Cold-calling with English as a Second Language

Writing, speaking, listening and reading. These four skills are the necessary ingredients for a mastery over communication. If Public Relations is indeed ‘the management of communication between an organisation and its publics’ (Grunig & Hunt 1984), then mastering these skills will gain an individual advantage for the PR person.

Among the four main communication skills, speaking has always been my most ‘dodgy’ skill. I did not speak English daily at home – not until I went to Australia four years ago. To be able to talk to Australians as if I am one of them, I would have said, would be an unreachable dream, since there is not many among my Indonesian community that can communicate and pronounce the English language properly to the Australian community, let alone merge into the Australian culture altogether.

How does this relate to my internship you may ask? Well, one of the tasks given to me is giving cold calls to clubs. On around the first week of September, my supervisor wanted me to inform clubs on the upcoming Clubs WA AGM for the 22^nd October, in the hope to get their awareness and attention in signing up one of their members to the AGM.

The burden of the task given to me gives me mix feelings. I like talking with people, since I like communication in general (which is why I took Public Relations in the first place). However, I know and understand the position I am in – an Indonesian guy who never joins in any clubs in Australia.

A job is a job to be done, so I am up and ready to do any tasks given to me. I refer back to PR Techniques class where we learn how to construct a speech transcript for certain leaders in a certain event. Although this does not relate to cold calling directly, it does help me relate to common attributes of making speech and telephone call transcripts. Some of these attributes are on keeping in mind who I am talking to (target audience), ensuring that the words I chose to deliver is correct and suitable for club leaders. I also kept in mind some questions that they might ask, such as “what is the AGM?” or “How do I get it?”

I have to say that having a transcript really helps me to talk. PR Techniques used well.

In the end, I called around 50 clubs in total telling them the same hello and questions. I got one or two in which I hesitated and faced awkward conversation, but in all, I was able to deliver the message to them. Not only does this cold-call job enhances my PR skills in general, but also increases my confidence in speaking the English language. My supervisor was happy when three people signed up to the AGM, as a direct result of my conversation with them.

You may have noticed (or not) that there is an AGM coming up on 22 October. In the next two blogs, I will talk and focus more about the upcoming event itself. Stay tune for my next story of my PR internship in Clubs WA!