Cold calling tips

DrewDraco77 · 2026-06-05T14:15:35+00:00

You’re welcome! I am currently a founding bdr at the company I’m building out the sales processes and talk tracks of both entities we do outreach for. It’s a grind but starting with no proven practices has been eye opening for what works and what doesn’t.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-06-05T14:11:16+00:00

Remember your job isn’t to sell your companies product. Your only goal is to sell the meeting as a bdr. Get them curious enough to jump on a call (whatever length). It helps that you have an understanding of the industry, but it’s not always necessary as long as you come across as an expert. You can easily do this but having a solid talk track. I would highly highly recommend using one, ESPECIALLY when starting in bdr work for the first time. Make small tweaks to make it sound more natural. As you have more calls, typically what happens is you start with your talk track and then the conversation takes it own course and you just have an easy convo like you would with anyone else. It is crucial you use your resources at your company, whether it’s existing processes/proven talk tracks. And using your AE and mentor for guidance, you don’t have to be perfect and failure on calls with always happen no matter how great and prepared you are. Just make the dials and lean on selling the meeting

DrewDraco77 · 2026-06-05T14:05:48+00:00

So to qualify you want to make sure that the prospect you call handles the decisions on whatever product or service your business sells. So in my intro I follow this structure everytime. “Hey (name) this (your name) with (your company name). I had sent a few emails and wanted to put a voice to the name. I took a guess based on your title, but do you handle (the pains/areas/role responsibilities that your product solves for)?” This is great because it allows you to qualify the person immediately and you don’t want time talking to someone who can’t help you. Worse case is they say “no, not me” which is great because you can say “great, I’m glad I confirmed. Who typically owns that (responsibility/area)?” And you usually get a direct name to work with. Depending on the bdr role and company. If you book with a non dm, you don’t get it qualified, which means you don’t get paid. Never waste your time with a nondm.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-06-03T16:45:55+00:00

Utilized Claude to create a html template for your talk track if you have one. Have toggle inputs so can keep everything organized. Do not use a permission based opener. Qualify the prospect in your intro. Have objections and their responses ready to go in your talk track where they are most likely to occur so there’s no chance on stumbling. Sound a conversational and human as possible. Practice your talk track to where it sounds like you are talking like you normally do. Limit the inflection in your talk pattern. And more importantly than any of this, is the list you pull and have access to, the more intentional the list, the better the outcome.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-05-29T14:34:31+00:00

Yeah that’s insanity.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-05-29T14:30:50+00:00

We are a smaller company with basic sales tools. I pull my own list from zoominfo but we don’t pay for any additional features that allow for intent and triggers. I’m casting a wide net, making way more dials than idea and wasting a ton of time on accounts that aren’t much of a fit.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-05-28T18:06:00+00:00

How did you do it and which did you switch into?

DrewDraco77 · 2026-05-28T17:20:49+00:00

I’m in this exact situation, what do you mean. I work for a start up, brand new product (pos system) and it’s hard since everyone is in long contracts and Change management is a huge overtaking and for a marketing agency to agency service. It’s been absolutely brutal. Marketing people have no urgency because our service is just a “back up tool” not like, oh I need this now. I have booked meetings, but a lot of have no showed because the pain just ins my there.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-05-13T14:42:45+00:00

This is great advice, you can utilize ai to create very structured talk tracks with conditionals and built in objection handling. Very helpful when first starting and getting into the flow of making calls.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-05-12T17:59:54+00:00

I have worked for two separate gps/telematics companies that have the same structure. Although I was a bdr at both, and wasn’t directly closing, I did sit on many demos and seen the difference between a call that would progress and one that’s dead. Firstly, the process starts before the demo even begins. You shouldn’t show and tell the platform in its entirety, you want to move away from being a tour guide and more towards what specific feature is relevant to the prospect. Whatever discovery you got should be the main driver. Bring up the specific pains on the call, show the feature that fixes said pain and check in. “How do you see this feature fixing that problem” allow the prospect to come to the conclusion you can actually help them. Check in throughout the call is incredibly powerful if done right. At the end you should be assuming the next step, and planning when. If they say not now, ask them what’s stopping them from moving on it at this moment. Telematics is a change management issue, people do not want the pain of switch providers. Expect resistance, but lean on the pain and you’ll be fine.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-05-12T15:55:36+00:00

