How to differentiate yourself
Warming up a cold contact
So what?
Cold calling or emailing is, by far, one of the hardest things when it comes to social interactions in our life. It is inevitable whether you are looking for a new job, picking up the phone as part of your current job or doing it for whatever the reason. These calls and emails leave you emotionally and mentally drained as the adrenaline wears you out and you come down from the high.
Make sure you are making the best out of cold calling and emailing by differentiating yourself from the rest of the crowd. Let’s explore the ways that you can do this.
Avoid the cold
The very first thing you need to do is either reaching out through a warm contact. If you don’t have any warm contacts, spend the time to research and study the contact and the company they work for. You never want to cold call or email without preparing yourself. Not only you will embarrass yourself, the person will see right through you and immediately notice how unprepared you are just like everyone else.
Similarities
Go straight to explaining any similarities you have with the person you are cold calling or emailing. Are they from the same home town? Did they go to a high school that your friend went to? Do they like to knit as a hobby? Whatever information you have come across during your research or through your social network, use that to find similarities or connections and lead with that.
KISS
Keep it stupid simple. Be as brief, concise and straight to the point as possible. Don’t run out of breath with your introduction or write long winded emails. People are busy. You are busy, the person you are calling or emailing is busy. You won’t get heard and your emails won’t get read. Get straight to the point and keep it that way.
My experience
I don’t cold call or email often. But when I do, I do it as brief and concise as possible. I’m very purposeful and intentional with my introduction and what I want. I recently called our bank where we have our mortgage to renegotiate our interest rate. Here is how it went. “Hi Ken – I’m calling to lower my interest rate on our home loan. What can you do for us?” And bam, $1,200 saved per year.
What now?
- Do you cold call or email often? Is it for your job or are you looking for a job? How do you feel when you do?
- Are there any tips or tricks that you’ve learned? What has helped or hindered you?