Why Timmy Won't Cold Call

Timothy M. Barnes graduated in 2016 with a Communications degree from Bragley University. Timmy fashions himself a young Mark Cuban and would have chosen a major within the school of business but calculus really wasn’t his thing. At this stage of his life, when it came to finding a job he was certain about two things. He’s a good talker and he loves technology, mostly snapchat and youtube but to him that meant all-encompassing technologies. As a result, upon graduation Timmy decided to take his self-proclaimed talents to the field of technology sales. Scouting for a job, he found his target through his buddy Josh who worked for a tech company that was hiring entry level sales people. Josh had been working there for the last six months and is one of Timmy’s better friends. 

Sales Development Representative

Timmy’s desired position of CEO was already filled so he went ahead and settled for the next best thing, Sales Development Representative. Josh had been trying to tell him what he needs to know about the position but Timmy’s his own guy, he’s going to figure this out his own way. Nervous for his first day, his biggest concerns are how long he’ll get for lunch and that thing that he kept hearing everybody say “sucks”, cold calling. During the interview process the various managers let him know that he would have to make cold calls. He remembers hearing it a few times and he got the feeling they really wanted to make a point of it. One manager told him it was because cold calling isn’t for everybody and they needed to make sure he's okay with it before they could consider him for the position. Of course, Timmy with all his NON cold calling experience confidently assured them that he’s completely fine with it.  Adding to the mystery, Josh hasn’t really mentioned too much about making cold calls other than a quick smirk. It’s a little odd because he won’t seem to shut up about everything else and Timmy’s definitely not going to ask any questions. 

As he gets himself ready for his first day, Timmy recalls Josh boasting about his connections on his LinkedMe profile (what’s that?). Something about building a business network and researching prospects, whatever that means. Timmy’s from the generation of smart phones and throwing together internet profiles is almost a part of everyday life. He starts creating his LinkedIn account which provides a great excuse to throw on his new suit and take some selfies. While exploring this strange version of social media, he decides this might be a good place to search cold calling. Wow, Timmy finds out that not only does cold calling suck but according to some people it may be completely dead. What’s up with that and what’s social selling? 

First Day

Timmy’s first day starts with an alarm on his iPhone and a text message from mom to make sure he’s up for work, dad calls 5 mins later reminding him to listen. Excited to start telling people all the things he knows, he throws on his new clothes and heads off to his first day of complete technology domination. Arriving at work Timmy is quickly escorted around for introductions to the sales team. During the blur of faces and small talk, he endures a little hazing from some Account Executives. They want to know if he’s ready to make some cold calls, giggle, ha ha, noogie. These sales bullies leave Timmy by telling him they’re just messing with him and welcome to BigTech, but seriously, have fun on the phone dude.  

After a month of sales training and getting comfortable in his new cubicle the expectation for Timmy to start making cold calls is building, he’s starting to feel nervous about it. The sales trainer and manager have thrown a lot of information at him in a short period of time. Even though it’s been a ton of data he feels really confident that he understands everything and assures the trainer he’s got it! The trainer reminds Timmy that most SDRs are on the phone with in the first few months and you don’t want to be that rep reminded to make cold calls. As the tension in his stomach builds he assures the trainer he’s ready to go and couldn’t be more excited, “gulp”.

First Cold Calling Session

Nervous as heck but ready to walk the talk, Timmy gears himself up for his first cold calling session. He’s prepared himself a scripted voicemail that begins with an ill-advised: “Hi Decision Maker, it's Monday morning so I’ll cut to the chase”. He fires off message after message feeling like this cold calling thing isn’t so bad. Nearing the end of his first call session, after 16 confusing voicemails, he catches his first live person. Surprised to hear a voice he shouts out the first words that come to mind, “Hi, I’m Timothy Barnes sales development rep and I’m calling from BigTech and we are a technology company, our technology is agnostic and we work with of a lot of the world’s biggest companies like blah, blah and blah”. Finally interrupted, an abrupt but friendly voice says “we’re not interested please remove us from your call list, thank you have a nice day” click the line is dead. Timmy just found out one of the reasons why some sales people want cold calling to be dead as well. 

Determined to finish his call list Timmy forges on to his next dial. He remembers to just ask for the contact by name. Ask for John Williams, ask for John Williams he tells himself as the phone rings. This attempt is little different because now he knows that it’s actually possible to reach a human on these cold calls. He gets a voicemail again but his “Let me cut to the chase” magic doesn’t come out good because he’s thinking about asking for John Williams. Oh well, two more dials and this first cold calling session is in the books. Another voicemail picks up and his delivery isn’t that bad but still not as good as earlier (like it matters). Last dial, he hits the final digits and after one ring a very angry voice on the phone says “This is Nick” stunned Timmy says “is Nick Davis there?”, an even angrier voice says “this IS Nick”. Nervously he spouts out “Hi Nick, this is Timothy Barnes from BigTech” Nick interrupts “Not Interested” click. The line is dead and Timmy just confirmed what everybody had already been saying, cold calling does suck. Emails must be better.

Thanks for reading Timmy’s cold calling story. This semi-fictional article was written in defense of all SDRs and sales people who are not properly prepared or developed before they're required to make cold calls. Cold calling is one of the most difficult things in business and the preparation for it is widely undervalued.

Matt Wanty is the author of â€˜The Lost Art of Cold Calling’, a sales training book written to help today's sales people succeed on cold calls. #sales #coldcall #timmy Timmy 2 and Timmy 3.

This article was inspired by comments shared in a LinkedIn message from Jay Jensen, thanks Jay!