I cold call as a service. if you want to know if i’m any good… look at my cold call videos and the recommendations from some of those that have worked with me.

Salespeople… I have some big news… 


After over 2 years at Rep.ai - my time has come to an end. 

HUGE thank you to the team there. People like Daniel, Sarah, Matt, Piotr - you guys have all made this the absolute best working experience I’ve ever had. So grateful to have gotten the opportunity to know all of you! 

In my time at rep ai I learned SOO so much. Here are just a few things I’ve accomplished since I started 2 years ago:

- Met/exceeded quota every month I was there. 
- Booked 520 meetings. 
- Came up with TOFU messaging/scripts for 3 product/persona pivots. 
- Setup company cold email infrastructure and kicked off a cold email motion that was highly successful (30 meetings set in a couple months)
- Started posting on linkedin and went from less than 1k followers to 15k followers. 
- Brought thousands of website visitors attributed to my linkedin posts. 

As for what’s next for me? 

I’m betting on myself. 

I’ve teamed up with Kevin Hopp at SmartBound and will be offering my cold calling skills as a service. 

So, if you need someone that you KNOW can make dials, book meetings successfully, and talk to your market... 

You know where to find me ;)

Oliver Johnson

Chief Conversation Officer at Smartbound || I cold call as a service.

Salespeople… I absolutely HATEE when people say this to me...


“How do you plan on scaling your cold calling as a service business? Aren’t you limited by how many dials you can make in a day.”

Well first off, yes. I can only take on so many clients at once. 

Secondly, I don’t plan on scaling…

I am more than happy to make 15-25k a month and be capped at that amount. 

I started doing this because I genuinely ENJOY cold calling and it is much less soul sucking than other “career routes” i’ve considered lol. 

So yeah, like I said, I can only take on 4-5 clients at a time. 

BUT… I like what I do, I can make MORE than enough to provide for my wife and I, ANDDD I teamed up with Kevin Hopp at SmartBound so he can take more clients when I’m at my limit. 

The biggest lie we’ve been fed is thinking that it’s NEVER enough. 

Trust me - you’re much better off doing something you love, than making a little extra cash. 

Marc, Abe, Ronen R., Sam, Josh What do you guys think? Scalability over everything? Am I thinking too small?

Salespeople… this follow up email booked me a meeting yesterday… 


Here’s the context: I spoke to a VP of Sales, got her interested in SmartBound’s cold email as a service, and she told me to reach out to her sales manager that handles tooling/outbound. 

NOW, what I did next is VERY important. 

I asked while I had her on the phone: “Mind if I send her an email directly, and CC you on that email so she knows we did ACTUALLY speak?” 

Asking this simple question and CCing the prospect you spoke to quite literally increases your chances of booking the meeting 1000%.

Sam, Dennis, Dennis J, Ibrahim, Suji, Cole What do you guys think of this email? Anything I missed/could phrase better? I’m testing messaging since I started this just a few weeks ago.

Salespeople… This STUPID simple DM booked me 3 meetings in the last week. 


“Hey (blank), thanks for connecting! Anything specific that brought you here?”

I send this ANYTIME a person connects and they’re within ICP - it’s one of the highest ROI moves ever haha. Takes 2 seconds. 

Also - you’d be surprised with just how many people have some interest in what you do, connected for that very reason, but need a LITTLEE extra nudge. 

Abe, Adia, 🔥 Tom, What do you guys think? Do you like this play/use it yourself?

Salespeople… this was pretty sweet… 


Got an unexpected package from the apollo team… 

Came with this cool hat (as pictured lol), a subscription to calm,  candles, and some tea. 

Everything I need to recover from an absolutely insane Q4 🤣  

Appreciate you guys!!

Salespeople… Watch me book a meeting with a VP of Sales on this live cold call below (set a meeting with a prospect that my former company met with last year). 


Key takeaway from this call? 

If you have ANY kind of connection to your prospect (worked with one of their employees, work with a competitor, or like in this call - have spoken to them already)  - mention it IMMEDIATELY as your opener.  

This call went so well because I reminded him how we knew each other, and SHOWED exactly what I was pitching him (You booked a meeting with me before -> now I’m offering my cold calling as a service -> thought you might be interested). 

This is the power of follow ups/having a network, people. 

You never know who is going to be a buyer later! 

PS: if you want me to cold call for your company… hit me or SmartBound up! I have my own dialer too (Minari.

mike, Marc, Ryan 🏋️☎️, Ronen R., Abe, Shawn, Aubrey, 🔥 Tom What do you guys think of this call/approach to get new clients?

Salespeople… Listen to me book a meeting with a CRO on a live cold call below (pitching SmartBound’s cold email as a service). 


2 takeaways from this call:

Firstly, if a prospect immediately hits you with “We’re all set” BEFORE you even get your pitch out… 

This literally means nothing. Don’t treat this as a REAL objection or write off the prospect entirely. 

