js2458

Enterprise SDR

Valued Contributor

AMA: Generation Zer Who Prefers Cold Calling

Hi all -

Have been semi-active within this community for about a year and it's been by far the best site I've been a part of. Honored to have @Gasty let me host an AMA.

I started my sales career about 2.5 years ago, when I took a semester off of college to work as a street fundraiser in NYC selling charity subscriptions to passerby's. It as hell, but helped me transfer my skills to B2B sales where I have worked for a few different conference producing companies selling high-ticket sponsorship packages to tech companies.

In B2B, began my career as a SDR about a year back, logged over 10k calls within 3 months and set up 112 meetings in that span --> 550k in revenue. I was fast tracked to AE, where I closed about 140k in revenue while in a 3 month ramp selling fully outbound to our retail tech/customer experience verticals. I was given the position as the Founding AE at the company's new London office, but turned it down as I always wanted to work in Saas.

About two weeks ago, I finally transitioned to a Series B Fintech where I am the Founding Enterprise BDR in their US office.

So far in my short career, I have worked in places where almost everyone is scared to cold call. Whether that be SDRs, AEs, VPs and sometimes even CEOs - the mantra is the same. Most hit LinkedIN or email throughout the day; if they need to make calls, it's to warm leads that they already know.

As someone who is surrounded by people who fear cold calling and doing outbound outreach, thought I'd be a good reference to state the positives of it here.

AMA :)

😝 cold callingss

37

41 comment

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bonez

Politicker

11

Account Executive

Since you're a Gen Z person, I just want to know this - what the fuck is Skibidi Toilet and why does it scare me to ask that?

Also what would you say is keeping your generation in sales? I've heard that Gen Z is a bit more monetarily focused but I feel like every generation says that about whatever generation is in their 20s.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

10

🦊

Sir I am DECEASED

js2458

Politicker

8

Enterprise SDR

A. I have no idea what the fuck that is. Never heard anyone say it.

B. Def agree that money is a huge factor, but - from what I like about it myself/what I’ve heard from peers of the same age - very accessible career + freedom. I think a lot of young people like the idea of upside potential without having to put in a necessary degree to gain the same money about 10 years down the line. Additionally, the rise of WFH is a huge thing for people of my generation. The more amount of freedom, the better.

bonez

Politicker

3

Account Executive

Haha the Skibidi toilet thing was a complete joke but I appreciate the answer.
Yeah that makes sense. I truly wonder if WFH is going to become the norm and force organizations to sell off their buildings and create more affordable housing in those locations. That's the dream anyways. If enough Gen Z folks demand it then I could see hybrid being the default and then most companies being remote with smaller footprints.

Fenderbaum

Politicker

4

Retired Choirboy🪕

Skibidi
Toilet is an animated web series of YouTube videos and shorts created
by Alexey Gerasimov and uploaded on his YouTube channel "DaFuq!?Boom!". Produced
using Source Filmmaker, the series follows a fictional war between
human-headed toilets and humanoid characters with electronic devices for
heads. Wikipedia
Yeah, not for me. 🙄

coletrain

Politicker

1

Account Executive

And more of a generation Alpha thing on top of it. Not my thing at all.
Am I so out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong

oldcloser

Arsonist

10

💀

More of a comment than a question, but I’ve got to call out prodigy-like talent when I see it. You’re not just an early craft-master, but you’re navigating your career journey like an old pro. So yeah- I do have a question. Where does your drive come from?

js2458

Politicker

10

Enterprise SDR

Too kind. And not really true - my first job in B2B was such a shithole and threw out so many red flags that I started to doubt my own sanity.

Drive for sure comes from a money motivated position and that I find the work interesting. Pretty sure I have ADHD; very difficult for me to focus when I can’t find something worth my time. But, for things that I do find interesting, I’m completely locked in and likely have more motivation than the average person.

If you knew me in college, you would probably have said that there was 0 way I’d be able to focus for 10k calls.

