Every book written on selling says the same thing: Don’t make cold calls. They don’t work. You make enemies. It’s too frustrating. It’s counterproductive.

And I agree. In fact, I haven’t made a cold call in years. The more effective way is to give value to people in the form of newsletters, books, videos, speeches, and information-packed websites, and then let people call you. I can personally testify that all of these systems work.

Fine. It’s all well and good for me and other experts to decry cold calling. But chances are, at some point in your career, you may be asked to make cold calls. And if you aren’t asked to do it for your job, you may be asked to do it when fundraising for a non-profit or charity.

Years ago, I did have to make cold calls for a living. Here are some tips that I found useful then and I believe would be useful today as well.

1. 1. Get to the point quickly on why you are calling and what you can do for that person (even if it is simply to feel good for giving a donation). Don’t waste time talking about yourself.
2. 2. Don’t trick yourself into thinking quality phone calls are always more important than quantity. You need both.
3. 3. Give yourself a quota of calls per day. It could be 100 or it might be 5. But if you don’t give yourself a quota, then it will quickly become zero.
4. 4. Realize that most people aren’t going to be interested in talking to a stranger about a product or service they don’t need right now. It’s nothing personal about you.
5. 5. If you are working from a good list, some percentage of people are going to be in the market for what you are selling right now. It might be one out of 2 or it might be 1 out of 1000. Learn the numbers and then act accordingly.
6. 6. Once you find you are talking to someone who is willing to talk to you, let that person do most of the talking while you shut up.
7. 7. Take careful notes from the conversation that you can use in a letter or email back to the prospect.
8. 8. Follow up immediately with any prospect that shows you interest. That may include scheduling a face-to-face meeting, sending an information kit, sending an email or setting a teleconference with the prospects colleagues.
9. 9. Try to give away something of value to anyone willing to talk with you, even if it’s just a free online special report.

Do everything you can to turn cold calls into warm calls by giving away value, establishing credibility and following up with people when they ask you to. If you do that often enough, you won’t be making cold calls for very long.