TLDR · 2026-01-22 · 42 min
Most marketers still treat cold calling like it’s not their job. And that’s a problem that needs to be fixed. In this episode of TLDR, Evan Dunn shares how he took an outbound program from 0 to 5 meetings/day - not by just hiring more SDRs, but by applying demand gen-level experimentation to outbound. Why does this matter for marketers? Because the fastest path to offer clarity isn’t waiting on demo form fills. It’s picking up the phone & talking to real buyers. Evan breaks down: How he used cold calls to find PMF gaps and rebuild positioning Why outbound conversations beat other tools for finding your real competitors How he rewired a marketing org to own outbound (without losing attribution) The cold call stack + strategy that was used “Founder-led sales works not because founders are great sellers, but because they’re closest to the feedback loop. Marketers need to get that close again.” If you’re a marketer struggling to differentiate, this episode is a must-listen.
40+ Candidates, 100% Board Vote, Hiring Your Replacement as CEO: Toni & Hadi @ Oyster
300+ Enterprise Meetings/Year Through Systematic Outbound: Rey @ eight25 Media
30+ Events, 2.4M Revenue Through Relationship-Led Marketing: Taryn @ Fuel AI
2.5x Higher LTV by Pricing Annual Plans on Retention: Dan @ Diligent
6% Email Reply Rate Through Hyper-Targeted 50-Person Lists: James @ Hunter.io