Okay, the better you do your job of getting outside of your own comfort zone, getting out of the building, and getting out of your own network, the more you're going to be doing cold calls. So it's worth spending a little bit of time talking about how to do cold calls and why. And the why of doing it. The first thing is that a cold call is a relationship. It's not much of a relationship, but it is a relationship. And the more you think of it as a relationship the better you're going to be at making them, the better you're going to be at handling rejection, and the better you're going to be at making the most of the call while you're in it. So if a cold call's a relationship what kind of relationship is it? Is it abusive? Is it mutual? Is it humorous? What are the traits of the cold call relationship? Most people have horror stories about cold calls. And basically what happens is the person who's calling them sets up an abusive or boring relationship right from the start and then persists in it. So, it's a relationship, it's just a bad one. Every cold call is a relationship, make yours good relationships. They're quick but that doesn't mean they're not a relationship. The way you do a relationship is you put yourself in the shoes of the person you're talking to and this is the same stuff we've been talking about with customer interviews anyhow. So this should be second nature to you after a couple weeks now in the course. What's important to them? What's likely to be important to them? You're going to be guessing if you don't know them, but you've done your research on Google and LinkedIn. You know something about them. What do they care about? What's important to them? What can you offer them? You're going to be asking them information about their pain points and their tower of wishes and woe. And what are you going to give them in return? The relationship's mutual, what are you going to give them back? You could certainly flatter them, you could say that they're a great expert, and you're learning a lot from them. And I mean sincerely flatter them, I don't just mean make stuff up. You might be able to give them something back like as we get further with our product ideas, I want to share them with you and see if it's something that you might find useful. A lot of people like to feel like they're sort of advisors behind the scenes to a product, that they're helping shape the product. You can give them something back simply by being careful with their time. He promised me he was going to take ten minutes and he only took ten minutes. Wow, that was great. How often does that happen? Think about what they might want from you and think about what you might do for them and that's going to help you turn the cold call from an abusive relationship into a mutual one. How do you know what they want? Well it's just like we've been talking about all along. You make a hypothesis, you test it, and then you have some insight, and you make a hypothesis again, it's the circle of learning. As I said, you can go in with Google, you go in with LinkedIn, you look at what the person will likely be like, you talk to other people like them, other people in the same customer archetype. You know something about them by now. You have some guesses about what they're like. And those guesses are going to help you during the cold call. Make the cold call win/win. So, you have about seven seconds when you get on the phone, and you have to have a pitch that's going to get you to the next seven seconds. Start out by flattering them. Say I want to talk to you about your area of expertise, then give them something in return. In return I'll offer you something. I am working on a product idea, I think it might make your life a lot easier when it's out. It's too early for me to try to sell it to you, but I want to find out what you're looking for in a product so that when I do bring it out, it's going to be something that's going to wow you. And if you like, I can put you on the list. Sometimes you can give them free publicity on the Web. You can say, you know I'm calling up a bunch of people and I'm tweeting about the calls when the person seems like they really know what they're talking about. Is that something you'd like? Hard to offer that in the first seven seconds of the call, but it's something to bear in mind. People are often pleased when you can do something for them that builds their online platform. And the satisfaction of knowing they'd help the startup, is often something to people. So you say, I want to talk to you about your area of expertise. We're working on a product idea, it's not very far along yet, we could really use your help, you're some one that we've been told knows a lot about x. And in return we're going to do y for you. I would say ask for 20 minutes of their time, don't ask for more, because then they'll feel like you're impinging on them. It gives you a little slot to go over, since most people budget their time in 30 minute increments anyhow. And it's enough time for you to get what you want out of the interview. If you ask for much less than that, you're probably not going to learn that much. But when you do get to 20 minutes with them, don't go over. Tell the truth, don't say, I'm a world expert in something else when you're not, don't say I've got a whole product when I don't have it yet. Tell them the truth. I'm thinking of building a product to make x easier, I don't have any product details yet, I want to talk to insiders in the field and tap your expertise to make the product better. It's a perfectly good line. It plays to people's sense of importance as experts and their desire to solve their problems. And it gets the cold call off to a good start. So, main points. Cold calls are a relationship. You have to get the relationship started on the right foot. So, think like the person that you're going to get the call. What do you want? What are you expecting? What are you going to give them in return? Make the call win win and tell the truth.
