I wish I could tell you there is
something called "The Art of
Cold Calling."
But that alone, the "art-part"
of dialing and smiling won't
make you any money.
People don't pay for art, as
such, they pay for the results
that art produces.
Walk into a gallery or a museum.
When you see a piece of art that
causes what is called "aesthetic
arrest," which means the
painting or sculpture stops you
in your tracks, then that work
has been successful.
It got your attention, and it
became the centerpiece of your
consciousness.
It moved you to some sort of
action, altering your attitude
and your behavior.
Cold calling seldom reaches this
level of effectiveness. We have
to contact lots of folks before
a good number of them will
listen to our message and
respond as we intend.
Which means that there must be a
system to cold calling, a
science to it, which has to
partner with the art. Think of
it as brawn-and-brains, Beauty
and The Beast.
One without the other won't
work.
For instance, there are tens of
thousands of call centers around
the world that will gladly make
lots of "ugly" calls for you,
right now. There is no art to
the construction of their
scripts. They're spraying and
praying, often contacting the
wrong people, littering the
listening landscape with
features and benefits, hoping
some will stick.
They're working "The Law of
Large Numbers," which will work
for them in producing results,
providing some art has been put
into their scripts.
At the same time, there are
people that have fashioned
beautiful presentations, a
pleasure to hear and to recite,
that are completely ineffective
because there is no commitment
to systematically rolling them
out.
It reminds me of the line
attributed to St. Augustine:
"There is no joy in heaven over
empty churches." Ditto for empty
art museums and galleries, and
for phones that go uncalled.
When I was disseminating my
seminars across the country, I
devised an ultra-short cold
calling script that didn't sound
like one. It lasted about twenty
seconds, and to this day, I
marvel at the elegance, beauty,
simplicity, and above all, the
art of it.
But equally important, I
committed to using this
presentation, relentlessly.
That's a strong word to use,
because it took very little
effort to make this cold calling
script come to life.
What were the results? Nearly
every college and university I
contacted about sponsoring my
seminars said yes. Two or three
said no.
Within 18 months my customer
service and telephone sales
seminars were conducted from
Hawaii to New York.
I've often thought that the best
poems have been balled-up and
tossed in the trash, and the
world's greatest canvasses have
been painted over, never to be
seen and appreciated.
Yes, your cold calls can and
should be beautiful, but once
they are drafted, they must
march forth and finish the job.
As Sheldon Hayden, a cohort of
Dale Carnegie, and one of my
best public speaking teachers
advised:
Be brief, Be brilliant, and Be
done!
Source: Dr. Gary
Goodman
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