Cold calling is a daunting proposition.

Especially if you never done it, or didn’t have any success with it and gave up. But why then is everyone keeping on yapping about it? Is there something to it?

Yes. Once you start being methodologiCALL (see what I did there :) ) and most importantly stop worrying.

Pretip — comfort zone

Before we begin, the most important part is to relax.

Think of it this way: at the end you will solve someones problems. Why worry if a certain percentage of them just hangs up? Why be hang up (see there again? hehe) on the bad stuff.

Keep the focus on the positive thing your bringing to the callee. And smile.

Tip #1— your tribe

Who is your ideal candidate to call?

Where do they hang out? Where can you find lots of their contacts? All organized for you?

Go where your tribe is.

Tip #2 — top of the funnel

First call is just to establish a few basic things.

Is callee up for a quick chat? Are they the right person in the organization to talk about this? Do they have this problem your solving, to begin with?

Just simply mark if they are the right target audience for your startup.

Tip #2 — middle of the funnel

Once they pass the first step in the funnel, move them along your CRM or even a spreadsheet.

Go a bit into detail about their problems. Ask questions in such manner that you can compile a dataset. On top of which you can build your product.

Save a few open ended questions for the end, meanwhile be structured about their answers (like: a, b, c, none of the above)

Tip #3— results

This is the sweet spot.

Once you have your data, the pulse of the market, you can approach building your software. You can evaluate, propose the final feature list. Heck with this you can even onboard a few small investors.

The best thing is, once your product is done (and even before) you have a list of first clients (and beta testers as well, if you asked who’s up for it during your surveys).

Happy dialing.