1) Master your first 15 seconds.

It’s all about tone, and strong tone comes from confidence. Don’t read a script; find a sweet spot somewhere between how you would talk naturally to a friend and something with a more purposeful edge. You don’t want to sound SO natural that you don’t sound like you care or mean business, but you also don’t want to trigger a negative and defensive “SALES CALL ALERT!” response.

2) Smile when you talk.

Yeah, sounds silly, but - again - it’s all about tone, and if you sound bright and engaging, people will come along with you. Lift your head up (stand up if you need to as you call) and approach the 50th call of the day with the same energy as the first.

3) Research (but JUST enough).

You don’t want to spend ten minutes researching a call, only to hit a dead number or a voicemail. You do, however, need to know who you’re calling and why, so do JUST enough research to (when they finally answer) name-drop a client they’ve served or reference a piece of work they’ve been involved in.

4) Open your list and get your head down.

Blitz it. Don’t trudge through your list. Know who you are going to hit and get on with it. No other tasks should be addressed while you’re in calling mode. Turn off emails. Turn off Skype. It’s unlikely something SO URGENT is going to happen in the next hour that you can’t dedicate yourself to the task at hand. Which brings us to…

5) Set a target (and reward yourself with a tiny treat at the end)

Cold calling is brutal. Select your next 30 targets, get to the task, and then reward yourself with something. A coffee. A 5 min ‘staring out the window’ break. Just something to help you mentally stick to the task until it’s complete. Don’t find an excuse to walk away mid-task.

Good luck out there.