Trellus (YC W22)

Head of GTM

Cognism

Account Executive

Senior Enterprise Sales Development Representative

• Interacting with prospects via telephone, email, and LinkedIn 
• Researching accounts, identifying key players, generating interest, and developing accounts to stimulate opportunity
• Becoming a trusted resource and developing superior relationships with prospects
• Scheduling initial meetings for the account executive team

Sales Development Representative

ExtendaTouch

•	Tasked with the management and organization of 94 interns including undergrad and MBA students
•	Assisted on strategic outreach ideas to veterans, non-profit organizations, and social media influencers 
•	Managed various teams for social media marketing and content creation 
•	Assisted CEO in market research for creating a database of over 5000 nonprofit organizations 
•	Communicated, organized, and executed ideas for innovation and improvement

Community Manager

Suffolk University

•Organize programs and events for the honors business students
•Assist business school dean with projects
•Coordinate and assist with open house events

Ambassador of Sawyer Business School- Honors Program

Alternative Spaces

• Manage all social media platforms
• Reinvent the company's online presence

Marketing Developer 

Garrick-Santo Landscape Co.

Seasonal Landscaper

Banana Republic

•     Developed excellent communication and interpersonal skills  
•     Accurately handle cash, check, and credit transactions
•     Flexibility and strong time management skills
•     Trained in loss prevention, merchandise control, and merchandising

Seasonal Sales Associate

Malden YMCA

• Enhanced my development of management and customer service skills, along with assisting disabled residence.

Lifeguard

GTM @ Trellus (YC W22) | Get your AI-coach and Auto Dialer at trellus.ai

I see you snooping 👀

Well you’re here so might as well tell you about me.

- Currently running all GTM at Trellus.ai

- Extremely passionate/obsessed about all things start ups, SDRing, and especially cold calling!

- I host a show called GetPitched! where reps cold call mystery prospects and try to book a meeting in 60 seconds flat.

- Proud first generation Italian - American 🇮🇹

Want to 3x your conversation and get coaching on all your cold call?

DM and I’ll set you up with Trellus! 


Have you ever tried leaning back on your cold calls? 📞 

No, I'm not talking about physically leaning back (you might fall out of your chair)

I mean using a more casual and humorful tone with your prospects. 

Almost every new SDR/BDR thinks they need to be 1000% serious when talking to exec-level prospects and I'm here to say that's just not the case.

In fact, I began seeing more success when I first started cold calling the moment I let my funny bone flex a little. 

Taking cold calling too seriously is just going to burn you out and bore your prospects. You got to have a little fun with it. 

Not to mention, your prospects are humans just like you! Sure they may have a big fancy title and wear a suit on their LinkedIn pic but I guarantee you they are human beings (most of them anyway).

If you're going to be cold calling today and still don't believe me this is a real quote from a VP of Sales I spoke to last week. ⬇ 

Me: So what do you have planned for the 4th, any illegal firework action or taking it easy?

Prospect: "Nothing too illegal just going to rip a slip n' slide with a pack of Coors light and hope to god my wife doesn't see..."

🤷‍♂️ 

Your prospects are humans 

Don't be too serious

Happy Dialing ☎ 

#coldcalling

Dom Odoguardi

Joshua Bailey 🦕⛵️ and I spontaneously decided to interview some students in Prospect Park and this is what they had to say about cold-calling ⬇ 

Here are our biggest takeaways from this "social experiment"

1. A lot of companies are investing in social media for marketing these days and not a lot of them are using the phones for an outbound channel

2. Cold calling is uncomfortable for most which makes it a harder task to perform 

3. Cold calling can be a waste of resources if done incorrectly 

So what does this mean for the state of cold calling? 

👉 It means it has never been easier to stand out from the crowd than it is now. 

Companies don't want to spend time perfecting outbound and reps don't want do to uncomfortable tasks. Making it easier for you to pick up the phone and start having real conversations.

