Shadowing Practice: I made 500,000 cold calls and learned this - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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In the last few years, I've made over half a million cold calls to generate 8 .5 million dollars for my agency
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and lead a team of 30 sales reps.
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I only really started to see results after I learned what I actually needed to focus on.
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So in this video, I'll be condensing down five years
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and hundreds of millions of sales pipeline experience into 27 lessons
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you can implement in your cold call strategy today to set more appointments and make more money with the phone.
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Lesson number one, when I first started cold calling, I did everything but dial the phones.
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refill my water bottle, reorganize my desk.
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I told myself I was being productive, but really I was just stalling.
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Every sales floor has those reps, you know, about to start once they tweak their CRM or rewrite their opener for the 12th time.
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It wasn't until one day my CRO pulled me aside and said, Micah, your numbers are down because you're not making enough calls
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that was it so call reluctance
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or fear of picking up the phones comes from overthinking
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and the cure is simple just dial we had a rule
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no weasels no fake prep no walk arounds no water cooler chat
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because 90 of success in cold calling is just showing up
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and doing the work
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so lesson number one no weasels just make the dials lesson
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two early on i saw cold calling as a grind something you suffer through until you level up
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but now i see it as one of the most foundational skills
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be an entrepreneur executive or top rep
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if you can't interrupt a stranger's day earn their trust in the first seven seconds
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and create massive curiosity out of thin air for them to
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take action you're always going to play small cold calling teaches you how to communicate under pressure control a room
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that doesn't want you there
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and think fast on your feet here's what most reps forget it's a skill set
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and like any skill set it takes years to master you
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have to think long term not just three weeks think three
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years you don't get jacked after two workouts same thing here so Cold calling is a future CEO skill set.
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If you treat it like a craft and give it time, it'll open doors most people will never get close to.
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Lesson three.
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I was lucky.
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I started with a solid ethical sales team early in my career, but some of my buddies weren't.
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They came up in toxic boiler rooms, between calls, booze before noon, closing at any cost.
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But honestly, there's something worse than that.
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It's doing it alone.
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Cold calling solo day after day will eat you alive.
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The rejection, the doubt, the slump, you'll spiral out of control.
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some vets who crush its soul out there.
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But if you're new, you don't even know what good looks like yet.
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So lesson three, that's why I say cold calling is a team sport.
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Iron sharpens iron and the right crew makes all the difference.
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So find your tribe.
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Lesson four, one of the biggest mindset shifts I've had in sales was realizing that every no still pays you.
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In training, my coach asked, Micah, what if every conversation made you money, even the ones that you don't book? That clicked.
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That means each convo, 25 bucks, every call, $5.
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Even the rejections, you get paid.
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No matter what I'm calling on, I know a deal's coming.
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It's just a matter of when.
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You can't learn that in a classroom, only by doing the work.
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So lesson four, every no pays you.
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Never forget that rejection is part of the paycheck.
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Lesson five, in the early days, no one warned me how unnatural cold calling would feel.
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You're ambushing strangers, asking them for time and money.
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Of course, it's gonna feel off.
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I'd hit a dry spell a lot of times and think, cut out for this.
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But over time, I realized that pain, that frustration, it wasn't failure, it was growth.
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Most people hit that wall and fold.
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But if you keep swinging through the discomfort, you become real dangerous.
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So lesson five, pain is a sign of growth.
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If it feels unnatural, good.
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You're doing what most people run from.
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Lesson six, through my sales journey, I didn't realize how much my ego played a role in my success, or lack of, I should say.
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I used to think that I was coachable, resilient, but the truth was I was insecure and my ego was in the way.
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feedback stung most of the time i wasn't focused on getting
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better i was just trying not to look stupid to be honest then i read ego is the enemy
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and it finally came to me most of my mental battles
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in this role were actually battles with my ego i didn't
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want to be seen failing i didn't want to admit i wasn't a natural
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but once i dropped the ego cold calling got 10 times easier
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so lesson number six your ego is not your amigo get out of your own way
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and let yourself be good and be sure cold calling and sales is neediness.
