82: Confessions of an SDR #3 (with Dom Odoguardi, Senior SDR at Cognism)

Welcome back to the SD Confessions. Yeah, I feel like I have to keep singing Usher's Confessions during these, and we had a very funny one with Dom and his . His confession is hilarious because he talked about how he went into LinkedIn dms, he did the wrong copy and. And it led into some to wrong things.

We also have a very interesting and funny story around gifts or gifs, or however you wanna say it. So not gonna spoil it, but you're gonna get a laugh outta that one. And we also talked about some tactics on how you could reach out to people below the power line to get meetings. And also how do you make sure you stay organized so you're not all over the place.

Have some fun, take some notes and enjoy it. And we have a guest here, Dom. Dom, tell us about yourself and we'll get into the. Awesome. How's it going guys? My name's Dom. I am a enterprise senior Enterprise SDR here at Cognis. And I'm just looking forward to getting right into my confessions.

the confessions. All right, so let's get into it. Dom, what is your SDR confessions? I'm excited here cuz you're already laughing. So, hopefully everyone's in for a. Yeah, no I think it's I think it's pretty funny, but also kind of embarrassing at the same time. . But as you know, starting up as an sdr you make a lot of mistakes along the way.

And some of those mistakes may involve a bit of spamming. And one key thing that I would always do at the beginning was I would copy and paste constantly whether it was like an email or a LinkedIn message. And in this particular case, I was copy and pasting my LinkedIn messages one day and I was saying like, Hey, thanks for connecting.

I noticed that you were a BDR manager at blank. You know, how's it going? But I was changing the name of the prospect every time. At one point, I guess within the the 30 minute range that I was doing this process, I just completely blanked out. I started going on autopilot and I started changing the names of the prospects.

I just started pressing. Copy, paste, copy, paste paste, paste. And then I realized what I did, all those people that I was sending messages off to were all online, . So they all like saw my messages straight out the gate and there were these three prospects. It went, I remember it went Aaron, James, Patrick, Ben and I said, Hey Aaron.

Thanks for connecting. I noticed you were an SDR manager. You know, what do you do when you have this problem? And then I copied that one and I pasted it three more times in a row without. Change the name at all. And James, Patrick and Ben read them like within seconds. And I said, oh no. Like what do I do now?

And one of them just one of them obviously just didn't reply to me. He was like, alright, I dunno what this kid is doing. James and Ben replied to me, James goes, Hey, that's not my name. . I'm not like, clearly . And then I just, I started panicking. I was like, ah, I dunno how to save this one. And so I just, I really just dug myself a grave and I was like, oh, so sorry to hear that.

You know, I guess my my copy and pasting skills are not as good as I thought they were. I dunno. I try to kinda like laugh it off, but he, yeah, he wasn't having it and. Obviously I did not get that meeting . But it, that was just one of the experiences that I just, I was so embarrassed about. And after that, I'd never again did the whole copy paste spam thing.

I just tried to, you know, read everything before I sent it out. Try to personalize it a bit more each time. It takes a little more time, but obviously it, it helps not to put you in this position. . Yeah. I mean, A wild story for everyone to take a step back and be like, making sure that they're probably checking their LinkedIn messages now that they didn't do that.

I mean, you could have always played it off and said like, just check in to make sure you're paying attention. Right. , you could have played it off that way. True. But I dunno, they could have been mad at that one too, but, you know, you always gotta play with it once you're in that scenario.

I know, I was, I just gonna ask you like, what would your advice be? Like how could I have played that off a bit better, I guess? So, so I have made a similar mistake before where I just, and it wasn't like at the scale that you did, but it was like a couple people where I just was like, not paying attention.

You, you know, as an sdr, you're just like, some days you're just like not paying attention. That happens. Yeah, exactly. And the person was like, yeah, I'm like, not Sally, or like, this is incorrect . So the way that I go about it is I like take full accountability, but also I do it in a creative way. So like, I'll send them a video.

And I'll be like, Hey, it's me. Look, I made a massive mistake. I just wanna let you know that I'm not a robot and I just. I've just messed up completely . And so essentially what I'll say there is basically be like, Hey, like this is the reason why I was reaching out. I have done my research.

, this is just why I messed up here. So I've done that and I've turned it around. Sometimes like people will laugh. Yeah. They'll be like, good recovery. Some people, you know, won't respond. Some people will still be mad. But I found that by doing the video response was a game changer for me. Some people, yeah, look at it.

Voice note. Look, if you don't wanna do the video, , but that was the way that I recovered and I just like basically roasted myself and they liked that. So then I got a meeting. So it works out that way. Yeah, I kinda wish I tried that now. That's, that seems like it definitely would've worked in my favor if I did something like that.