The best course of action is to politely acknowledge their response. (Something like, “Gotcha. No worries. I know I called you out of the blue.”)

THEN, ask if you can ask one last question. 

That’s what I did in this call and it gained me the next 30 seconds AND a meeting at the end. 


The second takeaway: 

Give away free value when you can. 

In my follow up email to this prospect, I gave her some notes on Clay AND gave her some recommendations if she wanted to try cold email herself… like recommending lemlist for a simple mass email sequencer/data provider in one. 

You don’t need to hide information to protect a deal.

If a deal falls apart because you mentioned a competitor or another way to solve the problem… 

It was never real to begin with.

Elijah, Nate, Krish, Matt, Jamis, Colton R, What do you guys think of this cold call? What do you do if a prospect immediately hits you with, "we're all set"?

Salespeople… rate this cold DM (1-10) that got me a few replies yesterday. 


I’ll start with what I think is GOOD about the DM. 

It shows instead of tells. 

What I mean by this is simple: 

The first line immediately reminds them, “Hey, remember when you booked a meeting with me on a cold call before. Yeah, I’ll do that for your business too.” 

This is WAY more meaningful than going on and on about how good I am at cold calling, why outsourcing is better, how many meetings I “guarantee,” etc. 

What could be improved? 

The CTA could definitely be stronger. 

Ace, Elijah, Dylan, mike, Roy J., 🐜 mike, Kade What do you guys think of this one?

Salespeople… It’s NEVER been easier to make money if you can do this ONE thing reliably...


Generate pipeline.

So many orgs just SUCK at this honestly. 

Reps don’t want to cold call. 

Cold email is harder than ever. 

But targets don’t go away. 

So, if you’re an SDR and you’re good at cold calling - you’d be SURPRISED with how many orgs will pay JUST for this service. 

I started offering my own “cold calling as a service” on Monday and I’ve already had 8 people reach out to ME.

Check it out below. 

Daniel, Hunter, Elijah, Ronen R., Abe, John  folks that have tried this… How much demand is there for this really?

Salespeople… Watch me book a meeting with a hospital administrator for a client of ours at SmartBound. 


The key takeaway from this call? 

Although this was a totally “ice cold” cold call - it didn’t really FEEL like it… How? 

Because when you start the call by immediately sharing HOW you know them, why you’re relevant, and any “social proof” - the prospect IMMEDIATELY lightens up and begins to trust you more. 

Now I obviously had a lot of good social proof to stand on here  (In this call I shared that we’re working with 100 of their facilities and had been endorsed by their CFO), but as a salesperson it’s your job to position yourself as warmly as possible. 

Even saying things like, “We’re working with your competitors XYZ” or, “We’re working with companies you may know like XYZ”  is SUCH a better way to start a call then, “You don’t know me… Want to roll the dice?” 

So, if you want me to make cold calls like this for your company too, shoot me a DM! ;)

🔥 Tom, Martin, Jeremy, Krish, Jamis, Marc, Kevin What do you guys think of this call? Do you start cold calls off with immediate social proof if possible?

Salespeople… Here’s a HOT take… This is THE most overused line in sales…. 


“A lot of the BLANK teams/leaders I’ve spoken to have noticed X - does that resonate?” 

Everytime I see a DM that starts with this, I immediately think,

“I bet not one person has ever actually told you that.” LOL

I’m sorry but I’ve never received a message that started this way and felt compelled to keep reading. 🤷‍♂️ 

What do you guys think? What's the most overused line?

Lauren, Travis, Juan, Ace, 🫧 Olivia, Do you like this line? What do you think is the most overused line in sales?

Salespeople… Do you HATE this cold email I received from an AI SDR or, is it not half bad?


My take? 

Well first problem is that it landed in spam. 

INSTANT loss of credibility/disqualification just right there lol. 

BESIDES that though - this is still better than most cold emails I receive.

It referenced an actual post of mine, it was pretty brief, CTAs not half bad.  

Idk - maybe my bar is just too low because I get so much crap haha…. 

Abe, Dylan, Sam, What do you guys think?

Salespeople… In the last 2 weeks I’ve got 150k+ impressions and 8 sales leaders/founders to schedule a meeting on my calendar DIRECTLY. Here’s how to turn impressions into actual $$$’s…


Keep your profile FOCUSED. 

When people click on your profile they should be able to tell in ONE second, EXACTLY what you do. 

If your profile says you’re an advisor here, an SDR there, you offer a course, etc. it CONFUSES people. They have no reason to reach out.

I think i’ve  gotten a good amount of inbound opps because people click on my profile and see IMMEDIATELY, “Oh this guys cold calls and offers cold calling as a service.”

Everything flows together: my content, my profile, and my offering. 

