SADNESSLieutenant

Officer of ♥️

What's the most embarrassing cold call you've had?

So we all savages. obviously. So we know that we be smiling and dialing. but sometimes you mess up or the prospect picks up the phone when they really should not have or you meet an interesting gatekeeper

I personally once reached what I thought was an automated gatekeeper assistant, but turned out to be the receptionist pranking me hahaha.

She was like purposely repeating my name and company back to me wrong and then like,

' oh he is puked out on the floor from his orgy last night, would you like me to wake him up for you? '

At this point I was just dieing laughing and she let out a little chuckle and hungup on me.

Have you ever had a ridiculous cold call experience? if so, please explain haha

(upvote if you enjoy)

Have you had anything crazy happen on a Cold Call?

Attached poll

nah b BRUHHHHHH - listen to this story im about to tell you

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

😂 Sales Humor

🔎 Prospecting

📞 Cold Calling

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33 comments

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Captain_Q

Arsonist

14

Sr. Account Executive

The guy was sitting at the same bar! Every now and then I'll stop by a local watering hole for lunch. I'll sit at the bar, have a little sammy, maybe a frosty beverage, and catch up on emails.

On this particular day, I had a reminder to call a DM at exactly 1:15, the time I was told to call. So, I call up and of course, I had "just missed him." Yeah, ok!

As I hung up with the receptionist another business-looking dude had sat down at the bar and saw the frustration on my face and said, "tough day?" So, naturally, I laughed a bit and told him what was going on and what a pain in the ass this guy was and that I knew his company could benefit from my product. blah blah. This guy buys me a beer, then another, anddd another. Finally an hour or so later, after shooting the shit with this guy, talking golf, boating, life, etc. he asks me what I do....I tell him....He just starts laughing...."Oh shit, you're Dylan from XYZ company?"

Got ink to paper one week later, the biggest deal of the quarter.

Lesson here? Drink beers, talk shit, close deals. BOOM!

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

4

Officer of ♥️

NO FUCKING WAY THATS SICKK

Captain_Q

Arsonist

3

Sr. Account Executive

That's sales baby!!!

I live in Western, NY. It's not some farm town but it's not a massive city. It's more like 3 degrees of separation around here. Blessing and a curse:)

Shooter

Contributor

1

BDM

That’s a killer story!

Captain_Q

Arsonist

2

Sr. Account Executive

Thanks, bruh! Honestly, the real lesson is that people buy from people, not businesses. One thing I always come back to, from that day, is that I didn't once talk about my company or product while we were shooting the shit. Ultimately, the guy bought me, not my product.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

1

Officer of ♥️

Very interesting. Is this a whole new prospecting method perhaps? You know like those recruiters who just get to know you first instead of your resume

PIPboy69

Catalyst

1

CSM

What. a. Beast.

Captain_Q

Arsonist

0

Sr. Account Executive

Can't stop won't stop!

sugardaddy

Politicker

0

🍬

Hahahaha! Shiiiit.

sillyseller

Valued Contributor

4

Sr. AE

Not a full cold call conversation, but I once asked the gatekeeper to forward me onto the stakeholder I was trying to reach. Her response: "he's currently incarcerated, try again in 5 years." I laughed at first...she did not follow suit. I quickly hung up haha

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

2

Officer of ♥️

‘Oh no worries, could i have the information on where he is being held, would love to reach out to him just to have an educational overview of our platform’

sillyseller

Valued Contributor

2

Sr. AE

"Happy to be his pen pal to ensure he doesn't lose touch with today's tech advancements"

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

1

Officer of ♥️

I almost spit out my food

softwarebro

Politicker

4

Sales Director

On my very first cold call, I didn't get an answer and decided to leave a VM. Once I hung up my manager poked his head out of his office, smiled, and said, "softwarebro, that was terrible." My team and I all had a good laugh. One of the best managers I have ever had.