I mean, you could always go back to those people. It was like probably months ago and be like, I'm, I messed up like months ago, but let me recover now. , . So, so that was like the LinkedIn story there and then Yeah. Are there any other confessions? Cause there, there could, there may be more there in, in the dms that we don't know about.

Absolutely. Yeah. No, you could definitely find a plethora of of confessions and just embarrassing moments in my LinkedIn dms. Even my emails too, but a, another story that kind of I guess highlights this entire idea of the whole like spamming nature. Is this one instance again, on LinkedIn, I dmd a prospect and I said this time it was personalized.

And I said Hey Matt. Thanks for connecting. Like, I noticed that you were heading up the sales, you know, sales efforts over there at Blank Company. We're just wondering, you know, what were you doing in this case when you don't have correct contact? And he sent me back a gif which was pretty funny.

And the gif was some guy just saying like, oh, no. Not me, not interested. And at that point I was like, okay, this guy doesn't really wanna talk. Lemme just start sending him gifts back. And so we had a full conversation for about, again, 30 minutes maybe, of just sending gif after gift.

Him saying, not interested me saying, but why though, ? And then he was saying like nah man, that's just not me. And then my gift after that was like, don't you just want to hear me? Like, I just kept finding, I don't know, we had a full conversation like that. And at the very end, the guy goes, all right man, just leave me alone.

But he texted that it wasn't a gift. He just, he straight up goes, all right, man, that's enough . Yeah. And I thought that was hilarious, but the same time I just, I didn't know how else was to go around it cuz he was just replying with gifts. So I said I might as well just do it too, but I as well, before would you have done Morgan that this is absolutely hilarious.

So, That is so funny. I think at the end of the day, if he would've said like, let's stop with the gifts. I think I would've done one more gift there. One more. Just I would, yeah. I just would've done one more and been like, Hey, like, or I would've been like, I would've done like the ones where it's like, so you're telling me there's a chance I would've, oh, so you're saying Chance.

I would've done that and been like, Hey, like, you know, one more time. And he probably would've not liked that. That's probably what I would've done there. But with sdr, like everything's. Sometimes just pushing the limit. Yeah. And seeing what you can do. Right. That's what I would've done. I would've at least tried to get the meeting.

Cuz at that point you might just be like, no, I don't care. And then like, it kind of is what it is and you just move on. Right. So that's what I would've done in that scenario. I would've done one more. Yeah. You've already gone back and forth like on like eight. Exactly. . I should have pushed it.

Yeah. . No, but it was so funny. I'd never done anything like that before and that's never happened again. But I thought that was a really funny experience. It's a legend. It's definitely a legendary moment for sure. And I want to go back to the first thing that you did, the copy paste, copy, paste.

And I think everyone here is like, okay, we gotta make sure that. We need a prospect in the right way. So how are you making sure that you have like the right names, the right company when you're doing it now, do you have like a new process that you go through? Like, I'm very curious on that. Absolutely. So the process it's more or less paying attention instead of just spamming constantly.

Yeah. And so what I do now, wh when I'm going through the majority of my emails or my LinkedIn dms I really just go deep in inside their profile and I say, okay, well this guy's name is Morgan, right? He works at, you know, CISM. This is what he does. Make sure I understand everything. It takes a bit longer, obviously it's not as automated but it makes like the world of change because when somebody gets a personalized email or LinkedIn dm, that's like perfect to exactly what their operations are on a day-to-day basis.

It makes. But obviously I try to steer away a lot now from those automated ones cause it just doesn't work out. and some people may just get mad. Yeah. Oh no. They, they absolutely will. And I think the key is that, like you said, being more thoughtful going about it. And I think everyone listening in will now understand, hey, like.

Don't spam, right. like, like, yeah. Stay away from getting in the spam. I think one of the things that you can always do is make sure that you highlight something in their profile or what they're posting. But I'm curious like, You're being more thoughtful. You're not spamming as much. It sounds like you've learned to learn the lesson there.

How are you making sure that you're messaging? Definitely learn. My lesson is thoughtful. Are you looking at the LinkedIn profile? Are you looking at post comments? What if they have nothing? What are you doing there? Yeah, no, that's a good question. Well definitely now I've moved out of the commercial space into the enterprise space.

And in the enterprise space, what I've noticed is that a lot more people put in their bios, you know, something of what they do to a dayday basis. Either it's in their skills. Tab at the bottom, I do lead generation cold calling prospecting. Or they have something in their bio that says like, I oversee, like the North America sales efforts for healthcare consulting, something like that.

