Shadowing Practice: 200 Cold Calls, 2 Customers: That's Not Luck, That's Math - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Dacian Floria.
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All right, let's see what Dacian's up to.
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80 % margins.
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Mm.
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Wonder what this business is.
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Dacian, what is Limbs Plus?
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Well, it's an environmental testing platform for the environmental testing lab.
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- Thank you for doing this as a gift.
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- You bet, man.
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Come on.
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Okay, so 200, well thank you for donating books, which I super appreciate.
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Alright, you got five minutes, so let's rock and roll.
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So, you have a testing platform, got it.
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You're running 80 % margins, which is super, super impressive.
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What's the issue right now?
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What are you trying to get to?
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I try to make money.
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The biggest problem I have right now is that I have this software platform.
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I'm targeting B2B labs like their enterprise.
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They have like usually two to three people or maybe more that I have to talk with to get a deal done.
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Yeah, that's normal.
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The deal size starts at 50k upfront and then it can go to like 100k.
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Yeah.
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and I go into annual recurring revenue of 50k usually for clients.
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The problem I have is that I don't have anybody in the pipeline and I don't know how to get them in.
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You're like, I've got this great business, no one's buying it.
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So is it $250 ,000 a month or $250 ,000 a year right now that you're at?
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- A year.
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- A year, okay, got it.
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So you're really not getting that many clients, if that's your price point.
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Okay, understood.
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So what did you do to get these first clients?
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so first client will flock via cold call
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Then the second client was saying call call and the third one was trade show.
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- I have two customers, so I know.
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- Okay, heard, okay.
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So you've got cold call, trade show, and what was the other one?
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Cold call as well.
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Okay.
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So how many cold calls did it take to get you the one deal?
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Well, It was a while ago, probably around 100, but it was luck.
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I mean, dude, that's how it works.
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I mean, you're like, "I did 100 and then one of them bought.
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It's luck." It's like, "No, you did 100." Like if you called one and one of them bought, that would be luck.
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If you tell 101 of them, that's just a process.
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So let me ask you this way.
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So I've said this before, but it's super common for sub a million, which is that what feels like volatility is actually a symptom of insufficient volume.
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I mean you're not doing enough which is what makes it feel erratic.
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And so it's like you did 100 and you got one
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and then you did other cold calls and you got the other, right?
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Yeah.
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OK.
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So how many cold calls did it take you to get the second one?
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Probably around the same.
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Okay, so that sounds lucky though.
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The second one sounds lucky.
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The first hundred and you get one.
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You know, that is like, you know what I'm saying here?
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You made 200 calls, you got two customers.
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Mm -hmm.
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So the question then becomes, what stops us from doing 10 ,000 calls.
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Well, one would be that You need leads.
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- I'm not that good at call.
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I need leads.
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- Well, dude, you got one.
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Dude, 1 % conversion of cold calls, by the way, fine.
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Totally fine.
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on a 50K, 100K price point, Totally fine.
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Do you think about it like this?
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You're making $500 a dial.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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That's pretty good for a dial.
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I don't know about you, if I want to go out to dinner tonight, I'll be like, okay, I'll make one dial.
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There we go, I covered my dinner.
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Right?
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Of course you have to think about it because you've gotten your head about this.
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Every time you make 100 calls you get a deal.
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then it's like, how do I need to game this for you so that you just make 100 calls every day?
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Okay, so we have 60 seconds, so what's the thing that's holding you back from just saying, like, yes, that makes sense?
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Well, that makes sense, but I don't know how to get myself leads.
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Okay, right, then that's the leads list.
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Yeah.
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The second problem is how do I position myself of what attraction offer can I create?
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So it makes sense for these guys.
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Well, for a bigger company, for what you have, a waived fee,
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structure, which is the third fee structure that I talk about inside of the continuity section for money models.
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which is you have a big upfront nut We say, hey, it's $50 ,000 for me to do this whole integration, and then it's $5 ,000 a Month to month.
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Right?
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It's like, or, if you want to commit, I'll waive the $50 ,000, but you've got to commit to the whole year.
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Yeah, but anyway you do that because all their data is in our system.
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Right, well, the thing is, but you're just, no, no, dude, I get it. Though...
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The way that a money model works from a positioning perspective is that you don't, like, whenever you give someone a choice, it doesn't mean that you're saying you actually give them the choice.
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You give the illusion of choice that then obviously selects or waits for one of the selections.
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- Uh huh.
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- So you'll, basically, the question that you had is, how do I get more of these people to sign up?
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How do I make it more compelling for them?
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Well, if they think that they're getting something that costs $50 ,000 to set up for free, They're far more likely to do it than just saying, well, I do that anyways.
