Warming the Cold Call - Ch 9 of Never Eat Alone

April 19th, 2007 by digerati

This is Chapter 9 of the Never Eat Alone series at Catch a Gideon. Points from Mr. Ferrazzi are in bold. I’m asking that you react to the quotes through comments. Share you reaction to each as well as your experiences in college and the real world. (Yeah that’s right, network!)

You are never going to be completely ready to meet new people, there is no perfect moment. The trick is to just plunge right in. If you don’t believe you are going to get what you want from the call, you probably won’t.

Similarly, everyone is nervous when they go out to clubs. That’s half the fun of it, overcoming those “bad” feelings.

Frequently people won’t get back to you. You have to put your ego aside and persist in calling or writing. Don’t sabotage your efforts by expressing how anooyed you are that they didn’t get back to you as quickly as you would have liked. Nor should you apologize for your persistence, just dive in as if you caught him on the first call. Make it comfortable for everyone.

I get hundreds of communications a day. At work these are mostly emails via the Blackberry. Once I read something, I usually continue what I’m doing. I try to flag things so I look at them again later, but I’m sure I miss a dozen or so a day. The point is people don’t necessarily mean to blow you off. Call back, email again. BUT don’t complain about them not getting back to you. That will only annoy people, whether they intentionally didn’t get back to you or if they simply forgot.

Someone who is busy is more likely to answer their own phone at 8 am or 6:30 pm. Plus, they’re probably less stressed out since they’re not facing typical 9-5 pressures.

This really works. I had a project involving McDonalds my freshman year. We needed to get ahold of some people in the company. The staff kept giving us stock answers that weren’t useful for what we needed. Finally we tried calling a few executives outside of normal hours, and got one right away.

Creating and maintaining a sense of optimism and gentle pressure around the appointment is all part of the dance. Convey credibility by mentioning a familiar person or institution. State your value proposition. Impart urgency and convenience by being prepared to do whatever it takes whenever it takes to meet the other person on their terms. Be prepared to offer a compromise that secures a definite follow up at a minimum.

People don’t like you if you’re negative all the time. Your friends will stick around…for awhile, but other people will make excuses and leave. Don’t be fooled by people thinking they want honesty either. Be positive all the time and you’ll meet more people and keep them coming back.

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Never Eat Alone is one of the best networking books written, period. Buy it now and follow along as Catch a Gideon goes through each chapter of the book.