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Back in the day, there was a concept that always stuck with me.
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It was David Sandler's big two.
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Number one, you're a psychiatrist on a Broadway play.
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And number two, you're financially secure and don't need the business.
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And so that posture changed my selling style quite a bit.
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Because when you come in sounding desperate, prospects can smell it.
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We call that commission breath.
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And the moment they catch a whiff of it, it's game over.
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Neediness kills all deals.
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So lesson number seven, eradicate all neediness.
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Detach from the outcome.
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Give the perception of a peer and let them qualify themselves to you.
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Lesson eight.
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One thing that's made cold calling way more bearable and honestly way more effective, I stopped pitching for the prospect and started pitching for myself.
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Or better yet, if the team was around, I'd pitch for them.
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And here's what I mean.
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your prospects don't really know what your pitch is supposed to sound like.
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They don't know your script or how well it was supposed to be performed.
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They just say yes or no. But for you, you know when you hit it clean and delivered a face melter.
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I can't tell you how many times I've pitched janitors by mistake and I still didn't care because it wasn't about them.
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It was about how I showed up.
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And the crazy part, sometimes they booked anyways.
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So lesson number eight, don't pitch for the prospect, pitch for yourself.
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Make it a performance, stay present, and hold yourself to a higher ever could.
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Lesson nine, I've seen it over and over.
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New reps run a few calls, then start freestyling, changing things up before they know what works.
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They're finding their voice without data, consistency, or results.
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And I get it.
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You know, we all want to sound smooth and natural.
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But when I worked with Oren Klaff, one of his famous quotes was, be yourself, terrible idea.
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You're not good enough to be yourself.
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Early on, you haven't earned the right to improvise.
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So lesson nine, don't be creative at first.
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Stick to what's already working until it's second nature.
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consistency, that's when you can make small adjustments.
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Usually it takes about two to three word changes just to double your conversion rate, a lot less than what people think.
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Lesson 10.
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I used to think top reps were just naturally gifted, some instinct I didn't have or some secret sauce, but the reality was they were just better thieves.
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They paid attention, borrowed what worked, and tested everything, and kept what stuck.
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Because the sales landscape is always changing, a pitch that crushed six months ago might flop today, but there's always a pitch that works right now.
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Your reps testing in real time, you'll find it faster.
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So lesson number 10, great artists steal.
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Someone out there is doing it better, study them and steal it.
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Lesson 11, a lot of reps hide their scripts, leads and tactics, afraid that sharing means losing deals.
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But that scarcity mindset is going to isolate you.
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It's going to burn you out.
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Top reps really know that abundance is a competitive advantage.
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They share, they collaborate, and somehow they win more.
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Because when you become So lesson 11, embrace an abundance mindset.
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Compete hard, but build together.
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Lesson 12, in cold calling, you might last a day, a week, or maybe a month, maybe a whole quarter running on pure willpower.
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But eventually, burnout hits.
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That's why it's not just about showing up.
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It's about how you show up over time.
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The fix is simple.
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Create short -term rewards, weekly, monthly, and quarterly for yourself.
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A steak dinner, a lake day, a beach trip.
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Big or small, give yourself something to chase.
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And if your company doesn't dangle the carrot, you should.
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set micro goals, keep fuel in the tank, and apprise insight.
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Lesson 13.
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When I interview new reps, I have one rule.
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No sales tourists.
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Too many reps claim 10 years of experience, but really, it's one year repeated 10 times.
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Why?
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Because they never took sales and cold calling as a serious profession.
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Sales is unique in
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that it's one of the only careers where you can make doctor money without going to school for a decade.
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No GMAT, no LSAT, but with that low barrier to entry respect the game.
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The best reps, they study, they train, and they take pride in what works.
