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In today’s Follow Up:

• 6 SDRs compete in a Cold Calling Competition 🎤 

• Sales in the news 🗞️

• Sales tools 🛠️

• Sales jobs for closers 💰

Sales Fact of The Day

An SDR Battle Royale

Yesterday Nooks hosted the final round of the $1000 Cold Calling Contest.

It’s the NBA Finals of sales. We replace deep 3’s with hail-mary meeting requests, 3-second violations with 20-second voicemails, and slam dunks with meetings booked.

Here’s how Nooks organized the contest:

Over a 3 week period, 3 groups of 6 SDRS (18 in total) joined the online cold calling room to compete in an hour-long “call down.”

Reps averaged 100-200 calls each.

The two reps that booked the most meetings from each group got a spot in the finals.

In week 4, the top 6 reps competed in the finals for a $1,000 prize.

And the winner…?

👑 Madison Moran (Enterprise SDR Team Lead @ GoLinks) 👑 

Madison booked 3 meetings in one hour. This means if she kept booking at the same rate x 10 hours a day x 5 days a week, she’s booking 7,800 meetings per year.

Madison is on pace to beat the record held (allegedly) by my first boss who said he booked 7000 meetings in his first year as an SDR. (Big Dave never lied)

We caught up with, Giano Fiore, the dude who organized the competition to get the inside scoop on some of the best moments and play-by-plays:

Favorite moment of the competition?

“Eric Ianello had a 10+ min call where the prospect had dozens of objections and flat out said he wasn’t interested. Eric kept asking questions to dig into the hesitation and eventually discovered the prospect had an issue they were dealing with. He presented his solution and the prospect realized he should consider meeting with Eric about buying his solution.

This was an incredible moment because so many people claim that cold calls don’t work and people don’t like to be bothered. Also, people who get cold calls often claim that they would never work with someone who cold calls them. But in moments like this, we learn that if you call and truly offer value to the person on the phone, you’ll drive business and win new customers from pure cold calling.

TLDR: There’s more skill to it than meets the eye.”

[We’ve all had calls we felt were going nowhere. Most of the time, they don’t. Which is why it’s important to keep your composure and stay focused on learning about your prospect and trying to provide value, even when they don’t know they want it.]

What do you think separated the winner from the others?

“The winners are experts in their product. They understand what their target market is struggling with and why their solution can help them. They also understand where they stand out compared to competitors.

All of the cold callers in the competition were great and it truly is scary to call with 50+ spectators. But in general, the people who struggle with cold calling are people who are only looking to hit their sales numbers. They don’t really care about their target market. They don’t ask intelligent questions, and they don’t say anything thought-provoking to the person on the other line. They just beg and push for meetings until the other prospect hangs up and then blame external forces for why it’s so hard to cold call.

Important note: The person who struggles with cold calling and doesn’t put in the extra effort comprises 75 - 90% of cold callers. “

[Cold calling isn’t just about charisma and personality. It’s just like any other profession. The successful people know their product and hone their craft.]

Did you have any key learning from watching all of these cold calls?

“Yes, cold calling is more than simply a numbers game. Volume is important, but you can easily notice from watching the competition that the people with the best attitude and most expertise rise to the top. It truly is a skill that can be developed, and people who receive calls from someone who really has something to offer are not bothered by the call.”

Any other surprises?

“Each week there were 1 - 2 competitors that had no idea our audience would be 50+ people. They simply signed up for the competition and showed up. Very impressive if you think about how most people struggle to make cold calls with nobody listening to them. Imagine your peers and 50+ strangers observing you.”

Our key takeaway?

Cold calling is still king. 👑 

Sales Tip of The Day

A word from our LinkedIn Influencers:

 📞 Pick Up The Phone 📞 

Meme of the Day

And that’s a wrap!

Reply to this email and let us know what you think of today’s topics.