Cold calling has adopted a bad rap.

Naysayers will tell you it’s merely a numbers game—making you the human equivalent of junk mail. Eventually someone will respond, right?

Wrong. That puts all the power in someone else’s hands. Instead, shift your perspective: Look at cold calling as your opportunity to claim a spot top-of-mind, supersede those already servicing the business and pre-empt future competition.

True story: I only had 20 minutes before lunch, but I remembered hearing about a nearby business recently started by the friend of a friend. A quick text later and I had the business and owner names. Within minutes, I was in front of Head Shot Studios.

As I headed in, I grabbed one of our unique marketing pieces—a guitar pick. On one side is our logo, and on the other is a message: “We pick our clients.”

My target was out—but when I handed the pick to the young lady left in charge, she replied, “This is cool, what do you do?” I smiled. “Commercial insurance; the owner and I have a mutual friend. Give him the pick and tell him I’ll call him tomorrow.”

I did call. Turned out he was open to a conversation, and we set an appointment for the following week to see if it would make sense to start a sales process.

It really can be that easy—all it takes is treating cold calling as a challenge instead of accepting it as just the chump part of your job. That requires getting out there and acting like an entrepreneur. And while you’re at it, don’t be afraid to inject some personality and creativity into the process. You might even find you enjoy it.

Anson Thompson is CEO of The Thompson Group in Parker City, Indiana.