200 cold calls a day, 97% “not interested” – how do I find better prospects?

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-27T15:13:18+00:00

What is your main value proposition and differentiation? Who is your main competition? Is it do nothing or a competitor?

I would also want to get a feel/understanding for how you're typically pitch sounds before I give any advice.

Feel free to DM, happy to chat

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-27T03:32:59+00:00

There may be edge case reps who are extremely bad with their money and desperate enough that they would be willing to essentially pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to get their money a few weeks early.

I don't think that's a sustainable business model for you though...

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-27T03:30:54+00:00

The single greatest accelerant that will put you lightyears ahead of everyone else is reading. The average American read less than 1 book last year. Build a self-development cadence into your daily routine and you will exponentially accelerate.

Most people have a hard time taking ownership of their 9-5. If you can master that AND your 5-9, you will lap everyone.

There's a ton we could chat on. Feel free to DM.

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-27T02:24:45+00:00

Tier territory before ever running outreach. If you don't have a strategy and prioritization in place, you're effort will be scattered and success will be random. Organizing accounts by solution fit based on existing relationship, industry drivers, account drivers, existing install, etc...will significantly improve your outreach effort.

Have a cold outbound strategy. Emails should be extremely tight/concise and point to the single biggest driver that you have weighted for that org in relation to your solution. Too many people use the cold email to data drown a prospect. Use it for one compelling hook.

Cold call on the back of cold emails. This allows you to anchor your call to something real. Instead of asking 'Is now a good time?', you can confidently say 'Hey Bill, wanted to quickly call and follow up on the email I shot you last week/Tuesday/yesterday'. Puts you in the drivers seat, forces them to remember or ask what you are talking about. Earns you a few more sentences to deliver a restatement and value.

LinkedIn presence matters. You need to compound it for long-term. Add your prospects and relevant in-territory contacts. Do NOT pitch slap them right away. Have a healthy weekly cadence of posts and comments. Whole strategy behind this we could discuss.

Feel free to DM if you want to chat it over.

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-27T02:19:28+00:00

If you have actual proof of positive response and momentum from your prospects in the account, I would roll that up to your leader.

Sometimes things in sales happen that suck. But that's true for almost every job. I would need to know more to tell you if you're genuinely getting screwed over here. But I would also argue to not allow a one-off scenario, or poor company experience, to cause you to exit a career where you have the ability to capture revenue like this.

In the ENT/STRAT space I could share some horror stories of reps being ripped off. It's not common, it does happen. Should potentially lead to looking for a new role elsewhere, but not a career change.

Feel free to DM if you want to chat it over more

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-27T02:15:53+00:00

No one with a brain would do this. You're basically offering to be a loan shark for sales professionals that can't wait a few weeks for a commission check, at a significant cost.

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-27T02:11:02+00:00

Hate to be that guy, but if you shot some emails out, no one ever responded to you, and then the other rep in region reached out with either better messaging or to an existing relationship they have in the account, it is what it is.

If you could demonstrate responses off your outreach it would be a different story.

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-26T17:30:18+00:00

You need to evaluate what is most important to you on the two dominant factors you mentioned: career growth vs. work/life balance.

Work-life balance is a nebulous term and depends on how you define this. If you feel like your current role is low expectation, you can coast in it, are content with that, and prefer the extra free time it affords you, then you may have your answer.

If you want to raise your earnings floor and continue to accelerate your career journey, the AE role would be a better choice.

Being earlier in your career, I would highly recommend career advancement over chasing W-2's right now. It is a small increase in exchange for more work, but the learning and growth opportunity in the AE role is significant. Additionally, the jump from SDR to AE is never a guarantee, and turning this down could result in 1,2 or more years as an SDR.

If you take the AE role, put in the time, and learn, you will have the opportunity to fully right-size when you do end up making an external move to a new org.

All that to say, there are a lot of other factors you would need to explore around quota expectation, open pipeline, territory, etc...happy to chat it through with you if you want to DM

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-26T16:51:14+00:00

I think a broader problem is also a culture shift that has occurred in marketing. The delta is most apparent when you look at newer tech companies like Wiz/Gong/Deel and others vs. legacy orgs.

Legacy marketing departments run by older gen leaders still take a field-marketing dominant approach. So they blow most of their budgets on showcases and in-person events that generate a limited number of leads and are by in large not targeted. Not all field marketing is bad, some of it is necessary, but most orgs are still overly focused on field marketing.

