is – a survey. Your job is to dial enough numbers to fill in your ‘’yes” column with quality appointments.

That’s it.

No more freaking out about…

• “What if they hate me?”
• “What if they hang up on me?”
• “What if they are mean to me?”
• “What if I don’t know what to say?”
• “What if I can’t get the appointment?”

You are just doing a survey – there is nothing to hate. (And, while we are on the subject, even if they did hate you, they would forget about you the moment you hung up the phone. Seriously, can you remember the name of the last person who cold called you?)

Your job now is to grab a sheet of paper and make four columns like this:

Yes | No | Not Now | Stupid People

Write your list of prospect names in the first column. Then just start your survey calls, making tick marks in the appropriate column after each name.

That’s it.

I can tell you this technique saved my butt when I first got into sales.

And it has saved countless other entrepreneurs and salespeople over the years.

It requires no fancy software, no automatic dialers and no manipulative call sheets.

Give it a shot. I’m willing to bet you are making more appointments than ever by the end of next week.

In addition to learning what it means to “go on the offensive”, Proactive Prospecting on Sales Gravy University will provide you with cold calling strategies, tactics, and techniques that work in the real world!