Happy Dialing ☎ 

#coldcalling

How many cold calls does it take to book a meeting? 

If you're using the phones as a consistent channel to book your outbound pipeline it's worth running the numbers and finding out how many cold calls you need to hit your goals.

An easy way I'd recommend anyone to do this is by breaking it down into quick napkin math. 

👉 First, take your avg. conversion rate when speaking to real prospects:

We'll say it's 25% 

👉 Next, find how many connections it takes to get the intended prospects on the phone:

Call it 50% (varies based on data) 

👉 Now you need your connect rate:

We'll say it's 8% (again varies on data) 

✅ That's all you need - Now plug them into this formula...

100 dials x 8% = 8 connects 

8 connects x 50% = 4 real prospects

4 real prospects x 25% = 1 conversion (MB) 

Now you know roughly how many dials it takes to book 1 meeting a day. 

Whether it's your data, dials, or conversion - if the numbers don't add up you need to change some variables. 

Better to know what you can change rather than driving blind. 

Happy Dialing ☎

#coldcalling

Top 5 BEST cold call openers: ☎ 

We've tested all of these and can confidently say they will net you -146% conversion!

1️⃣ "Uhhhhhh.... *clears throat * John can you hear me..... John... you there?

2️⃣ "Dude I'm not getting any pickups today..oh shit! Hey John this is Dom how you doing today!?"

3️⃣ "Hi John, this is Will calling. Truth be told this is a cold call, not sure if that makes you want to throw your hand in a blender using the puree option at high speed or take 30 seconds to hear me out"

4️⃣ Hey John, it's Dom with Trellus (YC W22)! I know I'm catching you out of the blue today. Do you have 33.141592653589793238462643383279 seconds for me to explain why I called? Promise to be brief!

5️⃣ "Yo John, wanna buy some software?"

What's your go-to opener?

#coldcalling

Controversial but if a prospect tells me they don't take cold calls I'll push back and here's why... 

Just so you get the full picture, 75% of my prospects are sales leaders who oversee other individual contributors (SDRs, BDRs, AEs, etc.) who make cold calls. 📞 

Now I'm not saying that I flip out on prospects when they tell me this. What I like to do is push back just hair to get their gears to move in the right direction and show them my perspective. 

⬇ Something like this: ⬇ 

Prospect: "I don't take sales calls"

Me: "Oh jeez, maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here. I noticed you're leading the SDR org at ACME so I figured they'd be doing the same thing I am with their prospects, but maybe I got that wrong?"

Prospect: "No they do a lot of cold calling, I just don't like to take cold calls."

Me: "You feel like it's invasive to cold call prospects?"

Prospect: "No not really it's just my personal preference." 

Me: "Well how about we make a deal here... If you aren't opposed to it I can briefly share why I even thought this conversation would be relevant to you and if you think it's a waste of your time you can hang up the phone on my face. Is that fair? "

9/10 times these calls go on to last 4+ minutes 

Not saying this will work for everyone (especially if you are not selling to salespeople) but it works for me so figured I'd share. 

Lmk what works for you!

Happy Dialing ☎ 

#coldcalling

Haven't tried auto dialing yet? 📞 

Well, this new feature is for you! ⬇ 

Starting today all Trellus users can try out automation on single dials/one-off tasks to help streamline their dialing flow.

You can now:
- Auto hang up on ringing and VMs
- Auto open Linkedin, Salesforce, or Company URLs
- Listen to music while you call and have it automatically pause for you (my favorite) 

Take it for a test drive today and let us know what you think! 💚 

#coldcalling

For any US sellers who didn't take off today - here's the EI opener I use to be conscious I might catch a prospect on their day off ⬇ 

"Hey Ajinkya I'll be upfront, it's one of those dreaded cold calls. Are you like me, sitting at your desk and working today or did I catch you out and about with the family? If it's the latter we can cut it short and connect another time."