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

9

Director, Revenue Enablement

There are dozens of talking heads on LinkedIn providing advice on cold calling and outreach. Who are the people you’ve subscribed to that walk the walk and aren’t all talk?

js2458

Politicker

11

Enterprise SDR

None of them. No one knew the industry I was in well enough for me to resonate. Maybe now as I’ve made the switch we shall see…but probably still no one.

wildwhale

Member

8

Enterprise Account Executive

As someone who has recently joined a startup with a bdr team (that doesn’t have a manager atm) (and keeping in mind I’ve been an ae for a while and haven’t cold called in quite some time) . Just starting to listen to their calls to try and help - it’s been a while since I’ve done this so wondering if you’ve got a tried and true script for cold calling/framework you’d recommend from your POV .. yes i can whip out my old ones but I’m out of the cold calling game for some time.

js2458

Politicker

11

Enterprise SDR

Script, not really. Pretty dependent on industry. I actually just made a post about the fact that I will have to basically rework my new company's script/my mindset around cold calling bc it's a new industry.

What worked well for me before at my conference company was basically going in like this:

"Hello, this is js2458 calling from company name. How are you?
Good to hear. I was giving you a call because I'm doing some work with NAME OF CURRENT PARTNER OVER AT PARTNER COMPANY'S NAME. Do you know him/her personally by chance?
(They would usually say no).

Oh ok. Well to give you some insight, NAME OF CURRENT PARTNER is currently working on ANGLE. They are specifically focused on OTHER ANGLE, OTHER ANGLE, OTHER ANGLE. Does this sound like something you can help out with?(Mix of answers - if no you need to basically reposition the value prop but if yes continue)

That's good to hear. I wasn't surprised. Sorry I forgot to ask this earlier - but have you ever heard of my company before, NAME OF COMPANY?
(Never would say yes)

Ok cool, well the best way to think about us is basically in three different parts. *Explanation of three parts*

So I was reaching out on behalf of CURRENT PARTNER but there's some others we are working with that are currently focused on similar initiatives as well. *ASK FOR MEETING*"

Working in Fintech you can't exactly go about in this way as the personas you are dealing with are more focused on internal processes as opposed to the marketing/sales folks I was talking with before.

What I will say works really well regardless is:

1. Strong tone - usually will play around with this but it always goes best for me if I sound confident
2. Number of dials - it really is a numbers game>anything else so even if you aren't sure about the script, it's best to hit the phones and figure it out than worry about making the perfect script
3. Dropping random info about the company/person you are talking to throughout the conversation.

To expand on point 3 - for example, I would likely include just a random blurb about mutual customers, mutual partners, or company news throughout the convo even if it didn't really make sense.

This part would almost never work as an objection handle (people didn't give a shit that you knew about them when they didn't care for the product and I never really was able to overcome most of the major objections myself) but it worked wonders with people who showed some interest already. Got very few meeting flakes because I formed a relationship with them over the phone.

wildwhale

Member

4

Enterprise Account Executive

Thanks for taking the time - appreciate it !!!!

medhardwaredr

Opinionated

4

Director of Sales NA

Great post/response! Luv how you took the time and were detailed. Commish+!

sithmaster

0

President

Seinfeld show = "this is gold Jerry GOLD!"

medhardwaredr

Opinionated

6

Director of Sales NA

So, I could really use your input. My team has 100 or so specific accounts and they are expected to make 50 reach outs a day.
A) how do they find contact info quickly
B) what’s your method for doing a large amount of emails in a day/campaign? Do you have a template site or just learned over the years?

js2458

Politicker

6

Enterprise SDR

A) We used a combination of seamless AI/Zoominfo/Lusha. Take advantage of using the Google chrome add ons so you don’t have to go directly to the website. Basically, sequence of finding info would go:

1. Check Lusha for mobile
2. Check Zoominfo for mobile
3. Check Seamless AI for mobile

If none of these worked, we would download free trials on other sites like Rocket Reach or Apollo and try to get the number there.

If you aren’t looking to spend that kind of money, I’d highly suggest taking advantage of a few free sites like Spydialer.com or truepeoplesearch.com. Both won’t give you direct numbers necessarily, but are awesome for checking if a certain number is a mobile and/or if a number is connected to a certain person.

