EP53: Myths and Misconceptions of the Cold-Calling World

Chris and Corey continue their discussion with Valerie Schlitt, CEO and founder of VSA, which began with the Market Dominance Guys’ podcast, When Operational Excellence Meets a 9-Foot Wall. Making another observation about operational excellence, Chris begins this session with the statement, “A big part of operational excellence is recognizing that you don’t always have the resources that you need to get the job done perfectly — or even well.” Valerie thrives on solving problems just like this one and is adept at addressing problems in unique ways. Together these three sales experts tackle the issues of maintaining operational excellence while running a business — either before or during a pandemic.

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As their discussion progresses, they debunk several myths about the best way to plan a cold-calling campaign, they tear apart the misconception of how much time it takes to onboard a sales rep, and they share some of the unexpected employment backgrounds that have made for the most effective BDRs. Always intelligent, often irreverent, Chris, Corey, and Valerie delve into what works — and what doesn’t — in the world of sales. You won’t want to miss their insights!

 

About Our Guest

 

Valerie Schlitt is the founder, owner, and CEO of VSA, a B2B call center that helps clients generate leads and produce new business. Valerie also heads up the Philadelphia chapter of AA-ISP. 

 

The complete transcript of this episode is below:

Chris Beall (01:48):

I think a big part of operational excellence is recognizing that you don't always have the resources that you need to get the job done perfectly or even well and sometimes you just have to guess. And if you don't have a formal process for entering guessing mode and then doing the guess and then treating the guess as a fact, I think it's really hard to do. And I think it's a distinguishing feature among operationally excellent leaders, is that they know that they're the guesser and when it's time to guess, they're upfront about the fact that they're guessing.

Corey Frank (02:26):

So would you say Chris that all most operational mandates, operational posits, facts today have its origin story in a guess yesterday?

Chris Beall (02:39):

Usually yes. And COVID's a great example. When COVID hit, we were suddenly all out of time and didn't have very much information. How did we know we were out of a time because we could ask our CFOs when we're going to run out of money?

Corey Frank (02:52):

That's right.

Chris Beall (02:55):

That was the March 22nd question this year. You got to the CFO and you say, okay, so in scenario number bad, right, where all of our customers can't pay us, 22 million people die. When do we run out of money? And then you can reason your way to all sorts of stuff but you don't have enough information to tell you what to do and so you take a guess. And you got to do it fast, the brick's been thrown at your head. I mean, COVID was a pretty quick little brick. And so we guess.

And I think that's where the great stuff tends to come from because when we're doing what we know how to do, we're doing what we already did. So it's not comforting. It's not comfy at all. I mean, the people often ask me, what's the deal with leadership? Aren't you the leader if people following you? And I would say, not if they're just following you on a trip to the ice cream store. No. You got to be crossing the freeway with the busy traffic and in the dark with a dog chasing you. Then you find out if you're a leader. If they follow you then, maybe.

Announcer (04:11):

Let's talk about that operational excellence theme about guessing, right, in terms of Valerie at VSA, right. It's a top of funnel firm and you talk about... Chris that should we do everything as a leader, as a CEO, as a VP of sales, as a sales manager? And certainly Valerie, a company like yours and Chris, certainly a weapon like ConnectAndSell, right, are two such vehicles where... I've got across this little chasm here, I've got to... I'm faced with this nine foot wall. Do I want to go down? Do I want to just stick with mountains or do I already have a predictable pathway? You chose to go the path not traveled, right, the way not mapped yet.

So Valerie, from an operational perspective, when somebody lands at your doorstep as a VP of sales, what do they... Say Valerie I need help. I cannot do X anymore. I've reached the limit of my potential with my team and why? I don't want to hire any more folks. I want to try this new particular market. I want to test some new messaging. What state do you find a lot of the folks emotionally when they arrive at your doorstep whether to engage in VSA or not?

Valerie Schlitt (05:29):

As you probably know they arrive in all different states, but I would say the most common state i