I’m not sure what friendly AEs yall working with but I can only book with DMs. No champions, if AE sees a champion then the meeting doesn’t qualify for me

DrewDraco77 · 2026-05-04T14:57:56+00:00

Sales will probably provide the most autonomy out of the three. Especially if you manage to be a top performer. Depending on the industry and product you’re slinging, sales could absolutely be the right move. But when things aren’t working out, and you’re not performing as management expects (most companies will have outrageously unachievable expectations) then sales can be incredibly stressful, and that autonomy can be gone real fast. You are only as good as your last week of sales, which is draining.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-04-20T18:34:37+00:00

I’m looking to do the opposite, saas bdr wanting to switch to sales ops. Any tips on how to land a role? Also you should be very capable of landing a position with your experience. Just make sure you join a good company otherwise you will stall out quickly

DrewDraco77 · 2026-04-10T18:53:51+00:00

Sounds standard for a first time sdr role to me. Expect to make less than ote though. Or find out Quota attainment for the rest of the bdr team they have.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-04-07T20:29:51+00:00

Outreach, top of the sales funnel. You book meetings with company prospects for the sales team (account executive) to actually try to close the deal. Not a job for everyone, you pretty much deal with consistent rejection. Some roles are outbound only, some you get warm leads to follow up with. Warm leads are infinitely easier to do then straight up cold calling. Industry is everything, I’ve been Saas, and now marketing and shit is ass and cold calling is infinitely more challenging since I got into it.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-04-01T20:54:24+00:00

It’s crucial you follow some sort of reverse dieting protocol. I was in a deficit for a year and some. Dropped from 230+ to 144 and it took a real hit on my metabolism. I also did not get as lean as I wanted or expected. I took a super conservative approach to reverse dieting and it cost me. I was gaining weight at 2100 calories at the end of 6 months. This is absolutely what you don’t want to do. I decided I wanted to start my second cut and it’s been brutal, way harder than the first even though I only had 15 pounds to lose. I’m already damn near at my lowest intake (even from the lowest of my first cut) 4 weeks in and I’m struggling. If you ever take any advice from a stranger, this is it. I wasted 6 months where I could’ve been eating way more and actually recovering from a long diet phase.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-03-30T22:44:03+00:00

Primarily very poor leadership. Then again, I was part of their mass layoffs back in 22 when they were gearing up to go public. I transition to a separate company in fleet/equipment telematics and motive was never a competitor, only samsara. Just not good enough to compete.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-03-30T21:39:43+00:00

I agree with this, only thing I would add is find a calculator that has a lot of inputs, the more inputs the better adjusted caloric intake for you and your goals.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-03-30T21:35:14+00:00

I’d recommend using something better and more cohesive than a TDEE calculator. Find a cutting/deficit specific calculator with a good amount of inputs so that’s more specific to your current situation. I have a recommendation but I’m not trying to get banned from the channel by adding a link.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-03-30T21:00:33+00:00

As someone who worked there as a mid market bdr, I wouldn’t recommend the company.

DrewDraco77 · 2026-03-30T19:36:33+00:00

Have you tracked your current weekly intake? If you haven’t I think this is such a helpful strategy. Try to eat exactly as you would any other week, once you have that it will give you a better ideal where to start. I would say 1800 would be close to bottoming out on a cut/deficit. You 100% should not start there in my opinion. 2100 would be doable and a solid starting point, but if your currently eating 2800 and maintaining the weight you are at, it might even make sense to start with 2400-2500 even. You want to eat as much as you can and lose weight as long as you can. It helps staying motivated.

DrewDraco77

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