But it makes it a lot easier, obviously, because then I take that and I make it relevant towards them. And I'd say, Hey, what would you do? I like to paint a picture for 'em. I say, what would you do if like one of your top prospects in the healthcare industry isn't answering their direct dial and you're just not getting through with their emails?

And that's kind of how I pitch mobile data, because that's what we do here at, in the commercial space. Obviously it's a bit different, but that's where I dig into their company instead of the the person themselves. And I say, Hey, I noticed you guys we're focusing on these industries. I was just wondering, you know, what type of prospects are you targeting?

And then, Sometimes say like, oh, I'm targeting this prospect or I'm targeting this industry. I'm like, oh, great. And then again, I paint a picture for him. It's just more like question based stuff. Yeah. I like that, that you're thinking more question based, and it sounds like you're also looking at it from a like, persona based standpoint.

So I guess this is a question, I think this is important for everyone. How often are you studying? Personas or you're in enterprise space, how often are you studying these industries you're going after? Curious to hear your perspective on. Yes, that's also a good question. In the enterprise space, I found out that researching is a lot more important than the commercial space.

In the commercial space, you can get away with spam, but again, it's not a good idea by any means, as you can tell from my stories. But you should definitely still be researching in the commercial space. In the enterprise space. However you need to be really personalized. Cause some of these companies that are 500 employees or more have so many different verticals.

They're working. So even if their bio on LinkedIn says we work with healthcare and transportation, that doesn't necessarily mean that prospect or that, you know, VP of sales is targeting transportation. He may be working a different vertical. And that's where you kinda have to look inside their bio, find who his teammates or her teammates are and see exactly, you know, what their operations are like.

Yeah. I really like that. What are you said operations look like, and you're doing that on your end. Are you also talking to people in the company, like customer success or are you talking to AEs as well to get more information? . So obviously if I can't find the titles I want like the big titles like director of sales Development, or you know, chief Sales Officer, those types of titles that kind of like ring a bell as tier ones. I go low, I go to like tier threes. I go to the. The account managers, account executives, even some SDRs, if I can find their numbers or just add them on LinkedIn and I tell them hey, you know, this is typical, typically what we do.

I've been speaking to a couple of your colleagues in the past. I noticed you guys have a problem with X, Y, and Z or do you have a problem with X, Y and Z? And that way they gimme all the information I need and I can go after the other guys and if I don't, can't find the other guys, I just ask them for a referral and I say, Hey, I noticed that this is an issue for your team.

Who would be a good contact to bring this information towards, and hopefully we can get you guys on like a free trial or just run some searches, that type of stuff. Yeah I absolutely like that and I like to call it the groundswell approach. And I think a lot of people don't think about it in that way to reach out to SD and E cause like, oh, that's a waste of time and no, you can actually get direct dials, emails, info that you wouldn't really key elements there.

And a follow up question to that, because I think a lot of people may be like, you know what do, that's a good strategy. Do you find the best conversion there? And then I have a follow up question, and what I mean by the best conversion is that you're emailing them, is calling them the best, LinkedIn, whatever.

You actually seen the best conversion rate to actually reach out to these people. Yeah, so obviously I, I'm a pretty like, cold call heavy person myself. I do enjoy making my dials. I find the best conversions over the phone just because I've spent a lot of time, you know, practicing objection handling, understanding, you know, a couple different industries and I like it more because you can mess up on the phone.

but it still flows. You can still have a conversation with somebody on LinkedIn or email when you're going back and forth. Some things may get lost in translation. You may not answer the question that they're asking, you know, perfectly, and that might kill you because they may not respond to you. And yeah I just like a webit on the phone.

It's more of like an interaction. I can hear their tone. I can change my tone according to their, and yeah. I. Does that make sense? Yeah, no, it does. Absolutely. And then when you're doing that call you mentioned a little bit, what is your introduction to an s r A E? Obviously it's probably different than when you're calling like a cro, r o or a VPs sales.

So how do you introduce yourself and like, sell to the SD R and they're like, wait, what's going on? Yeah. I definitely try not to sell to the SD R as much. Really. I just try to like level with them and just say like, Hey man. . I do the exact same thing you do, right? I know what the grind feels like.

I was really just reaching out to you because, you know, I noticed you guys were focusing on this industry. Just curious what you were doing when you have this type of issue. And I just try to be really like, level-headed with them. Stay on the same level. I don't wanna feel like I'm pitching to them or anything.

I just wanna have a conversation. And by doing that, like I, at least I feel like there's a mutual respect there where they tell me some information. I hopefully can answer any questions they have because they're gonna be the end users of a tool like this anyways. So they usually have the most questions and then I get that referral.

