Better cold calling questions start with a rule that sounds too simple to need saying: ask one question, then stop talking.
Pay attention to your own questions on your next few calls. They tend to arrive in a bundle:
“So are you still looking, or did you find something, or is it more of a next-year thing?”
Why the bundle backfires
Three questions in one breath does two things, and both are bad.
- It lets the other person pick the easiest one to dodge. Given a menu, they answer the question that costs them the least, and the one you needed goes unanswered.
- It fills the exact moment they were about to think. The pause where a real answer forms gets crowded out by your next question.
Bundling usually comes from nerves, not strategy. Every extra question is a way of staying busy so the silence never arrives. But the silence is where the answer lives.
The fix is uncomfortable, which is why it works
- Ask one question
One they can actually answer. If you catch yourself saying “or”, you are about to ask a second one. Cut it.
- Stop
Do not soften it. Do not add “no pressure”. Do not answer it for them.
- Let the quiet sit
It feels long on your end. On theirs, it is thinking time.
What the quiet is for
Most of what you need to know arrives in the few seconds after you stop talking — if you leave them empty. That is when someone corrects your assumption, mentions the thing they were not planning to bring up, or simply says yes.
The quiet after a good question is not a gap in the call. It is the call working.
Before you dial, write down the one question you most want answered. Say it once, then stop. If you want a rhythm for working through a list, see Run a dialing session.
Your turn
What is the question you most often catch yourself bundling? Notice it on your next few calls, and the fix gets easier each time.
If you are building a calling routine of your own, DialRidge is dialing software for one person working their own list.