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So if you want a shortcut to mastery, watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi.
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It'll show you what it means to go all in.
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Lesson 13, respect the craft.
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Give cold calling 100 % and it'll give back big time.
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Lesson 14, when I handed new reps the cold call talk track, I'd always say this isn't a script.
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It's a screenplay because scripts are read.
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Screenplays perform.
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On a cold call, you're not just saying And the better you perform, the more attention you command and the more deals you land.
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So lesson 14, treat the cold call like a performance.
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Because when it feels real to you, it'll feel real to them.
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Lesson 15, some reps think that they can cold call for 20 minutes here, 30 minutes there, and somehow get into a groove.
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It doesn't work like that.
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Even for me, sometimes it takes a full hour or even two hours before I'm fully locked in.
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The best calls a lot of times don't come at the start.
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They come when you're deep in the rhythm, when you're in a flow state.
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Create space in your calendar and be sure to block the distractions and give yourself enough runway to hit the jet stream.
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So lesson 15, batch your dial sessions.
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Three to four hour blocks is optimal, but be sure to protect that time at all costs.
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Lesson 16, speaking of flow state, getting into flow isn't magic.
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It's preparation.
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Top reps don't just hop on the phones cold.
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They have a pre -flight checklist, a ritual that gets their head, body and voice ready to perform because the faster you can drop into the groove, the faster you start winning the day.
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So here's my quick pre -flight checklist.
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I do 10 minutes of journaling, 10 minutes of breath work, five minutes of vocal warm up and three minutes of role play.
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It's not fancy, but it's repeatable.
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And that's the key.
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At the end of the day, cold calling is part muscle and part mind.
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And a ritual locks in both of those.
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And at the very least, don't start a call block without at least one dry run of your screenplay.
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Lesson 17.
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One of the most common rabbit holes reps fall into is actually knowing too much.
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I've seen reps spend weeks memorizing every feature, every technical detail, every edge case of their product.
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And they talk way too much because here's the truth.
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As a B2B cold caller, your job isn't to educate, it's to initiate.
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You're not here to close the deal on the first touch.
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You're here to book the discovery meeting.
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That's it.
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expect, you need to know how to spark curiosity.
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You need to know how to get them to say, sure, I'll hear more.
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Anything beyond that, leave it to the discovery call where you're not ambushing them.
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So lesson 17, don't overtrain or overthink.
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Know just enough to get the meaning, then pass the mic and move on.
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Lesson 18, legendary NFL coach Bill Walsh says the score takes care of itself.
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Same goes for cold calling.
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I'd argue that cold calling is the most athletic part of the sales cycle.
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You got to think fast, adjust on the fly, and run tight plays over and over and over again.
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you stuck your job is to solve for the very next bottleneck
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and push it down until the outcome presents itself and
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so very simply dials then conversations then bookings shows then opportunities
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and that's the game and remembering
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that simple mental model helps alleviate what a lot of folks call analysis paralysis
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so lesson 18 focus on the inputs not the outcomes the
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score will take care of itself lesson 19 list building is
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one of the most neglected skills in cold calling sure you if you don't know how to build a list yourself, you're at the mercy of two things.
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Number one, hours of your own research, or number two, whatever marketing decides to hand you.
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When you control your list, you control your destiny.
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So lesson 19, learn how to build a contact list.
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There's plenty of low cost tools out there like Apollo .io or salesbot .io and tons of tutorials for beginners.
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Lesson 20, when I first started in cool calling, I asked my CEO, how can I be sure that the product I'm pitching actually adds value to the customer?
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He paused and said, you know, because if you don't believe in what you're selling, how can you sell with integrity?
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Then he said, let me ask you this.
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What is the product that you're selling?
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And so I said, cybersecurity, IT, whatever the client offers.
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And he shook his head and said, no, the product is the meeting.
