What does "Cold" mean in this context?
Steering well-meaning souls away from the abyss — have I become the Catcher in the AI-Rye?
Another answer from a distant platform, this time LinkedIn instead of Quora! Let’s see if I can help this well-meaning person move toward “respecting people’s time” and away from “alienating potential clients.”
Brijesh Kartha, Head Of AI Developer Relations, asks:
What is the best way to cold call people for win win situations while highlighting to them how we will be respecting their time?
Cold calling (and cold emailing) is generally a bad idea.
Always establish some kind of common ground first.
If you can't say, in an email (or maybe a phone call that will become a voicemail), something like "It was great to meet you last week” or “It was great to hear your talk at the conference last week," then at least you could say "Loved your comment on that post the other day" (with a link to the conversation in question).
Unknown names, faces, email addresses, phone numbers are ignored by decision makers. I get dozens of unsolicited phone calls, texts every single day, and hundreds of emails (which I mostly don't see), and I'm not even very important. Net spiders see that I am listed as a business owner or a founder or a board member of various things, though. Modest things, nothing in the S&P500 or anything like that. But assumptions are made by the algorithms involved, and the cold calls begin. How much worse must it be for the department heads, corporate executives, and team leads that are on your list of people to cold-call?
Please don't cold-call the “high-value qualified leads” on your list.
Join a conversation instead.
I don't waste my time on cold calls.
I do spend a lot of time in conversations.
Even potential clients must approach me through one of my "funnels" so that I know that's who they are.
If there is no event, no conversation, no community to join, then create one. Write your own book, start a podcast, do an online event or something, and get the word out through adjacent events and communities. (We call these "comparables" in the publishing world.)
tldr: there is no "best way" to cold call. Go to gatherings, or join conversations, or use the contact forms you are offered on their sites. Sign up for their email newsletters and enter their funnels if you must.
Even better, build your own funnel and see if I'm drawn in —without cold-calling me, please.