Some cold call gurus might say I'm giving them too much of an out with this but in my opinion, it shows high levels of EI (emotional intelligence).

EI is what you need if you're going to be interrupting people while they may be taking time away. 

And hey no one said you had to cold call today. You could always take the day slow and use your time to prospect, research, and complete admin work. 

but if you do call...

Happy Dialing ☎ 

#sales

I never understood why he was so energetic and bouncing around at the start of every month. 

After all, it seemed a bit ridiculous how all our hard work was basically erased and we all started right back at zero. 

I didn't understand until he explained it to me on a 1:1

It seemed like my old director was the happiest person on earth whenever a new month/quarter would hit. 

He'd get into the office and rally up the troops to dive into new accounts and start hitting the phones. 

I asked him once on a 1:1 why he seemed so happy at the start of every month even when it meant we were all starting from scratch. 

"That's the beauty of it. We're all starting from scratch together. It doesn't matter what you did last month. If you blew it out and made it on top or if you choked and ended up 60% under target... A new month means we can start fresh."

"Sales is a stressful career filled with uncontrollable variables but the one thing we can be certain of is each month we are all back at the same place. It's like getting a second chance in my opinion. It humbles you and gives you hope at the same time."

If that doesn't pump you up for the start of a new month I don't know what will. 

Good luck today everyone - let's crush it!

Happy Dialing ☎ 

#sales

Want to up your prospecting game? 📞 💪 

Tune in to Sell Better 's daily show hosted by Leslie Douglas, Samantha McKenna, and 🏄‍♂️ Scott Leese!

👉 Register here: https://hubs.la/Q02Hvx610

See you there! 👋

So something unexpected happened... 🤷‍♂️ 

Last week we uncovered a "different" use case for Trellus (YC W22) that we honestly were not expecting. 

About a month ago a BDR came to our website and bought one single license to Trellus and started annihilating the phone. It was more than anyone we have ever seen. 

I reached out to them last week because I wanted to get some feedback on their experience and what motivated them to convert to a paid plan. 

I was not expecting the next few things she said....

"Well if I'm being honest, my company opened a call blitz style competition for the month of July. The competition is based on most conversations and meetings booked. The grand prize is a 1 week trip to Hawaii. I NEED that vacation so bad."  

I have no idea why I didn't expect this but I was at a loss for words. After a few seconds of silence, we started laughing and then I asked what place she was in. 

"Currently 1st place and have 218 more convos and 24 more meetings than the guy in 2nd" 

We laughed louder this time. 

Honestly, one of the best use cases we have ever heard of since launching our PLG self-serve product. 

I'll be telling everyone this story so if you get tired of it just be warned. 🚨 

In all seriousness, 3 learning lessons came from this: ⬇ 

👉 As a founding team you are never done collecting feedback
👉 Relevancy and timing coexist in the same arena 
👉 Expect the unexpected 

For any other founding teams out there, make sure to check in with your customers. You might find a new use case you never thought of before. 

And for that killer BDR... Enjoy Hawaii! 🏖 

#startup

"a piece of the puzzle is missing and it's driving me f*cking nuts" 

This is how one of our recent customers responded after I asked them why they were looking into Trellus (YC W22). 

⬇ Background:

10 months ago this company received its series B and was clear that it intended to invest heavily in its outbound channel.

They had demos with 40 different vendors to source the best contact data, sales engagement tech, CRM, dialer, etc. 

Basically, anything and everything that could help make their team's lead gen and cold calls better. 

When we first spoke, they walked me through all the new tools...

It was impressive so I asked, "It looks like you have everything covered, what made you want to look into us?" 

Them: "We've invested in the best tech out there for our SDRs and AEs. All the best lead gen tools to get them to create as much pipe as possible. But even with all the best tech, there's a piece of the puzzle that's still missing and it's driving me f*cking nuts" 

Me: "Sounds frustrating. Can you help me understand what part of it is driving you nuts?"

