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Hi Zenith Catcher, “Cold Calling Sucks (And That’s Why It Works), and there’s nothing you can do to change that. But that’s exactly why it works.” – Armand Farrokh & Nick Cegelski
In today’s newsletter, I want to share some thoughts about my new job and the prep work I’m currently doing. New Job I recently shared in a past issue that I will take on the role of an SDR (Sales Development Representative), a fancy word for a guy who generates leads and books sales meetings, in a Swiss B2B software startup called hypt. The start date is June 2nd. One of the main reasons I opted for this job was and is my goal to become a B2B software sales master (apart from the most important reason that the team is just awesome, focused, and super ambitious. They even invited me to their team retreat in Valencia without me having officially started, for which I’m super grateful). Now, why this goal? Well, I can’t code and build a software product (yet); therefore, the logical next thing I can learn is how to sell software. In that regard, I’m thinking long-term. I might start a new B2B software company in the future, and until then, I need to become a co-founder who is somehow interesting to another engineer co-founder who can code/build the product. Naval Ravikant, founder of Angel List, has this quote: “Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.”
In my case, “building “is not my competence (maybe with AI, it will be in the future); hence, I need a co-founder who can do this. All this to say that I need to acquire the many sub-skills that are beneath software sales (e.g., cold calling, cold emails, handling objections, etc.). Cold Calling Since I will start as an SDR, I will begin with cold calls as my main customer acquisition channel. Why? Well, the startup has had great success with cold calling in the past. Second, I want to learn this skill because when starting my own company again in the future, it can be my superpower to get my first 5+ customers quickly. To prepare myself for the job, I’m currently reading Cold Calling Sucks (And That’s Why It Works). A super practical book that teaches how to become a top 25% cold caller. I finished the first big chapter and learned the following: 1) In general, a cold call follows this structure: opener, pitch, objections, and meeting. 2) “Cold calling nearly doubles your email reply rate even if you don’t connect live. “ 3) Don’t start your cold call by asking them, “How’s your day going?” & “Did I catch you at a bad time?” because you are immediately labeled a snake oil salesman. 4) Instead, try to win the first 30-60 seconds by either starting with the “The Heard The Name Tossed Around Opener. “or “The Tailored Permission Opener.” Note: Basically, you’re either using social proof to get them interested or you prepare something context-specific about them/their company to make them want more info. 5) Tonality, the way you say the words, matters. Therefore, practice the opener 100 times (the book recommends this exercise). Read that; I went on Friday evening on a 90-120-minute walk and practiced the opener and even what comes after that over and over again. First, I did it in complete solitude; later, I used ChatGPT voice mode as my prospect and sparring partner. —> I remembered: “Volume negates luck,” as our beloved Alex Hormozi eloquently said. These were some of the takeaways. Obviously, there are more, and each of the points I mentioned has more nuance. Closing Words While reading the book, I started to create my own script tailored to the startup hypt. I had the privilege of already getting access to their sales database so I could read through it and extrapolate the contents to my own cold-calling script. I mentioned that I will start on June 2nd. The great thing is that the Account Executive in that company has a sales community and will conduct a cold-calling day next week, during which every attendee will make real-life cold calls. I thought that would be the perfect way to prepare for my new job. Long story short, I will participate in an attempt to book demos for the new company I will work for. I will prepare my own lead list, then start dialing and hopefully book some meetings. I am very excited about that experience since I send thousands of cold/warm emails and DMs to get clients, but not that many calls. So, I will dare the leap and jump into the cold, unexplored water. Nicola PS: I do a podcast where I pretend to have a Swiss accent (wink). 190+ episodes online about high performance and business. You can subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. This week on the Catch The Zenith Podcast: #197: Elon Musk’s Framework to Improve Anything. Listen on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or my Website. Inspiring Things This Week:Podcast: Arnold Schwarzenegger is obviously a pretty successful guy in multiple domains of his life—whether it was when he competed in bodybuilding competitions, or as a governor, or as an actor, or as a real estate guy. So overall, a super successful person. There’s an old interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tim Ferriss—I think it’s very old—and I recently relistened to that conversation. It’s, among other things, about psychological warfare, and I really enjoyed it. Part of the reason is that Arnold is a pretty transparent individual. He speaks—at least I think he speaks—his truth, what he believes to be true. And maybe you’ll also enjoy that conversation. Give it a listen. Cutting Board Hack: I recently started to track my macros and calorie intake using MacroFactor, which is an app partly owned by Jeff Nippard—the science-based fitness YouTuber. Interesting guy. At the same time, I also started eating my food on a cutting board because I got inspired by some social media posts. I found that quite a cool thing to do, because yeah, you basically have all the food on one huge plate. I’ve always taken a lot of care with what I eat, but now I’ve started to track it again. The last time I did that was a while ago, but I thought it’s a great exercise—mainly because I want to lose some weight, cut a little to get leaner. I just feel way better when I’m a bit lighter. So that’s what I’m working on right now: going from 86-point-something kilograms down to 80 kilograms as a first goal. Then I’ll see how I feel—and maybe I’ll go even lower, depending on how it goes. And yeah, that app MacroFactor is pretty helpful. You track your calories and your weight, and it gives you recommendations—so it’s great. I can definitely recommend it.
Quote of the Week:“To anyone I’ve offended, I just want to say, I reinvented electric cars and I’m sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?”
-Elon Musk, Saturday Night Live, May 8, 2021 Video Recommendations: |
