[00:44] Tell us a little bit about you and your company.

I am Brad Seaman, founder and CEO of MonsterConnect, which is based in Indianapolis, Indiana.
MonsterConnect is sales enablement / lead generation service that help sales teams become 6-8 times more productive.

[01:14] Tell us a little bit about your background.

I grew up in Indianapolis.
I went to Olivet Nazarene University in Illinois near Chicago to be a youth pastor.
While I was doing some landscaping at the family call center business, they fired the chief operating officer and I got the call to run the place.

[03:01] When and why did you start MonsterConnect?

The family call center business did lead generation for a mortgage company. Before the housing crash, we started seeing the writing on the wall, so we diversified the business.
We brought in a new guy to build a new division. We eventually spun that out from the business, but it became difficult to staff and hire with our quick growing rate.
Two things gave us the idea for Monster Connect: the difficulty in scaling and the subjectivity of the business.
This made me immerse myself in call center technology, and things changed in the industry to allow our business model.
With our software, our agents navigate through phone prompts and gatekeepers. Then, when the prospect answers, the salesperson is connected.

[09:20] Cold calling is still used a lot in logistics, but it is much maligned today and there is a lot written about the end of cold calling. Please tell us why cold calling still works.

The more effort you put in, the more results you get. Very rarely do you see a strong effort followed by a lack of results.
There's a tendency to lean into either inbound or outbound, but I think you need to do both.
I understand why cold calling gets so much negative press. It's tough work.
Prospects are harder to reach now because they can screen their calls and there are a lot of robocalls that nobody wants.
Salespeople have always wanted to find better ways, but if you need to sell something today, the phone is still the best tool.
The web has brought a lot of great ways to get sales leads, but they take time.
Ultimately, the salesperson who talks with the most prospects sells the most.

[14:50] To be a good cold caller, what do people absolutely need to do?

The first thing is that you need to have good contacts. There are tons of tools that exist to do that.
At MonsterConnect, we even search on job boards for companies that are looking to hire people to make outbound phone calls. Then, we already know that our technology would be useful for them.
You need to have a good message; some type of differentiator. It needs to be compelling.
The phone gives you the opportunity to build a relationship with someone. Some brokers get phone calls from different people who deliver the exact same message.

[20:41] What else do people need to be successful at cold calling?

Discipline and focus. Specifically, I know someone who landed a huge deal because he was religious about prospecting regularly. He dedicates one or two hours per day to cold calling.
One day, he was about to log out but decided to do one more call instead. The rest is history.
It's a lot like working out. Doing it regularly is very beneficial.
Lack of lead gen typically comes from a lack of effort.

[27:23] If the only things people need to be successful at cold calling are great contacts, great messaging, and discipline, why do so many people struggle?

I think it comes down to it being inefficient, difficult, and unpredictable.
If you remove the inefficiency of dialing and not getting somebody on the phone, that can really impact your success.
When you get one or two people on the phone each day, that's not very productive.
It's also natural for salespeople to turn down their lead generation efforts when they land a few clients.
It's unpredictable. Building and maintaining a good prospecting team is a constant challenge, since sales is so volatile.

[32:31] How can your company help with these three issues?

The first thing is we have some built-in accountability. You have a scheduled time on the platform, and we'll help you make sure that you show up.
It's efficient because there's no delay. We'll connect you to a prospect that is ready to talk.

[34:58] How many hours a day do people work with your company?

It depends on their desire. Some people think they'll use it for eight hours a day, but really, that would be like going to the gym for eight hours a day. It's hard to do.
Somewhere between one and four hours is ideal for most people.
In J.B. Hunt's first week with us, they saw a 900% increase in productivity.

[36:06] A lot of companies are now moving to sales development reps. How would you guys compare to them?

We can be a great help to SDRs. We don't replace them, we make them more productive.

Learn More:

MonsterConnect: https://monsterconnect.com/ Brad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-seaman-3ab4a049

Family & Ministry ft. Jonathan Brozozog | S7 Ep. 172