If you’ve ever worked in sales, likely you’ve at least considered if not personally practiced cold calling. On average it takes eight calls to reach a sales prospect, because 4 out of 5 cold calls go to voicemail. And though a salesperson can make around 35 cold calls in a day, just 1% of cold calls lead to appointments. Most top-level leaders don’t respond to cold calls anymore.[1]

And they don’t have to. When cell phones came into our lives they all came with a wonderful tool we take for granted now—Caller ID. In recent years our phones even label calls with known marketing numbers as “Telemarketer” to encourage you not to answer. The latest iteration of marketing calls is using AI programs to do the calling. It sounds like you’re talking to a person, but something is a little off—an unusually long pause before responding lets you know you’re talking with a machine and not a real person.

But what if there was a kind of cold call that was 100% successful? A call that, every time you made it, something meaningful would occur? A cold call so powerful that a response is guaranteed? In fact, if you are trying to connect to someone new in your business environment, making this specific cold call will help you form a meaningful relationship and put you in a position of influence in their life and work. Sound too good to be true? The secret to this cold call is Who you are calling.

Praying cold. A Christ-centered leader should think of every relationship and connection, even in business, first and foremost as a spiritual opportunity. Ephesians 6:18 teaches us about this attitude of continuous, ongoing prayer at every opportunity, telling us to “Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints…” When you meet someone new, or get introduced to a potential client, or have a new hire, among the first calls you can make on their behalf is to God through prayer. Have you ever thought about systematically praying for each and every person you come into contact with? You don’t need to ask them about prayer, or gather their prayer needs, or give them a warning before you pray. Instead, simply jot down their names on your prayer list, and pray for them. What can you pray about when you don’t really know someone?

• Pray for their personal wellbeing and family. Ask God to bless them personally and professionally. Pray for their spouse and children. Pray for God to help them through challenges, worries and concerns. Pray that God might keep them from harm, cement and grow your relationship, and allow you to be in a position of influence with them. Philippians 4:6 reminds us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

• Pray for their needs to be revealed and met. Ask God to reveal to you any areas where you may be able to minister to them, meet a need, and have a positive impact on their life and work. Remember Hebrews 4:16, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” And again in Romans 12:12: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

• Pray for spiritual openings. Ask God to grant openings for spiritual conversations. Ask Him to reveal to you if the person is a Christ-follower, or if they have never heard the Gospel at all. Then ask God to soften their heart so that He can use you to influence them toward Christ. God always blesses prayers in accordance with His will. He teaches us in 1 John 5:14-15, “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.”

Asking about prayer. A step beyond a cold call prayer is to use opportunities that come about to ask to pray for others’ needs. Some Christians do this with the waiter or waitress at a restaurant—“I’m a Christian and I pray a blessing before each meal. Can I pray for you about anything today?” This is a bit of a captive audience, and most wait staff will smile and accept this positively, not wanting to negatively affect their forthcoming tip. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it can come off as a bit showy and presentational versus an organic opportunity to earnestly connect with someone through prayer.

When a business associate or coworker opens up about a personal need or problem, or a crisis they may be going through, this is an excellent opportunity to ask if you can pray for them and with them. By bringing up a personal matter, they’ve already taken the conversation outside of business bounds. Again here, the point is to make a connection and be genuinely concerned, spiritually, for their well-being. Consider making your prayer ask privately. Know, too, that God will often use the person praying to meet the need being prayed over. So don’t pray, “God, please help Bob and Linda find someone to babysit on Thursday afternoon so that they can meet with the doctor about Bob’s heart condition…” and walk away with your fingers crossed that someone will magically appear. If you have Thursday afternoon free, don’t be a spiritual jerk. Instead, be prepared to be an answer to that prayer!

The purpose of prayer is not to move God. God already knows what is happening, all the time. He knows every person and every need. Prayer is a tool to move and grow us in life and leadership. The idea of a “cold call” prayer for new acquaintances is to teach us to approach every relationship as a spiritual opportunity, and to set our minds toward God at work constantly, in and through our lives. As we grow closer to God, we begin to understand that prayer isn’t a series of “calls” to God, but rather a continuous and intimate conversation with the Creator as we seek to know Him and do His work. Remember Colossians 4:2: “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”

[1] https://www.servicebell.com/post/cold-calling-statistics