Cold Calling Lessons and Strategies

Summary

The speaker shares 27 key lessons from five years and over half a million cold calls that generated $8.5 million in sales.
The advice covers mindsets, practical techniques, and strategies for maximizing effectiveness and mental resilience in cold calling.
Key takeaways include treating cold calling as a valuable, learnable skill, focusing on consistent action, leveraging team dynamics, and refining both process and mindset.

(No action items explicitly mentioned in transcript)

Start by eliminating call reluctance; success hinges on actually making the calls rather than stalling.
Treat cold calling as a foundational, high-level skill that benefits any business or leadership role.
Embrace the discomfort and unnatural feeling of cold calling as a sign of growth and progress.
Recognize and address the role of ego; stay coachable and open to feedback.
View rejection as a necessary and paid part of the process—every “no” contributes to your overall results.
Cold calling is best practiced as a team sport—working with others accelerates improvement and prevents burnout.
Avoid neediness and commission breath; detach from outcomes and present yourself as a peer.

Focus on consistent, quality execution over perfection; pitch for your own standards rather than external validation.
New reps should avoid improvisation and stick to established scripts until they have a proven track record.
Top performers borrow and adapt what’s already working in the market—study and “steal” effective strategies.
Share scripts, leads, and tactics with teammates; collaboration and abundance thinking leads to greater success.
Guard against burnout with micro-goals and short-term rewards for sustained motivation.
Respect cold calling as a craft and take it seriously for long-term success.

Treat call scripts as a screenplay to be performed, not recited—be engaging and present.
Batch dialing sessions into focused, multi-hour blocks to achieve flow and maximize results.
Develop and use a pre-call ritual or checklist to prepare physically and mentally before dialing.
Avoid overpreparing on product details; on the first call, focus on sparking curiosity and booking the meeting, not educating.

Concentrate on process inputs (dials, conversations) rather than obsessing over outcomes (closed deals).
Take control of your own prospecting by learning contact list building.
Track key activity and conversion metrics regularly to identify opportunities for improvement.

Remember that your real “product” on a cold call is the meeting itself, not the actual solution.
Stand out by doing the opposite of typical sales reps: adopt a patient, low-pressure, high-credibility posture.
For high-volume calling, use Permission-Based Openers (PBOs) instead of personalizing every call; personalize more for enterprise-level deals.
Book the meeting first, then qualify the prospect during or after the call—don’t use the first call to interrogate or qualify heavily.
Use soft asks at the close (e.g., “Do you have your calendar available?”) rather than hard closes to lower resistance.
Avoid sounding too polished—allow some natural disfluencies to build trust and sound authentic.

Continually monitor and measure activity and results; what gets measured gets improved.
Make the conscious choice to infuse cold calling with fun and enthusiasm; otherwise, the process will become draining.
Apply all lessons and set up a structured system for cold calling, as a system is key to consistent results.