What do you prefer? A cold call or a Warm Call?

What do you think would happen if you cold call Martin Bouygues? Do you think you'd even get through to him? But what if you call his office and said that Marc X, his friend, suggested that you call him. It is obvious: your chances of reaching Martin Bouygues will strongly improve. Because your network can open doors that you could not open on your own.

An even more effective way to get referrals attention is to ask your contact to call first to introduce you. Of course, your contact will be most likely to do this if the two of you have a strong relationship.

A warm call means using your contact's name to get the referral's attention. To do so, you need to understand the relation between the contact and referral.

There are some key things that you need to remember to succeed in every warm call:

- prepare, prepare and prepare

- have a good script. Don't improvise

- don't call from a cell phone

- call from a quiet area

- call with a positive attitude

- mention your contact's name : "Jean suggested me to meet you"

- check that it is a good time to speak with him

- speak with confidence, energy and assertiveness

- speak slowly and use inflections

- be focused and specific on who you are and what you want

- ask for an interview

- agree on a date and time for a meeting

- remember to give your name and your cell number

- don't forget to thank you at the end of the phone call