Bonus Episode: Cold Calling

Speaker A: Hi, it's Paul o', Donoghue, CEO of salestar here. And we have a real hot topic to talk about today, and that is. Is cold calling dead. So with me today, we have Ben Calvert, affectionately known as Ben 10. Welcome, Ben.

Speaker B: Hey, Paul. How are you?

Speaker A: Yeah, very good. Hey, the reason why Ben 10 is called Ben 10 is that Ben, um, when he first started working with us, he started as an sdr, ah, which is a fancy name for sales development rep. And, um, his job essentially was to be able to pick up the phone and secure meetings. And his KPI around. That was how many, Ben?

Speaker B: 10 meetings a week.

Speaker A: 10 meetings a week. And you successfully, consistently did.

Speaker B: Thanks, Paul.

Speaker A: Ten meetings a week. Um, as a CEO whisperer, which is no, um, mean feat. It's a real tough thing to be able to do. So what I thought we'd do is share some of the insights on Ben's success today because, um, you know, I guess I'm going to start off with. By asking Ben a question. Is cold calling dead?

Speaker B: Absolutely not, Paul. I think it's, um, a real vital part of generating new business, um, and growing companies still. I think it's extremely important.

Speaker A: It's extremely important. I'm glad you said that, because I started the business 13 years ago and we didn't have a marketing budget. And the only thing that I had the most fancy bit of technology was a phone, you know, so phone and list, uh, of companies. Some of those, um, sometimes I didn't even have a list. And we had to troll through the Yellow Pages. Of course, you wouldn't know what the Yellow Pages were, but back in those days, it was the Yellow Pages. So a lot of cold calling, probably for the first two or three years in the business, um, I must say, um, you know, I've sort of, um, slackened off myself because the business has grown. We've had other people do that. But time and time again, I hear companies say, you know, cold calling's dead. It doesn't work. And, um. Do you think that, um, it's an excuse?

Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's an excuse. And I think it's one of those jobs that people get uncomfortable doing. They're not willing to do the hard things sometimes to get the result. And, you know, it's just like making the bed or doing the dishes. It's really important part of doing business.

Speaker A: It's a discipline.

Speaker B: It's a discipline for sure.

Speaker A: Okay. It's a big part of your staple diet is, uh, cold calling. I'd absolutely agree with that. So um, Ben, I really wanted to drill into, uh, perhaps, you know, some of the reasons why you've been so successful. You know, if the audience is looking in there, going, well, is cold calling dead? And if it's not, then, you know, why is there an avoidance from our sales team? You know, why aren't they picking up the phone? Um, you know, how, like, maybe a bit of how to make a phone call. What goes through your mindset when you're. When you're cold calling? You know, from my experience, I've seen some very tough, very strong people who are willing to jump into a boxing ring and, you know, and maybe have a fight in front of thousands of people. But when you put a, um, piece of technology of, um, an iPhone in front of them, or a phone for that matter, to pick up the phone and start cold calling, all of a sudden it becomes very heavy and they become petrified and scared and, you know, they obviously, um, they don't cold call at all. So, um, what are the secrets?

Speaker B: I think I like to start with the mindset, because I think for me personally, before I get on the phone, I want to make sure that I've got high energy. You know, I'm happy, I'm smiling, because I really believe that, you know, whether the person sitting in front of you or whether they're over the phone, they can really sense where your mind's at. So mindset is one of the things that, uh, I think is really important. So you want to be having a big smile on your face, you know, prepared. I'm going to win business today. You know, I'm going to have the. I've got purpose in what I'm doing. I'm going to really knock it out of the park. And that really sets you up for the day of, uh, cold calling.

Speaker A: There's an old phrase, it's basically smile and dial. So you think that absolutely works. Like, if they can almost, um, hear, uh, you smiling through the phone, Definitely. Do you stand up and do the calls or.

Speaker B: M. Ah, I'm a big walker. I love pacing around and getting up on the phone because it's kind of just. Just bringing all the energy together. I think sometimes if you're sitting down, you can be really restricted. Um, so for me personally, I like making the call, but I think it's up to the individual if they feel more comfortable making those calls sitting down. But they still believe they've got energy going into that call.

Speaker A: But you shouldn't be sitting at the desk going, hi, my name's Paul o'. Donohue. And you've got to have that energy. Hey, it's Paul here.

Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker A: Great. Hey. So you talked about a very important part of mindset, which is purpose. Yep. So talk to me about how you anchor in on your purpose and, um, have that positive mindset.

Speaker B: So I think that's got to do with, for me personally, it's my why, why am I doing this? What's the purpose of me doing it? And I know that. I'm pretty sure that a lot of other salespeople would feel the same way, that if they've got purpose behind what they're selling and they truly believe in their product, you're really gonna have a better result because you can convince them. You convince yourself. You're not trying to convince yourself first before you convince the prospect.

Speaker A: So the first person you need to make a, uh, sale to is yourself.

Speaker B: Absolutely right.

Speaker A: So I think most you hit on a very important subject there, which was knowing your why. I guess in some companies it's a why if I don't make this, I'm going to get fired. So it's got to be a, it's got to be a. Instead of fear, it's got to be a, um, purpose driven why.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And it's got to be relevant to you. Like my why might be different to your why. So it's about, you know, bringing your goals in, your personal goals and your business goals in to really get that result.

Speaker A: So is your why aligned with, um, the company in any way?

Speaker B: Yeah, my why is I know that what we do works. You know, we've got a very consultative approach and we've seen so many businesses get great results. So it's really easy when you're talking to, you know, your clients and they're raving and they're telling their friends or their family or business acquaintances about what we're doing, which makes it a lot easier for us.

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Um, that's fantastic to know. So you've got your purpose, you've got your energy, and, you know, some of that energy. Obviously you keep yourself fit, you keep yourself, you eat well.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's part of it.

Speaker A: You sleep well.

Speaker B: Sleep well. Sleep well. You gotta, you know, gotta. I know lots of people say this, but your body is your temple. Your mind's gonna have, gonna have a huge play on it.

Speaker A: Mine's been a temple of doom, but I'm working on it. I'm working, I'm getting healthy every day.

Speaker B: But then I suppose it is you bring it back to Sometimes it's actually setting that time every day and going, right, this is how many calls I'm going to make, this is how many conversations I'm going to have and having that ongoing discipline and ongoing commitment to making those calls.

Speaker A: So this is interesting because you talk about the discipline, you talk about the KPIs. I mean, what does uh, a typical day look like? And how do you structure your day?

Speaker B: You structure your day. It depends on when you're going to have your energy. Right. So for me, I have energy in the morning when I arrive from the gym, or in the afternoon when I've had about 5, 500 coffees and I'm all pumped and ready to go. So I leave the middle of my days for meetings, um, and my first few hours and last few hours of the day for prospecting Hub.

Speaker A: So you've obviously transitioned in a very short space of time from being a sales development rep to be, uh, uh, a bdm, a sales development specialist. So you're out having meetings now. So, um, how much time a week do you set aside for the discipline of self generating those appointments for yourself?

Speaker B: So for me it's all about the results. So it's about how many meetings I'm booking, but I try to do at least two hours a day of, uh, cold prospecting.

Speaker A: Okay, so, um, when is the best time to call? Is it when you've got energy or is there like a, is it when the, have you found the secret sauce? When the prospect's more readily available?

Speaker B: I think, um, what I found from my experience is that afternoons when people are sitting in the traffic driving home, um, works well. Or when they're driving to work in the morning, it seems to be a good time to get hold of people. But also Friday afternoons seem to be a time where some people might be fiddling their thumbs and they've got a lot more time to talk about, um, to talk to people because they're trying to fill their day.

Speaker A: I love it. That's a mindset thing. Um, I tell you right now, in the 13 years I've been doing this, you go into so many companies, you speak to so many salespeople, and the biggest excuse they'll give you on a Friday is no one wants to talk to me. They literally say Friday is just a dumb day to be cold calling because no one wants to speak to you. So you don't find that to be true?

Speaker B: No. And in fact, um, I'm dealing with new people every day, so I don't think there's a Specific time. And I think you're right in saying that it is just a mindset if some people have something holding them back. I don't believe in it. Everyone's always willing to take a call, especially when you're willing to help them.