SO, stop trying to be a million things to a million people. 

Niche down and FOCUS.. 

Your impressions AND wallet will thank me later.

Elijah, Aubrey, Jonathan, Dariia, Noam, What do you guys think of this advice?

Salespeople… I’m late, but thought i’d share anyway… I hit 140% of my meeting held quota in the last month of my role. Here’s the breakdown of where each meeting came from…


50% from cold calls. 
28% from cold email. 
21% from linkedin. 

Not too bad for a month most org’s completely write off because, “no one answers the phone in December.” 

They definitely answer EVERY month. 

If you just pick up the phone that is… 

Dylan, Nate, Scott, Matt, 🔥 Tom, Sneha How did your december go? How’s january going so far?

Salespeople… here’s a (surprisingly) hot take... 


High volume in GTM STILL beats out just about anything. 

Let me explain… 

Many people think that in 2026 big volume plays/outbound motions are DEAD. 

That couldn’t be further from the truth…

In the last month and a half I sent 30k+ cold emails.

And guess what… 

Cold email was our second strongest channel (behind cold calling of course ;) by FAR. It beat out linkedin, inbound, etc.

If you have the right infrastructure (lots of domains, a good sending platform, and a way to “personalize” the emails at scale) - mass cold email still 100% WORKS. 

PS: For domains, I use Maildoso. They just added Google Workspace accounts for $2.5 so you can scale without burning a crap ton of money. 

So, if you want to get set up with a personalized mass cold email motion - send me a DM. Would be happy to talk shop and get you set up!

James, Kellen, Bogomil, YuChin, 🔥 Tom what do you guys think? Is high volume still the best strategy in GTM?

Salespeople… I ran 2 cold calling pilots last week. Same caller (me). Same days. But WILDLY different outcomes…


Client 1: 500 dials and 8 meetings booked. 

Client 2: 500 dials and 0 meetings booked.  

SO, why did I book 8 meetings for one client and none for another?

One client gave me:

- A list with numbers he KNEW were accurate
- A script he’d already tried himself and knew worked

The other gave me:

- Titles that “MIGHT” be a good fit. 
- A few value prop ideas that COULD work

I’ll let you guess which client got more booked meetings…

If you book a pilot because you’ve NEVER done cold calling and want to see if your offer resonates - that’s totally fine. This is a good place to start. 

BUT, don’t be surprised if the results are a bit lighter.

Cold calling isn’t magic.

Even a great caller can’t fix ICP issues or messaging overnight.

Outbound takes workshopping, tweaking, and TIME.

Again - a cold caller is NOT a wizard haha. 

Aubrey, 🔥 Tom, Martin, Marc, Jennifer Do you guys see wildly different results with diff outbound campaigns? How do you choose which clients to work with?

Salespeople… help me settle this debate…


The claim?

“It doesn’t really matter what data provider you use… cold call connect rates aren’t noticeably different with any of them.”

My take?

Not true at all.

Because “data” isn’t just one thing.

Some vendors give you numbers that are technically routable…
but not actually tied to the person you’re trying to reach.

I’ve tested pretty much EVERY data provider out there, and I can say with absolute confidence:
some are most DEF better than others.

When I switched to Prospeo.io as my primary source, my connect rate jumped almost 10%.
(Also: I dialed more UK numbers that month, so not pretending it was a perfect test.)

What changed for me was fewer “wrong numbers” and fewer generic lines.

Prospeo’s mobiles are triple-checked:

- carrier validation
- person-level matching
- call-tested database
(and they refresh their dataset every 7 days)

So, what do you guys think?

🔥 Tom, Martin, Jasper, Suji Does your data vendor actually change connect rates: yes or no?



PS: Prospeo V2 just launched, and they’ve added a searchable lead database (280M+ verified leads/companies), 30+ filters, Bombora-powered intent topics, and job-change tracking.

Salespeople… Here’s something about me that I thought made me a bad salesperson for a LONG time. 


I absolutely hate small talk. 

Now listen, if something naturally comes up, or there is a real connection to be made (they live somewhere I’ve travelled to, they know a mutual friend, etc.) - I’m happy to chit chat for a bit… 

BUT, mindless small talk just for “rapport building” sake… 

No thanks… 

Maybe I’ve burned bridges because of it, but let's keep it REAL. 

These people didn’t show up to be my friend. 

They showed up because they had some interest in my service, product, etc. 

So, just know... 

If you book a call with me. I will IMMEDIATELY tell you what I charge, how I operate, and learn more about you/your org to see if there is even a fit. 

I won’t talk football with you for 25 out of the 30 minutes scheduled just because you live in Seattle. 

Lauren, Rebekah, Jonathan, Elliot, Alex, Chris What do you guys think? How much “rapport building” are you doing to start a call? Is it necessary to be a good salesperson?

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