I’m a fraud. Twice over.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been dishing out sales advice without ever sitting in the seat. Sure, I’ve learned a lot from incredible sales leaders—Jacob Fleisher, Max Freeman, Michael Manne, and more—who’ve graciously taught me the ropes. I’ve watched pros like Rory McDermott crush it on calls.
But until now, my sales experience has been purely theoretical.
So, I decided it was time to get my hands dirty.
Last week, I made my first cold calls.
Here’s how that went:
**start**
Hmm, this LinkedIn profile looks promising. Let’s find a number.
Chrome extension spinning… spinning… okay, got the #!
Dialing…
what’s my pitch again? prospect picks up.
Whoa! Someone answered! Okay, stay calm… and of course, I immediately forget everything I planned to say.
**Awkward stumble through features, slowly getting my footing.**
A few calls later, I finally hit my stride. Had a great conversation with someone: we dove deep into their call recording process, discussed how it adds value, the procurement dynamics, and more.
Boom! First meeting booked. I’m invincible. Cold calling is easy.
**tries again, fails 20 more times**
Uh. Right. Not that easy.
**end**
This was humbling. I walked away with a newfound respect for SDRs—the grit, resilience, and persistence they bring to every call. It’s a rollercoaster of rejection and victories.
For all the growth professionals out there: if you haven’t done this, do it. Seriously.
There’s a Japanese concept called the “Gemba Walk,” made famous by Toyota. It’s about leaders stepping out of their comfort zones—managers in offices working factory shifts to better understand frontline challenges. Jeff Bezos had his execs do customer support. Elon Musk spends time on the production floor.
After my brief “Gemba Walk” into sales, I get it. I learned more about our tools, our ICP, and our process gaps in a few hours of cold calling than I could’ve in weeks of secondhand analysis.