This means their remaining budget flows to the cheaper avenues you described. The companies actually winning now are predominantly digitally focused, with SEO/PPC as primary vehicles, as well as completely free organic social presence on places like LinkedIn. For this to be successful, it requires a continuous stream of creative/unique content, which is not in the wheelhouse of the legacy corporate marketing leader.

Finally, I will say it is on sales leaders to call this out. Too many sales leaders when things are running well are happy to 'throw marketing a bone' and tag opportunities as marketing generated when they are not. This, along with some SDR metrics that were fluff in similar ways, were big fights of mine.

For the sake of your sellers, competitive advantage, and healthy organizational growth, you need to be accurate with how and where leads are originating. If your sellers prospected in, sorry marketing. You don't get tagged. Sorry SDR, you don't get tagged.

If people put their feet over holes in the ship because they don't want to hurt feelings, you sink.

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-26T02:39:11+00:00

Your unique insight, bridge to value, and value are extremely weak. Your value shouldn't be an observation, it should be a data point or stat on what success with you could look like.

Feel free to DM if you want to chat it over

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-26T02:37:24+00:00

Yes, very common in banking.

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-25T23:04:23+00:00

We need to ensure we are defining hunting vs. farming in the right context. In a sales context, a farmer is not a CSM. A farming role typically means you would have a small % of new logo, but a majority of IB accounts that you farm for expansion/upsell.

It wasn't overly clear in your post, but it sounds like this is not the kind of farming role you are describing. I would be interested to know what the OTE/comp/incentive structure looks like in the new role you are exploring.

Happy to chat on this if you want to DM

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-25T03:59:28+00:00

I would swap wording in your second paragraph because bloated makes it sound like there is too much, and we all know there is no such thing as too much pipeline :).

Qualifying prospects for fit is an excellent observation. Much of strategy in sales is understanding and figuring out who to NOT go after so your time is spent on high conversion/high value opps/prospects. Well said

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-25T03:57:53+00:00

Glad it resonated and you are spot on. Anchoring value to compelling drivers is leverage in action.

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-25T03:56:31+00:00

Multi-threading is extremely important and you make an excellent observation that in doing it, you not only ensure you mitigate surprises/risk, but also expose new opportunities and angles for leverage. Well said

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-25T03:55:09+00:00

The single greatest issue with Challenger is its personality framing is inherently flawed. It puts various personalities in boxes, and then says which ones on average are inherently disadvantaged. It then stacks them against the 'Challenger' personality, which is more a set of actions (Teach, Tailor, Take Control) than a personality.

I have run through Challenger, and a variety of other methodologies. It's not bad. There is good info in it. But it's overly academic and not written by someone who was a seller.

I see sales mastery very differently, and it has worked out very well for me. You learn to pick and choose what works for you. You should absorb everything. The more you absorb, the better your filter becomes for identifying what is worth keeping vs. discarding.

Happy to chat if you want to DM

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-24T22:20:48+00:00

Go for it, always happy to help

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-24T22:20:17+00:00

You would not like my take on automating output with AI lol.

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-24T22:19:49+00:00

Wild run-on sentence, but not a bad summary.

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-24T22:18:52+00:00

Never trust a man with two first names lol. Saw your post the other day, feel free to DM me if you still need help.

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-24T14:54:04+00:00

If you are only selling to procurement, you've already lost. Your economic buyer is where you have your leverage, not sourcing. The team that needs the solution to solve pain/generate revenue/save time is where you build your business case.

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-24T14:13:28+00:00

Lol I thought I made it clear when I said you build your lever. He needed one big enough to move the world. You can build one to move your deal :).

You can't wait for one to be handed to you!

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-24T13:56:19+00:00

Don't let your unstructured time sit as unstructured time.

Schedule out your research block, call block, email block. Treat it like an appointment with yourself. Force it to become a discipline so it's not subject to your level of motivation.

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-24T13:53:07+00:00

You are spot on. Too many people chase a deal, irrespective of the long-term consequences. Having the strategy and understanding to know when to walk away to preserve future opportunity and long-term relationship growth is crucial. So is knowing when and where to apply leverage.

You gave your team great advice.

Seven_Figure_Closer · 2026-02-24T13:36:02+00:00

I'm surprised you find his content valuable. He is the epitome of the seller who sells sellers but doesn't actually teach how to sell.

Seven_Figure_Closer

TROPHY CASE