First Contact Does Not Mean Cold Calling Top Secrets of Marketing & Sales

Just the idea of initiating first contact versus cold calling is a lot more exciting. It's a lot less intimidating in most cases. I started using that phrase after I saw an old Star Trek movie where they referred to first contact as being your first contact with an alien species. And I just thought, wow, that has a lot of correlations with sales. Where you're approaching somebody and you really don't know what you're getting into. Strange new worlds and all that sort of thing....







David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, cohost Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the idea of initiating first contact with a new prospect. Welcome back, Jay.







Jay: I'm so glad to be here, David, and I'm excited to talk about this issue because to me, personally, this is one of the hardest things to do.



I'm fine once that first contact has been made. I feel like I'm really good at building relationships and closing.



David: Mm-hmm.



Jay: But I'm terrified about making that first contact and I'm not really sure how to do it. So I find myself shooting in the dark all the time trying to figure it out.



David: Yeah, well, you're certainly not alone.



I've certainly felt that way myself, and nearly everybody I've ever met in sales has had issues with it. And we talked about this in a previous podcast. We were talking about cold calling and the idea that cold calling is really just one form of first contact. And so the reason I thought it would be good to have a discussion on the topic of First Contact itself is to first of all, recognize that, yeah, it's more than just cold calling.



There are lots of different aspects to it. And if you realize that, then you also realize that you can get comfortable with first contact, generally by engaging in a first contact method that is more comfortable for you. So if cold calling is not your primary thing, you have other alternatives and that should maybe give you a little bit of hope.



Jay: Yeah, that does give me hope and I think the key is to know what the possibilities are. Because like I said, sometimes I'm like, okay, my only option is to cold call, and that's not working. So really understanding what are the other options available.



And the other thing I found is, lately I'm better at cold calling because you force yourself to do it enough and you can build a skill and you can get over the hump at least I'm finding that.



David: Yeah, absolutely. And when you are good at cold calling, and there are a lot of people who are very good at it, there are a lot of people who actually really like it. They don't even struggle with the call reluctance and that sort of thing, but for those who do struggle with it, I think just discussing this idea of first contact is going to be helpful.



And if we think about why first contact is really so important, in my mind at least, it's because it really helps to set the stage for the entire relationship. Whatever it is that they're going to learn about us or think about us down the road, it's all going to come from what that first contact is.



If it's a great experience, they're going to have good feelings about us. If it's less than a great experience, then they're not going to feel as great about it. Since it sets the tone, it's really important that people become comfortable with it, or at least come up with a form of first contact that they can be reasonably comfortable with.



Jay: Yeah. It's such a great line of thinking.



I hadn't really thought about it that, that first moment, maybe the first five minutes,



David: Right.



Jay: That could determine the whole lifespan of the relationship. How they view you. How they respond to your sales pitch. Everything.