Brent Ward probably laughs when he hears the term “state of the art” being thrown around. Responsible for technology commercialization at RTI, he really works at the frontier of technology, finding applications for esoteric inventions that some of the brightest researchers in the world have conjured up. From deep computing to medical devices, Brent’s ability to grasp and explain sophisticated technology to an unskilled audience is remarkable.

We were introduced to Brent at an MEM Seminar on social networking, and later requested him to mentor our team for a non-profit business plan. There are 3 things you will notice about him: 1) He knows everyone 2) He is extremely accomplished 3) He always has time. I don’t know how he does it. First, what kind of social skills do you need to be on first name basis with half the industry? Second, how do you manage commercialization of billions of dollars worth of potential impact and still have the time to actively mentor a college team?

It’s really a privilege to have Brent post on this blog. Having been an entrepreneur, a salesman, an engineer, an executive, and a mentor, his advice is pragmatic and extremely valuable.

Some of the things I would request Brent to post about are: cold calling, new product development and time management.

Do you have any suggestions?

Adnan has asked me to consider writing a post on Cold Calling and it occurred to me that it isn’t quite as simple as writing one post. So given the nature of the site – I plan to post a number of different responses and also follow up on questions posed – sort of “directed wandering” through the topic. I hope to build on others’ contributions as well. After typing a bunch of what is below, I was reminded of a colleague of mine who told me after a month of cold calls that she would NEVER make another cold call – that if it wasn’t a warm call/lead then she would not put herself through the stress of calling a complete stranger. This is very wise thinking if you have the option of using your existing (or friends’ existing) network contacts instead of making cold calls [more on this later].

Having been in sales, marketing, engineering, and business development for most of my career, and having worked for 1 person startups up to 100,000 employee companies, I have come to appreciate much of the diversity in the objectives of cold calls. Depending on where you sit, what you are trying to achieve, how you are being measured (compensated), and who you are calling, the call will always vary. You might be starting from a script, but unless you are doing a market survey, most calls do not end up staying in the script of an “ideal” call.

There is one thing that is common to the objective of a “good” cold call – you are trying to convey the value you perceive you have to offer to someone you expect can be interested in exchanging what they have for what you have. Value exchange. The challenge with simply addressing cold call’s, is that in some businesses you only have one call and a few seconds to make the pitch and move on – while in other businesses, you may make many phone calls, visits, meetings, letters, etc. before you ever make a specific pitch (in the former rapport is less important than an immediate sale while in the latter the rapport and resulting relationship are more important than any short term sale that might comprimise the long term opportunity).

So the first thing I want to know before making a cold call is similar to making a presentation to a person or group of people – what most good journalists ask: Who, what, where, when, how, how much, why should they care, what do you want from them.

Based on these answers, and a clear description of what you have to offer, you will have to set your expectations for the results of the subsequent calls accordingly.

1. Are you offering a new innovative product that doesn’t exist yet – except in your imagination?

2. Are you offering an existing product that has yet to be proven in its benefits?

3. Are you offering an existing product that has proven benefits?

4. Are you offering a service that has been to be established – but exists squarely in your imagination?

5. Are you offering a service that others are already purchasing from you?

6. Are you offering a combination of products and services?

7. Are you simply gathering information from which to make some decisions?

8. Are you looking to get someone to donate some time to your cause?

9. Are you in need of an immediate sale to keep your staff and creditors paid?

10. Are you trying to convince an investor to take the risk of putting money in your company?

11. Etc.

Obviously, all of these have different audiences, different messages, and different approaches to a cold call. The second step (after identifying the answers to the journalist’s questions) is to spend a little time trying to identify a small enough group of people to call that would most likely be interested in what you have to offer. This is usually where a group of classmates, work friends, and other professional acquaintances can be of EXTREME value. These “leads” are typically referred to as a “warm calls” since your network contact can make a referral in person, through a call, through email, or any other way to “pre-qualify” you and what you have to offer for their contact. This is a very powerful approach and much smarter than any other means of making contact – as long as it is efficient to find people who know the people that you want to get in touch with.

Selecting your “target market” and identifying their phone number, address, and email address will put you in prime position to start making calls.

I recall the old adage: I would rather spend 7 hours sharpening the axe and 1 hour cutting down the tree, than 8 hours hacking away at the same tree. Good project managers talk about spending 50% of the project time planning – this is sage advice in cold calling (new product development and business starts are a bit different).