Embarrasing Cold Call (Part -2)

I hung up on a prospect.

Yeah you heard me right, "I" hung up on a prospect.

(part -2 of embarrassing cold calls)

It's 2020, and I'm on the line with the Sales Manager of a mid-sized company. 

I’d done my homework and had all my entry points ready. This person was pretty active and famous on LinkedIn, so I had a ton of info to grab his attention.

I pick up the phone and say, “Hey Shawn, thanks for taking my call. Do you have a minute?”

He replies, “Yeah sure, I’m driving at the moment but who’s calling?”

Me: “This is Akshaya with Slintel, and I’m reaching out because…”

And then… my brain freezes. 

I’m not even kidding. My mind went blank, and after a 2-second pause, I hung up. 

Talk about embarrassing.

I looked at my notes and realized I had overwhelmed myself with too many hooks and didn’t tailor them properly. 

I knew this prospect inside and out, but I still couldn’t start a conversation.

Here’s what I did wrong on that call:

- Overwhelmed myself with my research.

- Didn’t connect the dots.

- Let the data shift my mindset from “I want to get this prospect’s attention” to “I will have his attention.” Overconfidence much?

- Approached the call wanting to show off how much I knew rather than being curious to learn more about him.

But here's the twist. He called me back after 20 minutes! 

Yeah, sometimes prospects call back 🤭

This time I kept it simple: “Hey Shawn, you didn’t have to call me back, but thanks calling back anyway.”

He said, “Yeah, you sounded confused and the call got disconnected. Can I help you?”

I go, “Actually, yes! I'm aware that you recently added 8 SDRs and plan to onboard 2 more. Are you planning a pod system to target different markets? Curious, what data intelligence tool do you have in place for quality lead and intent data? How are you approaching this?”

I kept my tone neutral and slowed down. 

It was a 8min long conversation and we landed a meeting that converted into an opp and closed after 8months 🥳

And,  I still consult him on different sales tech.

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That call taught me valuable lessons: 

Sales isn’t always about techniques. Sure, techniques, methodologies, and processes are important, but you need skills to navigate situations.

The right mindset, attitude, intention, and etiquette are essential to excel.

By switching from a fixed mindset to a curious one and detaching myself from the outcome (landing a meeting), I left a lasting impression on the prospect.

Yes, we still keep in touch, and I still consult him on different sales tech.

And I don’t consider myself lucky because none of this happened easily. I paid attention and was adamant about not making the same mistake twice.

My managers trained me on the basics of cold calling, email writing, and social selling, but I dug deeper. I learned the soft skills that took my game to the next level.

Templates are everywhere, but I learned how to make them work for me.