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the discovery call and that's your job not to sell the solution
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but to sell the conversation and so that shift changed everything for me
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because when a true expert or specialist shows up to
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that meeting someone who lives
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and breathes this stuff every day they will always know more than the prospect who is a generalist even
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if the generalist is a smart skeptical vp the objective of the specialist is to deliver value in one
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or all of three key areas strategic emotional or confidence that the meeting always has value.
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So lesson 20 in cold calling, your product always has value.
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Lesson 21, because your prospects are getting hammered by other cold callers every single day, obviously none as great as you.
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The best strategy is actually to be the antithesis or opposite of what every other salesperson sounds like.
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So here's what everyone else does.
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They speak quick, they're overtly enthusiastic, supplicative or low status, and you can feel the pushiness.
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So what do you do?
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Number one, you go more negative.
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Number two, you modulate your voice three, you create credibility through your pitch and maintain status.
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These are just a few ways to stand out of the sea of average sales folks.
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So lesson 21, be the opposite of every other sales person.
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Lesson 22, a lot of reps ask me, what is the best intro for cold calling?
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For me, most of my campaigns have been in scaled cold calling, where there are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of accounts that I can call into.
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So for scaled cold calling, it's not that you can't personalize, it's that it's just more efficient not to.
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So you can engage with more people faster.
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permission -based openers are king for high volume calling.
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So here's my go -to framework for my intro.
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I'll say, hey, John.
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Oh, hey, John.
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It's Micah over at Company X.
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I know I'm in interruption here, but do you mind if I grab half a minute?
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I'll tell you why I called, and then you can let me know if it's relevant or not.
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So I'm doing quite a few things here.
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I'll list them off quickly.
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I'm double tapping them on their name, flat delivery of my name, matter of fact tone on the company name,
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downward hanging tactical empathy statement leading into the solution to their immediate and interrupt tack on to show non -neediness.
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So again, quite a psychology behind why this intro works.
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All you need to know is that it works.
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So lesson 22, PBOs are king in scaled cold calling.
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It's best really in mid -market or small to medium -sized businesses and low -level enterprise.
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So bigger than that, you're going to want to personalize a bit more when the accounts are very limited.
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Lesson 23, I see a lot of reps ask way too many questions way too soon.
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And I get it, you know, they're trying to qualify so they don't waste time.
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But here's the problem.
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You haven't
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invisible stranger ambushing their day and they don't trust you
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so the winning strategy is actually to book the meeting then qualify the prospect especially
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when selling a new product
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or to a new persona there's two reasons why number one
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you have to get frequent before you get good more pitches means you get better faster
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and number two you earn trust after a strong pitch not before
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so lesson 23 book the meeting then qualify worst case scenario you get an extra pitch out
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and cancel the meeting because there's absolutely no way they're a fit for your product Question 24, at the end of the day, closing is the most important part of your conversation.
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So here's a quick tip to increase your close rate by 30 to 40%.
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Use a soft ask.
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Traditional closes sound something like, hey, would you be interested?
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Would you be open to booking a meeting?
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But the problem with that is it's too high of a mental commitment in your prospect's mind.
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Replace this with an easy to answer question
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that has nothing to do with whether or not they think they might buy your product.
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This is going to lower the cognitive effort to get them to the next step.
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Do you happen to have your calendar available or are you a morning person?
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Then go into scheduling.
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So lesson 24, use soft asks when closing.
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And if they're really not interested, they'll have to expend more energy to come up with a negative response.
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Lesson 25, I remember one of my first role play sessions with my CRO.
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And he said, you know, Micah, you sound great, but honestly, you sound too smooth.
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I thought to myself, how the hell can I sound too smooth?
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It's sales, right?
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And he explained that the cold call shouldn't sound like a TED Talk or a state of a union address, having a conversation at the bar.
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That made a lot of sense because when we're talking with a friend or family member, we're not reciting lines.
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Only sociopaths do that.
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We pause, we search for the next word, we drop in ums and ahs or you knows without even thinking about it.
