Whether you’re an SDR or the founder of a startup, these rules apply to YOU.
I always say that sales is the lifeblood of any company. Take away the sales, and the company collapses. I’d even say sales is the single most important department in any business. Take out the IT department or the HR department, and you’ll find a way to get by. But gut the sales department and you’ve cut yourself off at the knees.
There is a 1-to-1 correlation between having a sales system dialed-in and healthy bottom line profits. The one leads to the other. It’s that simple. Convinced that you need to master the art of selling? Great. Today I’m going to show you how to do that… and how to build a 7-figure or 8-figure company off the back of cold calling.
Let’s GO.
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First Things First
Before we dive in, you obviously need to have product/market fit before scaling sales. You need to know your ICP (ideal customer profile). And you need to have some cash and be willing to invest it in tech and training. Sure, you can bootstrap to a point. But there will come a time that you’ll have to spend money to make money. It’s the nature of business.
And keep in mind this list isn’t exhaustive. There’s a LOT that comes with building a company. For instance, how’s your mindset? Par excellence? If not, start there. How’s your organization skills? Lacking? Get organized!
Once you have these bases covered, these are the sales tips and tricks you must master to build the sales engine necessary to drive the growth of a company.
1. Toss the script – You can’t be authentic and connect with another human if you’re reading from a script like a robot. You have to be genuine and adapt on the phones. You have to match the energy levels of your prospects and exude positivity. And you have to be an active listener. So put your main points in bullet point format and use that instead. Shoulders up, voice firm and resolute, and remember to wear a smile with every dial.
2. First, sell it yourself – Before you hire your first cold caller, I recommend making at least 2,500 dials on your own. This might take a month, but it will give you so much intel on your own sales process. You’ll learn about common objections, the best times to call, baseline conversion metrics you can expect, and other critical sales insight. Then you can hire and easily onboard, train, and scale your team. But you have to sell your product/service before trying to scale.
3. Hire two rockstar SDRs – Always hire in pairs, this way you can have them “compete” against one another for sales or set rates. This will also give you a better idea for setting benchmarks and quotas. If both are coming in at 20 booked meetings per month, then you can set 30 meetings as the target. But if one only sets 5 meetings monthly while the other sets 20, well then you know you have a weak link that needs replacing or further training. If you can, bring them on commission-only. But just know the best appointment setters require something like a 60/40 or 70/30 split.
4. Cold call in high volume – Your company’s success is directly tied to how many outbound dials are made on a daily basis. If your guys only make 30-50 calls a day, you’re toast. Have a sales activity benchmark of at least 100 calls a day per SDR. Anyone can dial 100 prospects in a day — even without a power dialer (but get a power dialer to eliminate dead time and massively improve cold calling efficiencies). If you have two guys making 100 calls/day, that’s 4,000 calls per month. Now take the money you’re making from those booked meetings and closed deals and hire two more SDRs. Now you’re doing 8,000 calls in a month. Wash, rinse, and repeat till you have hundreds of qualified meetings on your calendar each and every month.
5. Train for tonality – Put each of your sales guys (or gals) through tonality training. Much of their success depends not on what they say, but how they say it. Tonality is all about stressing certain words, changing the rhythm and cadence of your voice, and really just drawing your prospect in using the power of your voice. If ever there was a “secret weapon” in my sales arsenal, it’s tonality. Help your sales team master tonality — practice it, drill it, constantly improve it. I promise it will put you lightyears ahead of your competition.
6. Track your metrics – Put some KPIs in place and track them. You will know pretty quickly where the holes are in your sales process. For instance, if your team is putting in 10,000 calls each week, having 500 conversations, but only booking a total of 20 meetings, then something is broken. Could be the lead list is garbage, or could be your guys need more sales training. But now you at least have some “smoking guns” to investigate. You can’t improve if you don’t track and measure KPIs in sales!
Track each of these metrics religiously:
- # of calls made
- # of conversations held
- # of meetings booked
- # of follow ups made
- # of proposals sent
- # of deals closed/won, closed/lost
7. Tighten-up your systems – By now your company is growing at a fast clip and you’re on track for 7-figures this year and gunning for 8-figures in the next couple of years. But chances are you’re stressed out of your mind because your business is loosey-goosey with things like onboarding, CRM management, your books/accounting, employee SOPs, standardized training, and the list goes on. You need to get organized. Spend a solid month focusing only on organization, even at the expense of everything else. It will pay off in dividends, promise. You have to run a tight ship — especially if you intend to exit your company for a payday (nobody will ever buy a disheveled or disorganized company). There is also a massive psychological benefit that comes from organization. And if you’re an SDR, follow this same advice. Get organized and thank me later.
8. Embrace Kaizen – What’s Kaizen? It’s the Japanese art of continuous improvement. It’s getting 1% better every day. Look — your company or career is either growing or shrinking, there’s no in-between. Howard Zinn once said, “You can’t be neutral on a moving train.” Life moves, business moves, the market moves! Get complacent and you’ll get crushed. Thankfully, it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to get on a growth-track trajectory. Just focus on incremental improvements, and show up consistently with your A-game. Many companies take the path of least resistance and don’t prioritize progress. So it’s really not that hard to stand out in a good way.
Final Words
Follow these simple steps and you’ll be at 7-figures in no time. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, you must have a good product and product/market fit. You also have to adopt a winning mindset that doesn’t shrink back at the first signs of resistance. Whether you’re cold calling as a career SDR or trying to build a multi-million dollar company, you can (and should!) take these steps toward ultimate success. Your future depends on it. You’ve got this.
Until next time…
Johnny-Lee Reinoso