B) I can’t give you advice here. Never found that my emails worked much so I just hit the phones.

SgtAE

WR Officer

5

AE

Question on remote work: I see a lot of Gen Z are very remote work positive. When I started my sales career in insurance sales I was in office every day 9-5, those formative years at the start of your career are critical in helping you absorb as much knowledge and experience as possible, having less contact with your peers and other teams by being remote limit those opportunities. Curious to know why Gen Z wouldn't want to be there in the trenches at the start of their careers

js2458

Politicker

5

Enterprise SDR

Well, I’d agree that it’s beneficial to be in the office for sure. More motivation, learn the ropes better etc.

But, we like things easy. I think many people in our generation get overwhelmed quite easy - much easier to plan out your day if you are WFH, sleep in etc. TLDR: Laziness.

Dishpit

Good Citizen

5

Full-Cycle SDR

Jesus hoobastank christ, averaging over 160 calls a day in your first three months??? I'm lucky if I break 50 💀

Mad props

js2458

Politicker

4

Enterprise SDR

I had nothing better to do haha. Also - have learned that each company is different in how they do CRM/busywork and organize.

My current company, we need to update hubspot after every call, clean the CRM daily, and can only outreach to specific accounts.

My previous company it was a free for all and we had a landline number. Didn’t have to clean anything, update anything etc. Just dial away until the meeting is booked.

Dishpit

Good Citizen

3

Full-Cycle SDR

That's a good point - Everyone here's assigned a set of accounts to get started with but there's a bunch of unassigned ones we can pick up if we need to increase our workload.

For us we've got our VOIP and calendars fully integrated into hubspot so as long as we're taking notes during a call we can just jump right into the next one without any hassle

That being said we also have to do a ton of pre qualification before any outreach so I guess it balances out in the end

5

Founding BDR

Holy…absolute animal. Love the knowledge you’re passing along in your replies to the comments. Definitely will try implementing a few tips and tricks you mentioned!

js2458

Politicker

4

Enterprise SDR

TY :)

wolfofmiami

Opinionated

4

🐺

What’s your opener

js2458

Politicker

10

Enterprise SDR

Tinkered with this. I've done all of em:

1. How are you
2. You got a minute
3. This is a cold call
4. The Jeremy Miner (I'm lost!)
5. No introduction

For cold outreach, I don't really think it matters. Just pick one and go.

That being said - by far the best one to go in with is if you have done some digging on your end and can get either a reference from another party (especially a person who is even higher up than the prospect you are speaking to) OR if you have a legitimate reason for reaching out.

For example:

"Hi John, this is js2458 from COMPANY. I spoke to Jim, your CRO, the other day and...."

OR

"Hi John, this is js2458 from COMPANY. I saw that you recently did an interview with Jimbob Jones and you mentioned needing a new ecommerce platform. Still interested in making the switch?"

The first is difficult because it takes more time and the second is difficult because it's near impossible to figure out if someone is in the market for a solution based on company news. But, if you can turn your cold outbound into a warmer call, it definitely does wonders.

oldcloser

Arsonist

5

💀

Solid AF right here

sithmaster

1

President

The "force" is strong with js2458

HVACexpert

Politicker

4

sales engineer

Are there any Gen Z stereo types that you keep hearing in the work place and what are they?

js2458

Politicker

5

Enterprise SDR

Not necessarily stereotypes that I heard but more that I saw. Previous job pretty much everyone was younger than 30. So much juuling and drinking alcohol it wasn’t funny. Right on the sales floor too.

Was never really into either, but I didn’t realize really how difficult the job is from a young persons mental perspective - especially if you are transitioning from being in college.

jefe

Arsonist

4

🍁

Thanks for stepping up today!

I keep hearing about how Gen-Z is all about time for themselves, living life etc., and most are content finding a job to just pay the bills versus a career that's going to really make them money.

Do you find a lot of difference between your peers that have gone into something like sales and are truly driven compared to those that are just doing a job?

js2458

Politicker

4

Enterprise SDR

I don’t know many people my age who truly like the job they are doing. Hell, most at my previous job would say that out of everyone I liked sales the most. And that’s not necessarily true…if it weren’t for the money, I wouldn’t be here.