That makes it you know, makes the lead flow continue to push on. I can go get their manager, talk to them a bit more and leverage that previous conversation. Yeah, no, that makes complete sense. And now that you have that groundswell, you get the information there, like how do you leverage that information when you do talk to somebody?

Are you saying, Hey, I talked to your sdr, like and you need to pay attention. Are you telling the sdr, the ae, that you use that information? How are you making sure that's like. Yeah. So I always ask at the very end, I like asking this question. Would it be all right if I used your name as a reference or would you rather not me leave any breadcrumb chair?

And people usually laugh at that cause they're like, breadcrumb show. What is this? . But yeah, no I ask, I always ask that question most of the time, you know, I said, they laughed. They said, yeah, it's all right to use my name. And in the off chances they say, no, I said that, that's totally all right.

I'll definitely let them know that this problem is happening in the organization, but I won't mention your name at all. And again, kind of mutual respect there. I just keep going following the lead flow and try to find somebody higher up I can talk to. Yeah. Do you ever give thanks to the S C R A, if you do schedule the meeting, do you ever go back to them?

You know, that's a good idea. I actually, I probably, I don't, honestly, and maybe that's a good idea to like continue that relationship. Yeah. I don't think I've ever gone back unless it was somebody who, obviously we became like very close friends or we built a relationship beforehand. Like I'll go back and say, Hey, this was a great conversation.

But usually if it's a completely cold outreach and I end up booking their boss, yeah I guess I don't really go back. I think I'll start doing that. because I it builds like a relationship between you and the organization. Yeah, a hundred percent. Cuz you, you build that relationship, you never know where they could go next.

You couldn't be working together. Who knows, right? So if they were willing to give you that favor and letting them know, Hey, this is how it went, appreciate it. It goes a long way. It's very similar to like referrals. So when I started doing referrals, like it's like you get referred to somebody and then you're like, okay, cool.

And then you forget to like thank them or whatever. But I found that when you go back and say, Hey, thanks for that referral, it led to this. People appreciate that more and they're willing to give you unwarranted referrals, right? Where you didn't even ask for it and they're willing to help you out. So it's a small gesture, but it goes a long way.

Yeah, absolutely. I a hundred percent agree with that. Cool. So some really good. Advice here are some very tactical things to do. So what we've learned as we asked this last question to you, Dom, is look, don't just copy and paste and just go through LinkedIn. Cause you end up with some, maybe some odd responses.

As we talked about, we talked ways to combat it. If you do, if that does happen to you one day, we all make mistakes. So that could happen. So the another thing that to pay attention to, Like adding that first name to all those templates so you can add in a name so that you're not in this templated thing where it's like you put the name and then they're like, what the heck?

Add the first name. So you always make sure to like look at the name first. We also talked about the gifts or gifs or whatever people like to call them . That could be a strategy. Gifs. You can, you got, you can run that if you want. So you have that. And then you also talked about that bottom up approach where I think a lot of people could benefit from, so.

, you've given a lot of great advice today. The last question revolves around advice. What are some practical advice you have for SDRs right now In in this year? And then also as well, like, yeah, if they're new. Yeah. I guess the biggest, you know, the best advice I can give honestly is to continue to just roll with the punches.

As an sdr, you're gonna get a lot of stuff thrown at you. You're gonna have to deal with a lot of messes, sometimes messes that you created yourself because, you know, maybe you're just not there that yet with your experience. But don't let that, you know, lower your confidence level. Don't be discouraged.

Just keep rolling with the punches. Just know that after this bad conversation I'm gonna have a better conversation and just keep going from there. Don't stop just because, you know, you felt like you did a bad job. Learn from your mistakes, obviously, but just keep going. And I feel like that's the only really the most important piece that allowed me to be successful as an sdr.

I love that. That's a great advice because that's really what it is. It's a mental game. You have to keep pushing forward. You have to keep moving, and that's exactly what you have to do. So as we get outta here, Dom, any shout outs that you wanna. Yeah, I wanna give a shout out to my manager, Hayden Barry.

He is one of the, like the founding reasons why I was very successful as an SDR in the commercial space. And he's also mentoring me in the enterprise space as well which is making a big difference. Honestly, without him, I definitely wouldn't be where I was. And without him answering all my questions and I asked him a lot of questions, , like I probably annoyed him at some points, but asking as many questions as I could really helped me just to continue onto my path.

I lo I love that you're showing the managers love. They don't get a, they don't get enough love, so they appreciate I appre. I appreciate that. Shout out. So y'all, there's another SCR confessions. Hopefully you laughed. Hopefully you learned something and I'll see you on the next.