Imagine this: I’m sitting at his desk, engrossed in a pile of paperwork, when the intrusive ring of my office phone shattered my workspace. I glanced at the caller ID, and it was a number I didn't recognize. I rarely answer my office phone, but this time, I did it.

"Is this Curtis?" a voice on the other end asked.

"Yeah, this is Curtis. How are you doing?" 

"I’m cold calling you. Can I have 30 seconds of your time?" the caller requested.

As for most people, cold calls are not my favorite thing, but I decided to indulge the stranger. "Okay. You've got 30 seconds. What do you want to talk about?"

The caller wasted no time. "First of all, I want to let you know that this is a cold call. What we do is we help people market to other people to try to extend their brand."

I listened patiently, but I had already made up my mind. 

"Well, I've already got a team in place, and I really appreciate your time," I said and politely ended the conversation.

After hanging up, I couldn't shake the feeling that the caller had missed a golden opportunity. Despite my disinterest, I decided to give the guy a chance and dialed the number back.

"Hey, this is Curtis. You just called. I'm a professional sales trainer."

Then, I moved on by giving him some pieces of advice.

"First of all, you have to come with energy and effort, and you have to have more energy than the person on the other end of the phone. You can't lead with 'this is a cold call.' They already know it's a cold call. When you call them, start with 'hey,' like, 'Hey, Zach, this is Curtis McCullum. I'm calling from XYZ. Do you have 30 seconds? If not, I'll call you back later. No? Okay, great. The reason I'm calling you is that we help people actually change their lives. We help people take their sales and things to another level. What I'm asking today is to spend five to ten minutes of your time where someone can explain it to you.'"

I shared my insight and even offered a scripted approach. After a brief rehearsal, the caller admitted, "This is my first day, and I've never really done this before."

After that call, I went back to my paperwork, genuinely hoping that my help would be useful. 

The ending of this story?

Well, the following day, Zach directly messaged me on Instagram and wrote the following:

This man could change his calling strategy and outcomes within a five-minute call. So, what can we do during a whole coaching program? Let’s discover it!