Hi everyone, Vasco here. As I write this, I’m about halfway through my third month here at Pearl Lemon. I’ve just come back from a week off and was received back at the virtual office with open hands from the team.
Given that it’s my first update, I’ll sum up what I do here at Pearl Lemon. I’m the Business Director, meaning I work as one of the main forces of the business development team which, at the moment, is composed of Ion (Head of Business Development), and indirectly (but inevitably) Deepak (our CEO & Founder). My responsibilities are to bring in new clients to Pearl Lemon. I generate leads through LinkedIn automation and prospect through ZoomInfo and UpLead. I mainly cold-call and cold-email prospects through AirCall. Fortunately, I have team members like Celeste that pick up leads and send them my way, making my job much easier.
Another big part of my experience here is the cold calling team. It’s the position I initially applied for and therefore have been very close to the team since the start. Actually, I’ve seen the team fully rotate with new faces about 2 or 3 times. Pearl Lemon is on a path to find great callers right now and that’s been the biggest struggle right now but nevertheless, a necessary one to accomplish D’s vision.
One thing is certain, never in my life have I experienced such a steep and rewarding learning curve. I’ve lost count of the number of different skills and general know-how I’ve acquired just in the past 2.5 months. The most observable quality though is just how much I’ve grown and evolved when I’m on the phone, calling. I couldn’t have done this without Deepak or Ion, they both helped me a lot in their own ways, but at any point in time, I was 100% certain that all they wanted was to see me grow and be great.
The greatest exercise and lesson I came across (thanks to Deepak), is to practice calling numbers without doing any research beforehand. This will do a number of things:
It’s a time-saver.
Research not only takes time, but it also allows for distractions and “rabbit-hole”-ing. This means that instead of calling, you’ll open the lead’s linkedin, check their company linkedin, then maybe check the website, and by now you’re deep in the rabbit hole. The problem with this, is that then you might call this person and very likely get a hard no. Losing invested time is very detrimental to your motivation.
It lets someone else say no for you.
Any, and I mean anything, you see on someone’s page when you research them can very quickly become a reason not to call. But you never know how a call will go, so just call. Don’t say no to yourself before you even try.
It removes the fear.
What’s scarier? A company CEO that probably has a very busy day and couldn’t care less about what you have to say? Or a phone number? Trust me, it’s the first option. As soon as you start doing this, your only obstacle is a string of simple, non-intimidating numbers.
It might seem overwhelming and very stressful at first to call and only research info on the prospect while the phone’s ringing, but after you get used to it, you won’t be able to go back.
I’d include a recap of my week but it’s just started (gotta love Mondays). My work-life balance could be worse. It’s a sunny summer in Portugal but at least I can still join my friends on the beach after I wrap up the day. In the week I have ahead of me, I’m picking up from stuff that was put on hold during my vacation. I’ve also got Kristel to work with now, but that’s a responsibility I’ve gladly taken. I’ll be focusing on that and really getting my appointment numbers up.
– Vasco (Business Director)