Them: "Our reps have a 20% connect rate. Maybe 15% on a bad day. It's phenomenal for our industry. The issue is that it takes them 3 minutes just to call someone and if that prospect doesn't pick up it's just wasted time. They are barely able to do 60 calls a day. But when they do call and someone picks up I expect them to kill it, but half the time they forget what to say."

This ended up being a one-hour chat diving deeper into what was holding the team back with their dialing workflows.

In the end, it was clear that the team was suffering from 2 challenges:

1️⃣  Something I like to call "analysis paralysis." Reps would stale on pre-call research before dialing making it hard to have enough conversations in one day

2️⃣ Bandwidth from managers was too low since the rep/manny ratio was 12:1. It was almost impossible to coach each rep on the specific challenges they would face on the phones

Fast forward 5 months of procurement and we got Trellus (YC W22) in their hands. BUT there is another point to this story....

There is a lesson I learned from this deal that felt valuable enough to share.

👉 The Lesson: 

Before this customer, I found it hard to ask for clarification. It felt like a weakness to not understand someone. I would always nod my head and say "Makes sense" "Got it" but the truth is I barely would. 

Not sure why I decided to deviate from my traditional behaviors but I did that day. And on every single call after that, with this customer, I asked multiple times to help me understand, clarify, and elaborate. 

I realize it's hard to help any prospect if you don't fully understand their situation and get the full picture. 

⭐ Moral of the story:

Never be afraid to ask to clarify (And make sure to check out Trellus (YC W22)) 

#sales

248 years ago a couple of dudes in white powered wigs signed a piece of paper so that we could have the freedom to call someone out of the blue on a Friday afternoon and ask them if they want to “roll the dice.”

Happy 4th! 🇺🇸

#merica

Let me get back to you on that…

#saleshumor

This platform may crash harder than #crowdstrike on July 24th 🔥 

Tune in to watch Morgan J Ingram, Will Falkenborg 🌭, and yours truly talk about politics..... I mean.... talk about cold calling for 45 minutes straight! 

We'll be breaking down the best tactics for you to use to end your month at the top of the leaderboard 

And if we're lucky we'll get Will's 2-year-old on the phones to rip some dials. 

Can't wait to see you there! Link in the comments to register ⬇ 

#coldcalling

When sales and marketing align…

“The Alignment” is coming 👀

P.S. Joshua Bailey 🦕⛵️ doesn’t know how to use a mic

For any cold callers having trouble digging deeper into your prospect's pains, this is for you...

Hook onto any "emotional" words they mention about their current process and drill into them. 🎣

Common emotional words that prospects say:

"Yeah, it takes too long"
"It's a bit buggy"
"Just hard to do right now"
"Not fast enough"
"It's been expensive"

This is all surface-level pain. Not the pain you need to influence real change.

Your response should not be "Got it, we help by..." ❌

Your response should be "How so?" ✅

But it's not just saying the words, it's also using the right tonality.

You need to come off as genuinely curious or confused for them to let their guard down.

From there the real conversation starts.

Hope everyone is finishing strong this EOM/Q - keep crushing it!

Happy Dialing ☎

#coldcalling

Hear me out now…

Imagine you could comment on LinkedIn posts using voice notes…

Just think about it

One of the most helpful skills I've learned (the hard way) in sales is the ability to keep my composure when sh*t hits the fan. 💢 

Reason why? 

Because no matter how unpredictable things get, no matter what objections get thrown at you, you will always land on your feet and push forward.

I learned this the hard way from a cold call I made early in my career.

Was cold calling into a well-known account when their SVP picked up... 📞 

SVP: Who's this?

Me: It's Dom, how you doing today?

SVP: It's 8:50 am why the f*ck are you calling me? 

Well, let's just say I did not take their tone lightly. 

Like any inexperienced young professional, I fired back with a snarky comment which I immediately regretted.

The conversation ended in less than 40 seconds and as soon as it did I felt like an idiot. 

