A Cold Awakening

When we started to cold call, I thought I was going to be a pro.First we started calling for recipes from restaurants, and I failed miserably. First I called Chickfila and asked the process of making their chicken biscuits, apparently too forcefully, because the guy sounded like I called in a bomb threat.
I was by all accounts and witnesses being much too fast and not explaining my situation well. When I tried with IHOP, I made sure I slowed down and explained the circumstances before asking how they cook their pancakes. Well I learned the lesson that not every call, even if you did a good job, will not end well. I was called, and I quote a “dumb-ass” and “retarded” by these IHOP employees. But another group called the IHOP and got the information they needed, they just got a different and apparently nicer person on the phone. No matter what you do, the outcome is not entirely dependent on you. If you do everything perfectly, you still may not land that interview or whatever else you are trying to do. I think I learned that and used it to my advantage by being much more careful about what I say and what I describe to the people I am getting interviews with. And I got Underoath bassist Grant to interview me, and I did so by very careful articulation and word choice.

Written on March 1, 2011 at 7:01pm