After making over 9,000 calls in a year, here’s what I’ve learned about Cold Calling

Here are some lessons I learned the hard way so that you don't have to make the same ones yourself.

As Head of Business Development at Untap Your Sales Potential, a big part of my role is keeping the pipeline full. That means showing up every single day, dialing, connecting, and learning over 9,000 phone calls in a year.

Here are my top takeaways:

1. Volume creates clarity.

You learn fast what messaging works, what gets ignored, and how tone matters more than script.

Honestly, there is no substitute for getting in the reps, especially in the beginning, whether it’s a new role or a new product line you are selling.

One of the best ways is by doing. We are all guilty of analysis paralysis. I'm not going to lie there have been many times where I’ve over-researched.

With anything, just A/B test. I’ve found that when I’m super clear on our ICP, it makes my life much easier. Sometimes it’s tempting to just call down the list and download all of the leads that came in over the weekend when you log in on Monday morning.

When I’m being lazy, that’s what I do and it never works as well as having a strong game plan.

2. Conviction is so important.

Sales is very meta. Depending on your confidence level, it will lead to better results.

When I’m truly acting from service, I’m not afraid to challenge a prospect and plant a seed so that they would actually consider us vs just telling us what we want to do. Disqualify early if you know this person is pure BS don't waste your time and move on- there are literally thousands of prospects would it would make sense investing your time and energy into.

You can’t force it. Selling to sales professionals is funny sometimes. The most humble sellers are often the best prospects. You’d be shocked at how many sellers have never cracked $200k in earnings and will never spend money on coaching. Those are the people who will take 20 years to finally reach their earning potential.

3. High-value targets beat mass outreach.

Yesterday I spoke to someone who mainly worked with SDRs and younger AEs in a previous role. He mentioned that their company stopped doing B2C because it wasn’t a sustainable business model.

I shared that the reason we’re pacing to do $5M this year isn’t because we’re calling everyone it’s because we’re intentional about who we call.

When someone is making $300K a year, they aren’t stressed about investing $10K into coaching. They want to grow, and they have the resources to act. If I was calling SDRs making $85K, spending $10K would sound so foreign to them that it just doesn’t make sense.

4. Cold calling is less about pitching, more about qualifying.

Most people think the job is to “sell” on the call. What I’ve found is that the real win is identifying who is worth further energy and who isn’t.

Intuitively, you know who is a good fit. It’s only when I’m lazy and not truly scrubbing my list that I just call because I don’t want to do the deeper work required for thoughtful messaging.

The key is not to overdo it. If you spend too much time, it becomes analysis paralysis. Less is often more.

5. The hard lesson.

For too long, I chased anyone who would pick up the phone. That led to wasted cycles and frustration. The shift happened when I aligned my activity with the right people, not just more people.

There also needs to be a delicate balance. Just spending the extra 30 seconds to come up with messaging specific to that person even during a voicemail leaves a better impression and gets more callbacks.

I’ll often use our Ian GPT to help me come up with a POV that grabs attention.

6. Do not prejudge your leads before you talk to them.

There are so many assumptions I could make. Sometimes I’ll skip leads based in Spain, France, or outside of tech sales.

We’re fortunate to have a big lead pool because of our free content. When I see those leads come in as clients eventually, I get FOMO. But I’ve learned to stick to my process. For every unique scenario, you still have to stick to the game plan because it works.

7. A lot of times it’s about timing but to stay top of mind you must be persistent.

I’ve had prospects come in lately only because I’ve been persistent. Some had a healthy level of skepticism.

Let’s be real in sales, you still have to be persistent. People are busy. They have newborns, daycare drop-offs, or life events. There’s always something going on.

As much as you think your product is important, there’s always something competing for attention. Persistence matters.

8. When people say they don’t have time, it means you didn’t identify a need.

I talk to people all the time who say they don’t have time. Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and people you’d consider wealthy all have the same 24 hours.

I used to believe I didn’t have time either, until I realized that belief was what held me back.

The key is linkage: if they can’t see how you can help them with time scarcity, why would they take your call? A strong POV alleviates that concern.

For example, if you’re speaking with a father of young kids, you might say: “One of the most common reasons fathers join our program is because they know that with added responsibility, they need to up their game. That often means learning new skills to create a more sustainable career.”

We use the 12 Week Year framework to help people accomplish more in 40 hours than most do in 60.

9. How to keep your energy high.

At the end of the day, it’s about maintaining energy especially after hearing “no” all day.

It’s rarely about you. Often the timing isn’t right, or your offer isn’t a priority at the moment.

There usually needs to be a compelling event or trigger: a new role, a promotion, or coming back from leave. That’s when prospects are ready to act.

Sometimes, it’s simply someone saying, “I’m tired of running a marathon every quarter. I want to do something about it.”

10. Take care of your personal life so you can have a clear mind to focus.

Having your house in order means there’s no baggage from the past affecting your present role.

If you’ve been through layoffs, for example, that can carry into your new job. Talking to a therapist, coach, or mentor can help you process those experiences so they don’t impact your confidence.

11. Have fun in the process.

So many of us treat our careers like life or death. It might feel like that at times, but stop taking your job so seriously.

When you enjoy the process, people want to work with you. When you take everything so seriously, it becomes a burden instead of something grounded in gratitude and abundance.