If you plan to cold call high-level decision-makers expect a mental transition to come. The time of transition comes to different people at different points in time, often without the seller even realizing it has happened. The way you think will morph into the very kinds of thoughts top decision-makers think. Seemingly, suddenly you will have their perspective of the world and be able to communicate in a way that gets fast results.

You'll no longer be stuck in the quagmire of low-level decision-makers who make decisions within limited decision making capacity as dictated by the high-level decision makers. You will be free to think and move through business transactions with the same abilities as higher levels of your prospects' organizations.

A case in point.

This week on the fourth day of waiting in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for "official" updates re: my sister-in-law's health disposition. Finally, on the fourth day I flipped over to my cold-calling-executives mindset. Nurses said they could provide no information, seven different physicians said they were not the attending physician and could not counsel the family.

For whatever reasons these medical professionals were limited in their problem solving ability. The hospital administrator was the next logical stop - as he was "the buck stops here guy who was accountable to share holders."

One call to his office resulted in an on site visit by his personal assistant; the appearance of the previously unknown "attending physician"; and the collection of family's constructive feedback was reported back to the hospital administrator.

The hospital administrator immediately recognized as did I:

1. If his well-educated highly-paid medical staff was failing to connect with the patient's family, he (the hospital administrator) had a systems problem in need of fixing immediately.

2. If just this one hospital patient had 7 siblings, their spouses, children and grandchildren in a room who were feeling emotional pain and suffering from neglect -- he (the hospital administrator) had a big, unnecessary PR problem looming on the horizon.

3. In a litigious society his (the hospital administrator's) hospital had huge potential exposure for a lawsuit.

4. If this one situation had been brought to his (the hospital administrator's) attention, odds were at least 100 more just like were lurking in the shadows.

Contrary to the beliefs of most people who have reason to visit a hospital the physicians and nurses were not/are not the ones who resolve systems issues.

When our family was not communicated with, it became clear a breakdown in the hospital's communication protocols had occurred. How sad and frustrating that well intended, highly skilled and talented medical professionals who wanted more than anything to care for their patients and their families failed to do so because of an ineffective system. How sad and frustrating that a family who respected and wanted the counsel of those medical professionals did not receive it on a timely basis. As you begin to think like a "Top Dog," you'll see and experience considerably less frustration in your personal and professional life, because you will know: who to talk to and how to talk to them, all for the purpose of resolving the problem and/or making things better.

That third point is an important one -- even in the midst of emotionally high-charged situations, high-level decision-makers are not interested in assessing blame, condemning, or venting anger. They are interested in making things work better for all involved.

When making things work better for all involved becomes your predominant mindset take note. This is evidence that you have made the transformation to "Top Dog" thinking.