Kill them with kindness has always been my motto but in that instant, I could not hold back and just said what I wanted to say.

Long story short I noticed a major area of improvement for myself so I took the necessary steps to get better. 

👉 That's when I came up with PBTS...

P - pause 
B - breath 
T - think (logically not emotionally) 
S - speak 

Ever since then, I have used this acronym to plan out my next few seconds after something goes sideways.

Took a couple of tries to get it right but that's how I learned to keep myself composed during stressful interactions or situations. 

Still got a long way to go for self-development but figured this would help out anyone else struggling with impulse decisions when life gets stressful. 

Happy Dialing ☎ 

#sales

These are my 5 tips for cold calling from an unknown brand 
(A.K.A: start-ups) ⬇ 📞 

There is no denying that unknown brands are at a disadvantage compared to well-established mature companies but that doesn't mean you won’t come out on top!

Below is a breakdown of tips I’ve found success with while cold calling at start-ups 

👉#1 Research your competition

Like I said before, you are definitely overshadowed by your bigger and more prominent competitors but that should not stop you from finding a way to stand out. Doing research on your competitors through G2 reviews, Reddit, or current customers is a gold mine! Identify what people hate about your competitors and use that to your advantage. 

👉#2 Sound different 

90% of cold calls are identical. If you read anyone else's playbook you’ll see they all use the same phrases and buzzwords for their opener, meeting ask, value prop, etc. 

When you use the same words your prospects will bucket you with the rest of the laundry list of SDRs trying to book them. So try to be different, try using humor, try changing your tonality, try to do anything that is not “normal” lol 

👉#3 Use your competitor's name in your pitch and ask about your prospect's experience

The reality is that your prospects most likely have never heard your company's name before, so you need to find a quick and effective way to get them to associate you with an industry or service. 

I used to use this strategy all the time when I was an SDR at Cognism pitching against ZoomInfo. Once the prospect associated that we were also in the data space I’d pivot to ask them how their current experience was with ZI and use the G2 reviews I collected to call out areas I knew they had been struggling with. 

👉#4 Focus on problems and impact - not features 

This ties in slightly with #2. A lot of cold calls are the same and the majority of them are feature dumps of info with no real problem question or hypothesis. 

By focusing on problems that your prospects might have and how those problems are impacting their operations you’ll immediately have a deeper conversation and 9/10 get their respect too. 

👉#5 Remember booking a meeting is not the only positive outcomes

Yes, a MB is not the only positive outcome from a cold call - shocking! Cold calls are great for info gathering to further penetrate accounts, brand awareness, networking, and research. 

If you’re going into every call just to book a meeting then you’re leaving a real connection at the door and you’re probably not being human enough. 

🌟 Bonus! (non cold call related)

👉 #6 Connect with them on LinkedIn and invite them to follow your company page 

Your brand is unknown! Something as small as connecting with them and getting them to follow your page will go a big way in the long run.

Happy Dialing ☎ 

#coldcalling

Want to know the truth of what it's like being a Trellus (YC W22) customer? 🤫 

Luckily for you the incredible team at Dimmo 🦖 are putting together a live event today called Customer Convos! 

I'll be there alongside SDR extraordinaire 🌱Colton Gray 🏋‍♀️ 

All hosted by the wonderful Sarah Brazier!

Join us at 1pm ET today watch as Colton and I spill the beans on what it's really like being a Trellus (YC W22) customer 

Link to register in comments ⬇ 

#coldcalling

Taplio

Dom Odoguardi's Linkedin Analytics

Dom Odoguardi

Dom Odoguardi's Best Posts (last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Taplio

.css-1jgreyo{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39,43,72,1) 0%, rgba(33,47,183,1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Dom Odoguardi's Linkedin Analytics

Dom Odoguardi

Dom Odoguardi's Best Posts .css-qqfgvy{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);}(last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Dom Odoguardi's Linkedin Analytics

Dom Odoguardi's Best Posts (last 30 days)