Cold-calling is a life-skill. It can save you money, effort and time. More importantly, it helps build discipline, persistence, and communication skills.

A thread. (1/n)

Money: I have had multiple instances in my short career where a random LinkedIn connect shared richer industry perspective than a USD 550 / hour expert call. While this might seem frugal to some, you can always find a way to pay it back or pay it forward. (2/n)

Effort: A worthwhile cold-call can help you streamline your efforts by their guidance / network. Example, a cold call with a large distributor gave me enough ideas to my refine strategy for a go-to-market project. Besides, his reference worked wonders in future connects. (3/n)

Time: Fairly straightforward. You will develop a better understanding on a subject with 30 min with an expert than hours of secondary research. Besides, getting to the right connect helps you skip the queue more often than not. (4/n)

However, while it looks simple. It is not easy. Cold-calling requires humility and patience. Most people will not respond. The few who do, might not be helpful. Some might actually be hostile and bring you down. Need to ignore those. My personal hit ratio is 10%. (5/n)

Regular cold-calling requires discipline. You might feel the need to give up after a day or two. But, trust me, it is worth the effort. My hack is to break them into 25 min sprints and maintain a progress excel sheet to create a self-pat-on-the-back loop for the effort. (6/n)

You might also at times feel like a pestering call-center agent. Feel it, but do it anyway. At worst, you would have wasted someones's 5 min. At best, you would have moved the needle by a week on your project. Worth the humiliation and pain. (7/n)

Besides, you will develop more empathy for the call-center folks. May be become a better person. (8/n)

Lastly, you will hone your communication skills. I cannot help but stress on how many people get this wrong. Cold-calling is not acting entitled to a stranger. They owe you nothing. Always be courteous and respectful. (9/n)

Put in a little effort before the call. Spend 10 min to know more about the company and person before the call. Big plus if you can find something in common (alma-maters, place of working, etc.). People are nicer if they know that your circles may intersect. (10/n)

Finally, keep them in the loop. Have touch-points, even in a year or two. Helps them not regret the decision and you never know when you have made someone's day. (11/n)

So, don't hesitate to cold-call to land your next job, sales, project, connect etc. With time, it will become second nature and recipe for accelerated trajectory in life. Fin. (12/12)

Epilogue: Banal as it might sound, I picked it up while organizing fests on campus (hat tip to @bitsdosm, @kushalbhagia). Did not know it will be so useful later on.