Cold Calling Loggers

I used to cold call loggers.

Not to sell anything, oddly enough, but to figure out how much sawdust and scrap wood they were producing each week.

At the time, I was working for a small consulting firm hired by a utility company in the Southeast.

The utility wanted to reduce emissions by burning biomass along with coal. That meant they needed to know how much waste wood was available in the region.

And so, there I was, phone in hand, interrupting loggers in the middle of their workday.

Most were polite. Many were skeptical. And a few made it clear they'd been burned before.

The obstacle was that the loggers thought I was trying to sell something, when really I was trying to help. They had a chance to turn their waste product into revenue.

But they couldn't hear that, at least not at first. Not over the skepticism left behind by everyone who'd called before.

It's worth remembering:

You're not only being judged on the value of your message, but on who it reminds them of.

There's a reason I drew broken bridges inside the Five Lightbulbs universe. They represent the people, companies, and options that have burned your prospect in the past.

To ignore that history is a mistake.

No, it doesn't make our job easier. But at least we have a good tool for the job — in the Lightbulbs.

I sure wish I'd had them back when I was cold calling loggers.