What is it we hate most about cold calling? Is it the "cold" part of cold calling? You can take the chill out of cold calling by warming up your cold calls ahead of time.

Choose your best referral partner and send a mutual endorsement mailer. A mutual endorsement mailer is a prospecting tool used not only to promote each other's businesses, but also to make personal introductions for one another. Here's how it works:

Review your contact database with your referral partner and determine which of your customers or strong contacts (those that have a relationship with you) best fit your referral partner's Ideal Client Profile (prospects with attributes that make them ideal customers for your referral partner). Next, on your letterhead, have your referral partner write a letter to the contacts in your database who have been identified.

By having your referral partner write the letter, he will be able to stress the key points he wants to convey to those receiving the letter. But the letter should look as though it's coming from you, as a way of personally introducing your partner to specific contacts in your database. Also include any marketing material that is relevant to your referral partner's business, as well as your business card and your referral partner's business card.

Remember, you should sign the letter, as it is coming from you. Have your referral partner do the same for you, on his letterhead, with his signature, introducing you to the contacts in his database that fit your Ideal Client Profile.

About a week after the mailers have been sent, call the contacts your referral partner sent the mutual endorsement mailer to. When you call, say, "I'm calling to follow up on the letter you received from David Smith." From there, the conversation should flow fairly smoothly. Voila. You've received a great introduction to a new prospect.

It's a good idea to include a couple of quotes from clients both at the top of the letter and near the end. When other clients have something positive to say about you and your company, it's the most powerful sales tool you have: Use it. Be sure the quote you use speaks to the results you've created for your client, as this will give you credibility and inspire confidence that you will deliver the same for your prospect.

Also include any other titles or accolades that will give your company credibility. For example, in my letter, I might note not only that I'm the CEO of Sittig Inc., but also that I'm a columnist for WomenEntrepreneur.com. I've appeared on Fox News a couple of times, so I might include that tidbit as well. If you establish credibility early in your letter, the prospect is more likely to read it all the way through.

Finally, keep your letter to one page. You want to create enough curiosity about who you are and what you do that the prospect will accept your follow-up phone call, but you don't want to tell everything there is to tell in the mutual endorsement introductory letter. The mutual endorsement mailer and the subsequent follow-up call represent an effective way to generate new business, and they'll take the chill out of your cold calls.