How To Be A Heartwarming Cold Caller

I managed a fellow by the name of Ben at Time-Life Books, and this gentleman was special and very much worth remembering and emulating.

He loved touting our art library, especially to folks such as himself, who were retired or at least of that age.

He’d get on a call and rhapsodize about Monet, Picasso, and some of the lesser-known greats that we sent into homes, one every other month on a 10-day trial basis.

Ben was, possibly, the most respectful telephone sales agent I ever worked with. Polite beyond the call of duty, he would always convey the impression he was a modest guest in homes, and it was a privilege to be speaking to each individual.

Ben would call some of his prospects “Dear” and “Ma’am” and “My Friend,” and you got the impression he could have been a country doctor or a country squire, for that matter.

Because he invested so much time on each call, his raw sales numbers were just about average, but his collections, the proportion of people who agreed to review books and then who purchased them, was beyond compare.

He was the leader in “keepers,” in dollars that came into our coffers, without any need to use dunning letters or evening reminder calls.

Sometimes, as a manager I wondered if Ben was going overboard, especially in sharing the details of his physical ailments with his buyers. But he was just being genuine, making cold calls, but warming hearts, including many lonely ones, day after day.

When the Do Not Call Registry was created, that list of tens of millions of Americans who formally said, “Never darken my telephonic doorstep,” I’m sure not a single one had ever spoken to someone as congenial, knowledgeable, and memorable as Ben.

If more callers were like Ben, and if more firms were like Time-Life, which sought out and cultivated callers like Ben, then that opt-out list wouldn’t have been necessary.

Now that the Do Not Call Registry is coming up for legislative renewal, let’s resolve to be so good at what we do that folks will hesitate before placing their names in that book.