On Monday, we broke down the basics of a cold approach – the opening, building rapport, qualifying and making the move. This is going to be the outline of most of your attempts at meeting people, whether you’re looking for a potential date, a potential sex partner, a new friend or a networking possibility.

The next step is to learn how to tailor your approach to fit the circumstances. After all: most of us don’t meet people exclusively at bars and clubs. The basic cold approach is good for large, active social settings – parties, bars, nightclubs, gallery openings, street fairs, concerts, etc. – but less so when you’re dealing with day to day interactions. If you approach someone in the grocery store the way you’d approach them at a party, the odds of getting weird looks, uncomfortable silence and the occasional rutabaga upside the head are fairly high. Similarly, a long indirect opener that might work at the bar is going to seem weird as hell at the bookstore. If you’re hoping to get a phone number, you don’t want to roll up on somebody at a coffee shop like the Big Bad Wolf.

So if you want to meet someone during your daily routine or outside of the traditional meat markets, then you have to change how you go about your business.

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