Alex Collins

An SDR cold-called me... SDR: ''Is that Chris?'' Me: ''Yep, who's calling?'' SDR: ''It's James, here at XYZ we help companies like yours automate payroll, is this something you'd like to discuss more?'' Me: ''I don't have any employees for payroll but I'm happy to spend 5 mins with you now to help you improve your cold call opener, open to it?'' SDR: ''Erm...okay''. Me: ''So, here's 3 things you can try today... 1. Don't say ''is this Chris', if you don't know who you're calling they won't trust you. 2. Give me more about you in your intro. E.g. It's Chris, I'm an AE at XYZ. A touch more context = more trust. 3. Don't pitch straight up. Switch to a clear reason for the call. E.g. Calling as I know CEOs like you find [insert thing] time-consuming. Would love to chat more, got a minute now, or is later in the week better? We practiced twice, they were immediately better and we parted ways. Everything is a learning opportunity. Just gotta be open to it. ♻️ Repost to share this with other SDRs in your network. PS. I'm Chris Ritson, follow me for more SDR content or DM for training options.

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Nearly every salesperson who's prospecting is making this mistake right now: Assuming that sending a 15-step cadence over two weeks will land them a meeting. Whilst it might be ✅ Value-driven ✅ Multi-channel ✅ Hyper-personalised There are only 52 weeks in a year And less than 5% of buyers are in the market at any given time. The likelihood of you catching them in those 2 weeks? Not impossible but pretty small. The solution outside of multi-channel prospecting? Ditch the breakup emails and add nurture steps to your sequence instead. Short, educational and value-add emails every 4-6 weeks. So you're top of mind when they are in the market.

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One of the biggest mistakes both new and experienced sales reps make is doing JUST ONE cold call at a time. Cold calling is packed with rejection. You realise that the moment you start in sales. And there’s a reason it’s called a cold call. Yes, you should absolutely research your prospects so it doesn’t sound completely cold. But no matter how much prep you do, it’s still a cold call. - Line up 10–15 numbers at once. - Research them in advance, get your notes ready. - And then dial them back-to-back. Why? Because if you call just one person, get a harsh "No," and then have no one else lined up, your mindset takes a hit. You overthink. You hesitate. You stop. But if you’ve got another number ready, you bounce back faster. Hear a no? Pause. Note what didn’t work. Adjust. Then move to the next one. This habit builds mental resilience. If you’re struggling with rejection on cold calls, give it a try. #coldcall

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If you're losing deals because your prospects are getting internal push back, then that's on you. There was a distinct moment in 2020 when I realised 'wow i'm crap at sales' (Discreet nod to Mark Ackers podcast there), and it's not when I was selling, but actually buying. Richard Smith was at the latter stages of selling Refract to me for my team, when he asked... 'how are you going to sell this to your CEO?' It stopped me in my tracks - I didn't have an answer. I'd planned to just waltz into his office and ask for some money (embarrassing really) But with that question, I felt like I owed it to Rich to have a good answer, and in doing-so, unbeknown to me, he'd just ran me a through a role-play of how I'm going to present my case to my CEO, whilst also recapping all the reasons I needed to buy. He then proceeded to ask me what pushback I might get, and how I'm going to handle that. It's easy to blame our prospects for not giving us access to power but just because we can't be in the room, doesn't mean we can't impact the conversation. It is our job as sales reps to prepare our buyers for those conversations. And if we don't, and the conversation goes side-ways, well then did we really do everything you could to win the deal?

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Salespeople… Last week I ran a 3-day cold calling experiment in the UK… and the results shocked me. 1. WAYY more connects. I'm STILL in shock honestly LOL. It felt like every other dial I was having a conversation with someone. When calling US prospects, I’m LUCKY to get a 10-12% connect rate. Calling into the UK, apparently 20-25% connect rate is the norm. 2. A PBO worked better. I’m not the biggest fan of using a PBO typically, BUT it worked GREAT for these prospects. I tried NOT using one a few times, and it seemed like people immediately had their guard up. 3. My connect to meeting conversion rate was lower… When I cold call US sales/marketing leaders - I typically have a 22-25% connect to meeting conversion rate. Although folks were way more willing to have a conversation - it did seem a bit harder to get them to actually agree to a meeting. What do you guys think? Suji, Ric, Jim, Justin, Ivan, Dariia, Any tips for cold calling European markets? PS: I’m using Minari's dialer and loving it so far. It allows you to call UK numbers, records/transcribes calls, and doesn’t have a delay. Everything I want and nothing I don’t tbh. 

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I did a post about cold calling yesterday. Someone commented “you do realise no one actually likes to receive a cold call?” 🤣 Most of us hate making them so I have no doubt a lot of people hate receiving them. But that doesn’t change the fact they’re still the quickest way to book a meeting. 🤝 Here are 3 tips on how to make a cold call not so… cold 🥶 👉 Connect on LinkedIn first. Give them a call on the same day they accept. Your opener can sound something like this “it’s Holly Allen here from FullEnrich, we connected on LinkedIn earlier so my name may ring a bell” 👉 Do some research on what your prospect has been up to. I called someone yesterday who I knew had just come back from holiday; my permission based opener went like this “this is a cold call, I know you probably wish you were still in Spain so you could throw your phone into the sea after hearing that…” 👉👉 bonus tip - a bit of humour can go a long way! 👉 Mention shared customers or peers “we’ve just helped the SDR team over at COMPETITOR book 3x more meetings by having more accurate mobile numbers and so I thought of you…” What do we think, not so icy cold anymore? 🧊 (Not back to running post- injury yet but this is an accurate representation of how I feel after booking a meeting on a cold call everyone hates!!!!)

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The average outside sales team - has ½ day admin time on Monday morning and most have a full admin day on Friday. That is 12+ hours / week….NOT being in front of the customer. Add in inefficiencies in seeing too small of accounts, wrong accounts or not having a plan to drive efficiently and you increase that wasted time even more. On average outside sales reps spend less than 20% of their time in front of customers, why pull them out of the field for an admin day? Because you don’t have the right tools in the first place. Admin work should be so easy for a rep to complete......while in the field, that they don't need an admin day. Planning on who to see and when to see them should be so crystal clear & obvious that they don't need an admin day to figure that out. #outsidesales

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My biggest advice to new SDR’s (I have landed 100+ People SDR Jobs & I never missed target as a SDR) What I have told them ⬇️ 1️⃣You are going to fail a lot If you think you are going to waltz into SDR and start smashing it from day one you are mad. You are going to be • Unsure on the phone, • Constantly question yourself. • Not going to be able to handle objections That is completely normal but all you an control is your inputs. Put in the work you are meant to do everyday and eventually things will start to turn in your favour I guarantee it 2️⃣ Be honest about how you are doing Seeking advice from a manager or mentor about something you are struggling with in work is not seen as weakness. It is a positive reflection on your desire to learn and get better. Ask questions. 3️⃣ Build your brand From the first day you step in the door you are building a brand of how everyone in the company sees you. Be known for; 1. Working hard & always delivering, overtime no one will question your ability to get things done. 2. Being someone that is sound & easy to get on with. It goes further than sales performance. 3. Helping others become better, sales is team game 4️⃣ Get to know your AE’s When I started SDR it felt quiet daunting to talk to AE’s A lot of them are only a few years older than you. Most likely these are the people that are flipping your opportunities and getting you paid. Have a bit of fun, make a joke, it’s not that serious. But also, come with ideas on how to help them. It will be paid back. - - What other advice would you give to someone who is just starting as an SDR? (Throwback photo to when I had just kicked off my Tech Sales Career in Salesforce!)

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