I know some of you may loathe cold calling, but we’ve got stuff to sell!

I polled my team and some of my connections on LinkedIn not too long ago, with the question:

“When cold-calling, and you get the gatekeeper, what do you say to get your client on the phone?”

Here are some of the answers:

• Pretend I’m returning a call
• Just say your name, not the company you’re calling from
• Try to disarm gatekeeper with small talk to get them on your side
• Lots of name dropping
• Swagger by assuming they are expecting your call, i.e.. “It Brian Farrell for Attorney Jones”
• I don’t. I call after 5pm.

Strategies

• Emailing ahead of calling, so it’s expected
• Having a direction or game plan in the rare chance they actually get on the phone

What do you do? What’s missing? Reply to me and I’ll update the list!