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These are called verbal disfluencies.
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And while too much of it can sound sloppy, a little bit can actually help you sound human.
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Because if you sound like you're delivering a script, people tune out.
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But if it sounds like you're thinking through it, you know, in real time, like it's your first time saying it, feel like the first time.
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So lesson 25, don't be too polished, sound human, not rehearsed.
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Lesson 26, great reps don't just feel productive, they know they are because they track their numbers.
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What doesn't get measured doesn't improve.
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And if you're not tracking your funnel, you're flying without a compass.
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So here's what I personally monitor when I'm calling.
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The volume metrics I'll track are total qualified meetings, shows, booked meetings, conversations, dials, and time on dialer.
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Then my these over different periods of time, daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly, depending on what I want to analyze.
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Sometimes it's to spot trends.
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Sometimes it's to run experiments, but always it's to get better.
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So lesson 26, know your numbers because the data doesn't lie and your improvements live in those patterns.
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Lesson 27, if cold calling is sucking the living soul out of you, which you can if you're not careful, it's probably time for a wake -up call.
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And so several previous lessons help combat this, like treating the cold call like a performance, setting micro goals, really working
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helping you steer you in the right direction
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but it all starts with the decision
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so lesson 27 choose to make cold calling fun otherwise you're
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doing it wrong now for my final tip instead of clicking off this video
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and thinking wow i know a lot about cold calling now
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i hope to remember to implement all this later what you
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need to do right now is to actually apply all of this
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but if you don't have a solid system
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and the right process set up for cold calling you're going to struggle
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so click here to head over to the next one where i go over the exact system
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and process you need to generate leads and book appointments.
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Cold calling is truly one of the most reliable and consistent ways to generate business, but you need a system if you want to succeed.
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So we'll see you over there.
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What You'll Practice in This Lesson
Learn to speak confidently about professional strategies and mindset shifts using real-world sales insights from the video. You'll practice understanding and reproducing conversational English focused on cold calling, including overcoming challenges, building skills, and reframing rejection. This lesson is perfect for IELTS speaking practice and improving fluency in business contexts.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Cold call: A phone call made to a potential customer without prior contact. Example: "He made 500,000 cold calls to grow his business."
- Call reluctance: Fear or hesitation to make sales calls. Example: "Her call reluctance improved after she started dialing daily."
- Grind: Hard, repetitive work. Example: "At first, cold calling felt like a grind, but it got easier."
- Ethical sales: Selling with honesty and integrity. Example: "His team focused on ethical sales, building long-term trust."
- Reframe: To change the way you think about something. Example: "She reframed rejections as steps toward a sale."
- Iron sharpens iron: A proverb meaning people improve by working with others. Example: "The team thrived because iron sharpens iron."
Practice Tips for Shadowing & Pronunciation
The video uses a confident, conversational tone with a moderate speed, making it ideal for shadowing technique practice. Here's how to master it:
- Shadow speech in short chunks: Pause the video after 5-10 seconds, repeat the speaker's words, and mimic their rhythm. Focus on phrases like "no weasels, just make the dials" to practice natural stress and intonation.
- Emphasize key terms: The speaker stresses words like "foundational skill" and "future CEO" to highlight importance. Copy this emphasis to improve your English pronunciation and clarity.
- Match the mindset: The video's tone shifts from reflective ("I used to stall") to motivational ("every no still pays you"). Shadowing this helps you convey emotion in English, a critical skill for IELTS speaking practice.
- Repeat daily: Use this video as part of your "learn English with YouTube" routine. Consistent shadowing will train your mouth to form complex phrases smoothly, reducing hesitation.
Remember: Cold calling's "90% success from showing up" applies to language learning too—consistent practice with shadowing will sharpen your skills faster than any textbook.
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 the team was around, I'd pitch · if they're really not interested, they'll have |
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to think |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've made · I've pitched · I've seen |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | wasn't focused · be seen · be performed |
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.