Cold calling has to be one of the most feared aspects of every sales person's and business owner's day. With some important key tips, you can make cold calling painless and enjoyable and as easy as calling a friend.

Here are 7 key ways to jump start your cold calls:

1. Research Your Market

Before you start your cold calls it's important that you be prepared so your prospect feels you really do understand their situation. Research the company you are calling, identify what issues they are having based on your other clients in their same industry and ask others in your company the main reasons why people buy your product or service.

The better prepared you are about discussing you prospect's issues, the easier it will be to allow the conversation to flourish.

2. Change Your Mental Expectations

Traditional selling has always taught us that our main goal of the cold call should be an appointment or a sale. With that mental focus, what happens is our mind is focused on the end goal before we even have a conversation with the person we are calling.

This creates a major conflict because you will be trying very hard not to use words that make you sound like all you care about is the sale. And even more importantly, if your prospect senses you are focusing on the appointment or sale, they will immediately be defensive.

So what to do? Change your mental expectations to focus on building a conversation first and then once you have generated a good dialogue, you can then determine if you are a fit or not with your prospect.

Be careful not to mentally jump the gun.

3. Understand Your Prospect

Take a few minutes to think about your focus of your call. Think about how you are going to approach the conversation. Put yourself in the mind of your prospect.

How would you want to be approached? Certainly the last thing you want to hear is a sales pitch from someone you don't know.

Instead, begin the conversation diffusing any mystery as to who you are with Hi, my name is Jim and you and I haven't met yet. This removes the mystery of who you are and allows you to begin talking about how you can help them solve a problem, rather than you having to default to a sales pitch.

Think before you speak.

4. Build Trust Through Conversation

Learning to build conversation is the key to cold calling success. Engaging in a conversation should be as natural as calling a friend. Your objective is to build trust on your call so that your prospect feels comfortable conversing with you rather than trying to focus on getting you off the phone.

How do you build trust? You build trust by removing any elements in your approach that connect you to the negative salesperson stereotype.

5. Ask A Question

Begin your cold call with Hi my name is John, maybe you can help me out for a moment?

Yes, that's really all you have to begin with because in the next few seconds you will hear How can I help you. That is how you can build a two-way dialogue rather than having a one-way talk.

The truth is you are asking for help because you don't know if you can help them yet, right? Until you have the information you need about their situation, you can't determine if you are a fit or not.

6. Eliminate Pressure

Pressure is the main reason most cold calls turn into a negative rejection-filled experience. It doesn't have to be that way.

If you can become aware of things you are doing that is triggering pressure on your prospects, you can turn cold calling into a very productive and enjoyable experience.

The key is to never force your sales pitch, engage only in a natural conversation, and most importantly let your prospect talk. By doing all three you will eliminate pressure from the call and your prospect will be more open to the idea of what you have to offer.

7. Learn To Determine A Fit

So how do you know if your prospect is a fit with what you have to offer? You need to ask them this question towards the end of your problem solving discussion Is solving your problem a top priority or something that is on the back burner for now?

By determining the answer to this question, you can see if you can decide if your prospect is worth pursuing or not. You will also be able to determine their time frame which helps you better adjust your expectations.

Make no mistake about it, if you really want to be successful cold calling you'll need to let go of traditional sales thinking. Try these 7 strategies and watch how cold calling can be fun and productive.