Speaker A: It's amazing how, um, our self limiting beliefs can stop, uh, us being effective. Like if you believe no one wants to talk to you on a Friday, how does. That's obviously going to come out in your communication and your mindset. And you're not going to take um, evasive action to picking up the phone and having conversations. And even if you do talk to people, your mindset will be, well, they don't want to talk to me. They're too busy.

Speaker B: You're far more understanding.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Hey, so talk to me about, um, some of the things that our audience would probably want to hear is, you know, how do you overcome the fear of rejection, uh, or the, you know, the fear of picking up that phone and cold calling?

Speaker B: The way I overcome it is that, you know, I always look at things if I get a no or someone's not willing to meet with us, um, it's just one, one answer closer to a yes. So um, fantastic.

Speaker A: So that's knowing how many uh, no's you need to have to get a yes. Yes. Do you put a dollar figure to that? Like for the no's? Like I used to, I worked it out many years ago. It's like every no was a thousand dollars.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Because I knew like if I got to 10, it was the sale. An average sale was $10,000. So I was like, thank you, thank you for that no, because no's are pretty good because you can, that just allows you to move on and you know, talk to someone that's actually interested in what you do.

Speaker B: And it allows you to, um, allows you to, gives you the skill and the experience to deal with rejection too. So the more no's you can kind of get a bit thicker skin and you learn how to talk through that sometimes and you can push through to get to the meeting.

Speaker A: That's a good, um, sound bite there. Thank you, Ben. Um, um, I think one thing that I would stress and you know, uh, we've evaluated tens of thousands of people over the last 13 years and we um, noticed that uh, the successful salespeople have um, one crucial element that um, is over and above that most salespeople don't have, most average salespeople don't have. And that is commitment. And what I mean by that is it's Unconditional commitment.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: And unconditional commitment is, uh, doing things even if it's tough, even if it's hard, even if it's frightening, even if it scares the heck out of you. And I would say you have absolutely that unconditional commitment that we look for in successful people. Where does that come from?

Speaker B: I'll circle back again to my purpose and why I'm here and why I'm doing things. You know, I think that's what also helps with my energy levels, too. Um, so if you know why you're here and why you're doing these things, your commitment comes like you just utterly. You just want to achieve that goal. So every morning you're waking up, you're coming to work, going, man, I want to get to this goal. So that's where my commitment comes from.

Speaker A: Fantastic. And you also mentioned to me, um, it might have been about five weeks ago, you talked to me about, you know, the salespeople that can actually master picking up the phone and making appointments, uh, make themselves so valuable to companies. Do you want to talk a little bit more about that?

Speaker B: Yeah. I think that they are one of the most, well, if not the most valuable person in that role because they're the ones that are going to create new business. You know, how many times do you get an email or how many times do you get something posted in the mail? People get that all the time. People aren't used to someone generally picking up the phone, being genuinely interested in them and, um, having that personal connection.

Speaker A: Hey, what part, um, of your prospecting does, um, marketing play?

Speaker B: Marketing plays a, uh, really important role. Um, it's not the be all and end all, but I think it really helps create credibility when you're making these calls. So, you know, working with Ra, he's a master at HubSpot, and, you know, all the social integration that he's brought on with salestar, you know, people are across what we're doing. So when I make a call and it's been coward here from Salestar, you know, straight away, their brain's kind of going. If they have been on our social and they've picked it up straight away, there's already a little bit of warmness there. That makes my job a lot more credible.

Speaker A: Yeah. Hey, hopefully after this podcast, they'll be going, you mean Ben 10? I'll get to know you personally in your own brand. That'd be fantastic, wouldn't it?

Speaker B: It would be. It would be.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Great. Are there any other insights you'd like to leave, uh, um, this podcast on.

Speaker B: I just think that um, you know, if you're prepared to make the calls and do it day in, day out, you know, you know, it's a million dollar career. It doesn't restrict you to anything. It opens you up to any role in sales. If you can master picking up the phone and making those calls. The income is incredible.

Speaker A: Hey, we're going to leave it at that. What Ben has done has absolutely been transformational for our business. We've got a full pipeline. It's stacked because we've had uh, someone with a disciplined approach, a positive mindset and mastery at picking up the phone and having conversations with our ideal target market. So would encourage you all to try it. Um, sure. It'll make a massive difference and I hope this has been a valuable session. So thanks Ben for joining us on this podcast.

Speaker B: Thanks Paul.