Q. What do you say when you make a cold call? I know you have to find the right person, but how do you do that?

A. Good for you for just thinking about doing some cold calls! My advice is to find your target market first. Is it going to be lawyers or doctors or information tech companies, etc? Try to get leads from networking groups or someone you know in that field of business. Warm up your calls by doing a little research before picking up that phone. Look on the internet for companies in your target market and educate yourself about their logos, company colors, type of service or products they provide. Then you will know a little something when talking to that VIP.

Always approach the cold call like how YOU would like to be approached. If you don't know what you're selling or talking about neither will they. Keep it clean, short and to the point. Be professional. Use open ended questions and directly ask for the appropriate contact person to answer your questions. Sometimes the first "NO" you get really doesn't mean "NO" forever. Learn from each call, how to make it better, what to change, what they want to hear. Most of all practice,practice, practice. You have nothing to lose- everything to gain by taking this vital step in expanding your business!