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It's like, yeah, no shit.
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But the problem is that they don't know that.
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You know what I'm saying?
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Yeah, makes sense.
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Should I put this into an ad or something?
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No, I think, I actually don't, no, this is more for the mechanics of how you actually close when you get into the thing with them.
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But let's solve the original issue really quickly.
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We are over, so I'm going to just make this as fast as I can.
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They've got to get to the next person, okay?
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So number one is, I would say, list brokers.
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You can do that.
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Number two is you can scrape using software.
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Number three is that you can go to people who own groups or communities that, and there always are some, you just look.
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There's someone at school, there's someone at LinkedIn, there's Reddit, whatever, right?
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communities for these people and then you want to pay the group owner to basically make an ad inside of the group.
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Those are three different places that you can look like right now to go get leads.
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Okay.
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Cool.
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Also, highly recommend flying out there.
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And saying, "Hey, it's," you know, you find out that they're in California, you know, like in Los Angeles.
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You say, "Hey, it's so crazy.
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I'm actually in LA this week.
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I figured I'm happy to swing by while I'm in town." And if they say yes, then you just fly there. that.
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Okay?
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That's how that works.
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Yeah.
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Rock and roll, man.
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Appreciate you.
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Thank you for donating book station.
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Thank you.
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I appreciate it.
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All right.
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Bye.
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If you're a business owner and you are not growing as fast as you'd like, I'd like to give you a free gift.
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So my team and I put together the $100 million scaling roadmap, which is basically 200 hours of us looking over all the portfolio companies we've had
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and what we've had stages of growth they went through, and more importantly, where they got stuck and how they got past it.
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And so we broke into these 10 stages
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and we made this little kind of quiz thing where if you put in your business information, it'll tell you where you're at and the most important part for you, what to do for each of the functions of the business across product,
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marketing, sales, customer success, recruiting, IT, human resources, and finance.
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And so no matter what you're struggling with, someone else has already struggled with it and solved it.
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And so I'd like to give you this thing absolutely free.
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You can go to acquisition .com forward slash roadmap, plug in your business information.
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want us to actually help you decontrain the business and you're trying to scale, we'd love to help you out.
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On the Thank You Bay Juniors book a call with my team and we will Look at the business.
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See if we can help.
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And if we can, we'll invite you out to Vegas and we'll do this in person, live.
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Context & Background
In this insightful video, Dacian Floria discusses the challenges faced when trying to generate leads and close deals for his environmental testing platform, Limbs Plus. With an impressive margin of 80%, Dacian highlights the difficulties of converting interest into actual sales. His experience centers around making cold calls, attending trade shows, and understanding that consistent effort is crucial in the business development process. The conversation emphasizes that while luck can play a role, success is often a byproduct of persistence and volume in outreach efforts.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "How many cold calls did it take to get your first deal?" - A common question that can be used to initiate discussions about sales experiences.
- "I'm targeting B2B clients." - Useful for explaining business strategies and target markets.
- "It's a process, not just luck." - This phrase can help convey the importance of systematic efforts in achieving goals.
- "What are the issues you're facing?" - A great way to show engagement and concern when discussing projects.
- "Deal size starts at X amount." - Important for discussing pricing and financial aspects in a business context.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To improve your English speaking skills using Dacian's conversation as a reference, consider employing the shadowing technique, an effective method for enhancing pronunciation and fluency. Follow these steps to practice:
- Watch the Video: Start by viewing the YouTube video in its entirety to grasp the context and content.
- Initial Listening: Listen closely to Dacian’s dialogue, paying attention to pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm. It will help if you transcribe the key phrases from the conversation.
- First Shadow: Play the video again, and this time try to repeat what Dacian says, imitating his tone and pace. Focus particularly on phrases relevant to sales and communication.
- Break It Down: Take each phrase you’ve noted, like "How many cold calls did it take to get your first deal?" and practice it separately. Repeat it multiple times until you feel comfortable.
- Record Yourself: Use a smartphone or computer to record yourself as you shadow the phrases. This playback will help you identify areas for improvement in your accent and pronunciation.
- Feedback and Adjust: Compare your recording with Dacian’s dialogue. Make note of specific differences in pronunciation. Repeat this process regularly to see your progress.
By regularly practicing with materials like this video, you can enhance your English speaking skills and improve your confidence in daily conversations, making it easier to engage in discussions about business and other topics. Start today with learn English with YouTube to make learning enjoyable and effective.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you want to commit, I'll waive · if we can, we'll invite |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | margins, which is · million, which is · enough which is |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've said · you've gotten · has already struggled |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.