Shooter

Contributor

2

BDM

My first cold call I hung up on myself, got nervous and backed out. First sales role out of college and had never seen or heard a cold call before, I got better at it though lol.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

1

Officer of ♥️

Hahahaha! I think we have all done this before

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

0

Officer of ♥️

Hahahahha gotta love that honesty

Numbers

Opinionated

3

Associate regional manager

I called a prospect as he was on his way to a funeral of a family member and he wanted to learn more so he gave me time and date to call again... I call again and and he lets me know one of his employees just died that morning and to call back another time. Eventually never got back into contact with him but I started to think we killed someone every time we spoke.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

0

Officer of ♥️

Thats not good

swerve

WR Lieutenant

2

Account Executive

Cold-called a prospect's mom (late 70s) accidentally from a RocketReach listed number.

Started trying to get off the phone quickly after she asked things like, "Does he know you? Why are you calling? How'd you get MY number?" Fumbling through the answers and profusely apologizing...she took a shocking turn. She goes, "are you ready?..."

"Ready for what?"

"...614....293...1029 is his cell."

Called the prospect, told him I cold-called his mom (which did NOT elicit as light-hearted a response as I'd hoped), booked the meeting anyway. Fortune 500 pharma company.

Thrillhouse

Valued Contributor

2

Business Development Specialist

A Columbus number? I see you're a man of culture.

NorthernSalesGuru

Politicker

1

Manager, Outbound Sales

Hahaha what are the odds!

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

1

Officer of ♥️

AMAZING! Hahahhaha i would love to hear both those calls @GeneralCorp

Shooter

Contributor

2

BDM

The very first cold call I had in front of my entire new team (9) I said “Hey this is Shooter” and then hung up the phone because I was so nervous. That one stuck with me during my tenure on that team.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

0

Officer of ♥️

HAHAHAHAHAHAH

deviantzen

WR Lieutenant

1

Consultant

Once I accidentally got embroiled in a combative hard pitch with prerecorded message.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

0

Officer of ♥️

CLASSIC

Selichimorpha

Celebrated Contributor

1

Growth Executive

Had a POC's cell phone and had spoken to him before, got shut down pretty hard. Gave it a week or two to cool off, called again, and the dude fakes a southern accent and pretends I had a wrong number and said he had never even heard of the company he worked for.

I said that was odd because I spoke to that guy on this number a week ago, and he just says "well who'da thunk it" and hung up

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

0

Officer of ♥️

Thats a new one

TheRealPezDog

Notable Contributor

0

Account Manager

I was prospecting a solar company and a gas company in the same day (dumb, I know) and during a rambling, incoherent elevator pitch I said, "I really like what you folks are doing for our planet"

After the lady got done laughing I realized it was the gas company I was on a call with and not the solar company... whoops.

RedHotCheetos

Good Citizen

0

Business Development Representative

Oh man, a few:

1. Called a VP’s cell off of ZoomInfo, let’s say her name is Jill.

Some guy answers, I ask to be put through to Jill, no biggie.

Jill hops on, I say my elevator pitch, and without a beat she asks “I hear you and all, but why did you call my Son’s cell?”

Whoops. Turns out they were on vacay too. Needless to say I didn’t get the meeting 😬

——

2. When I was in Telemarketing back in ‘06 someone kept saying “don’t call me anymore” to the tune of 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop”. He even played the song in the background lol

Chep

WR Officer

0

Bitcoin Adoption Specialist

Once spelled my last name wrong on an initial cold call because I was so nervous. Needless to say that one didn't close

TheFemaleWolf

Opinionated

0

Director of Sales

Stopped by to catch a prospect years ago. Got in front of the DM. While pulling up his outlook schedule, he accidentally clicked open his browser.

He silently panicked and closed the window super fast and tried to pretend like maybe I didn’t see anything.

Let’s just say he was a big fan of big girls and feet.

I died inside.

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