Pulled this from the web, it is an answer to a sales blog where the blogger offers up only four questions when making a cold telephone call. I thought there was some valuable insight from the CEO.
So....Aaron you are the one to blame for these questions. As a CEO I must get 10-15 of these calls a day. Let me try to help on why these questions don't work.
1) Did I catch you at a bad time?-Well, yes, yes you did. I am not sitting by phone waiting for you to call me. Try this instead. "Sorry for the interruption then go into why you are calling me. Please be brief and have some value. 2) If you were me how would you approach the organization?-Really? You are going to ask for a favor? I don't know you and you are going to annoy me further by asking me how you can penetrate my company? I don't think so. Just tell me what you want. 3) May I ask you how you're handling ___ today?-No. Again, I don't know you. This comes across as rude. 4) Do you have your calendar handy?-That is assuming the close. If I am interested I will tell you and schedule something. I know I am coming across snarky and I apologize but it is important to see what the effects of these questions have on your prospects. Try this instead: Hi, sorry for the interruption, I know you are busy.My name is ___and I am calling from____. Our company is ____ we help companies like yours (increase revenue,and/or decrease costs) by X%. The reason for my call is to try to schedule a brief phone/web/in person meeting to see if our (solution)/(service) could provide the same benefit to you. (END) Now stop talking and let them tell you if they are A. interested B. if they are the right person to talk to C. If they have time to schedule a meeting. This goes a lot smoother if you send an email first because you can start the call of by referring to the email. If you are getting a lot of "no thanks" try tweaking your value proposition. Good luck.
Jonathan