Cold Calling Script

The idea of cold calling is to go through a list of prospects very quickly to grab the low-hanging fruit. As such, the idea is to rapidly plow through the No's to get to the Yes's. A No or Maybe, is simply something to get through as fast as possible with as little emotional energy as possible.

My script is very simple-minded:

Hi, my name is _______________. I'm an award-winning technical writer/instructional designer in the Chicago (or whatever) area. I design and write software and business process documentation (or whatever). Are you aware of anyone at your company who might need a person to do that kind of work on a free-lance basis?

• YES - Great, why don't I send you a resume and check back with you in a couple of days to make sure you got it?
• NO - Is it possible you might need someone at a future time.
  * YES - see previous YES.
  * NO - close with, "Thank you very much for your time."
  * MAYBE - same as first YES

It takes about 15 seconds for a NO. It might take longer with a YES, particularly if they start to ask questions. Leaving a message works just as well as talking to the person. They either need someone or not. If they do, they will call you.