Most sole practitioners have a difficult time overcoming their fear of "cold" calling. the primary reason seems to be that they have no training in selling themselves. While the topic is broad and there are many excellent books on telephone technique, here are a few ideas. First, if your product or service lends itself to selling by other techniques such as a newsletter, the increasing popular e-zine or networking promotion such as takes place at SPC then you can turn your "cold" calls into "warm" calls by generating interest prior to a phone conversation. A complete understanding of all marketing techniques can again be found in many books. SPC often covers this topic at meetings and seminars. In addition, a discussion with any consultant who is "making it" in your field will disclose their effective use of other marketing tools.

After you have put together a complete marketing plan if you still feel that cold calls are essential in your business here are a few additional suggestions. Make sure you know as much about the needs of your target prospect as possible. This way you can maximize the odds that what you offer in the opening stages of your discussion will be of interest. In this way cold calls are little different than any other successful networking technique. To get something you must give something. Finally, make sure your "call to action" is clear. In other words, you must be concise about asking "when can we meet" or "can I send you a copy of an article I wrote and follow up next week" etc. Finally, like any other task that we want to become expert at on must simply "just do it" as the ad says.

Good luck!

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