By Larry Prevost, Dale Carnegie Training Instructor

Late one evening during a cold calling session, I called into a company and reached one of the corporate directors. I ran through the standard process, stuff like getting their attention, verifying their position, briefly stating a benefit and asking if it was a good time to talk.

I asked this particular director if he had time to talk and he said that he did. I started with a softball question, asking in broad terms what their company was currently doing to help get their people to the next professional level.

Now, after hearing this question, this director could have answered in a variety of ways.

He could have said, "We put them through a rigorous training program designed to build their leadership skills and help them progress in the company."

He could have said, "We encourage them to take responsibility for their own education."

He could have even said, "None of your business."

But he said none of those things. What he said was actually pretty interesting.

He said, "I'm not at liberty to say."

And I thought to myself, "That's an awfully legal response for such an innocuous little question."

The response caught me by surprise, so when the director said, "Is there anything else?" I told him no, and we ended the call.

But I did put the company on my watch list. His response seemed out of place for the type of conversation we had.

A week later, I ran across a newspaper article saying the company had filed for Chapter 11 while it reorganized its labor force.

One of the skills that you can actively develop when cold calling is your ability to listen to your prospects--being able to gather information, understand that information and apply it to turn your prospects into customers and turn your customers into happy clients.

Next Page: Lessons for Listening

Get More Sales Tips and Advice in the Sales Expertise Center

More Manta Resources: Over Quota Newsletter for Sales Pros: Subscribe now! Report Finder: Download Market Research, Contacts & More

A Free CRM Right Here
myManta is full of the tools you need to build, manage, sort and share your contact lists. This tool is free to Manta members and allows you to have the core features and functionality of a contact relationship management (CRM) system. Give it try now.