I can’t really answer your question. It’s a good one, but I simply don’t know enough people who like sales who are my age. What I can give you is the reason why I stayed in the first place during my street sales gig.

Street sales - especially in NYC - is a brutal, brutal job. I didn’t realize how shit it was until after the fact, when I started working in places that had free snacks/drinks, quiet rooms, company outings, and indoor space.

Street sales is 100 percent outdoors and - besides inclement weather - you were out on the street fundraising 8 hours a day. IMO worse than knocking on doors because you are constantly selling; there are no breaks. All of it was done F2F so you had to always be on, and all of the rejections that you got were done directly to you. In that way, it was more of a rejection of you as a person as opposed to getting rejected over the phone.

The pay was also shit. On the best two week period I ever had, I got paid just over 2k before taxes. In NYC, borderline unlivable.

But, convincing a stranger to buy something from you is really the most exhilarating feeling ever. I’ve never been that good socially interacting with people my age. Just never really was interested in the same things. But, winning over people to buy something from ME was justification that I could connect with people in ways that I didn’t necessarily know before. And, I was surprisingly damn good at it.

If I have to pinpoint it on anything besides the money - this is what got me hooked in the first place. And: the ability to say fuck you to society and prove yourself is something I think a lot of young people would resonate with.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

3

Sales Rep

How do you like to stay organized especially when doing that much volume on the prospecting side

js2458

Politicker

3

Enterprise SDR

I didn’t really stay organized. Was lucky to be in a company that had very little organization on the sales side —> organization was all done by other departments and sales kind of just roamed free.<br><br>How I would sort leads is I would take 50 leads each week and just go ham on them throughout the week. Each would have usually 2-4 contacts so about 100-150 in total. Usually would go through the list 1-2 times a day. Then just rinse and repeat the next day.<br><br>I’m sure if you wanted me to recall anything that was said I wouldn’t be able to tell you. Book the meeting or bust baby.

Now - I’m running into some issues. New company is much more organized so I’ve started creating a spreadsheet for all my leads and just updating it EOTD.

Maximas

Tycoon

2

Senior Sales Executive

Top level you have with cold calling for sure..talking about that do you recall the toughest objection you faced as a Cold caller and what was it and how did you manage to get it handled!!

js2458

Politicker

5

Enterprise SDR

The toughest objections I never handled. Those were from people who were either triggered from the start or had a good reason to not want to buy.

The best feeling I had though was as an AE when I worked with a company that got burned by a competitor in the past. They got burned so bad, that their CRO and CMO both never wanted to do events of our kind ever again. And - keep in mind that this was a 5k person company, leader in the supply chain space, doing about 1Bil in rev per year. So, huge account for us.

Was able to pitch the field marketer after cold calling her about 50 times, and she was into it. Thought we had the deal closed quick bc she was the second highest marketer in the company after the CMO, but turned out she had no decision making power.

What followed was a slew of demands on their end to make sure we were legit. Customer references, access to some of our data, meeting the field marketer on site at a different event, 10+ call backs. Eventually, with help of my CRO, we were able to get the deal over the line about 2 weeks before the event in question was going to take place.

Best feeling was that not only was it my first deal ever, but I met the field marketer on site at our event and she mentioned that she wouldn’t come to the next event unless I got commission for it. Getting a stranger to go from completely burned to completely invested in me is quite a feeling.

GreenLeader

Contributor

0

Director of Inside Sales

Are your customers in office or remote?

js2458

Politicker

0

Enterprise SDR

I think both? I don't really ask...
If you mean do I meet my prospects F2F when I'm pitching them, then no. All done via calling/google meet.

GreenLeader

Contributor

0

Director of Inside Sales

I was more wondering if you were calling cell phones or desk lines. I guess I could have just asked that!

js2458

Politicker

0

Enterprise SDR

Cell phones for sure. I don't remember a single time when someone answered a desk line.

If they get pissed at you they weren't gonna buy in the first place anyways.

rocketfuelsteel

Opinionated

0

SDR

I’ve had a lot of shitty jobs, so cold calling for me is fun.

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