#169 · The Bus Stop Framework: How to CRUSH Cold Outreach
Read Influence by Cialdini (or Chelini) for quick, high-ROI insights. The biggest gain comes from habit—pitch often. Use Loom videos as a hack: record 10 Looms a day, show each for 4 minutes (≈40 minutes total) to practice articulating value and learn to sell, even without live feedback.
It's easy for someone in my position to just tell you to do more, but I'll be honest: a big chunk of this comes from massive action. I used to talk to 50–80 new businesses a day for over a year, sometimes two years, while door knocking, cold calling, and doing similar outreach. Doing that volume makes you reasonably good at articulating an offer and sounding knowledgeable, even if you don't actually know everything—though that's a separate point. The key is sheer repetition: you end up with many thousands of hours of practice far beyond what most people have. Videos like this also help because I produce them daily over a long period. If you want concrete advice, try speaking a bit slower and take a moment to think before you speak. I'm not great at that in my daily updates—I tend to dive in and ramble—but for Loom videos or cold calls, prepare a rough outline of what you'll say. Don't shy away from using aids like bullet points or a small cue card when presenting; they help keep you on track.
I would suggest getting a sales gig as soon as possible. Put yourself in situations where you constantly have to articulate problems. The more you practice selling and communicating, the faster you’ll develop the necessary skills.
To be the best in your niche, you need to provide far more input than seems reasonable—far more outreach, practice, and reps than you think necessary. Think of elite athletes who train before dawn: they maximize reps by talking to many people, maximizing opportunity. In my early business days, I knocked on 50–80 doors daily, every day, 25–30 days a month with a partner, simply to familiarize myself with the sales interaction—the 'ball.' You must frontload value and volume before people even wake up. My channel exemplifies this: I answer more customer questions in a week than most do, doing it each morning. This approach grounds you in what people truly want and their problems, letting you solve them better—like striving to be as effective as LeBron James in your field.
First, congratulations on generating leads—that’s the hardest part. If you want to close more deals, consider partnering with sales‑oriented people on a revenue‑share basis; you can often find such partners in free communities or school groups. But the real key isn’t polishing your pitch; it’s sticking to a repeatable sales process and refining it through repetition. You can succeed with almost any outbound method as long as you put in the reps. My personal approach treats each call as a discovery session, not a pitch. I ask why they took the call, what stood out about my outreach, and what their goals are (e.g., learning more about X, Y, Z). This lets me understand their actual needs instead of pushing a preset solution. I then tailor my recommendation to their specific situation—much like a doctor diagnosing before prescribing. Because I’ve run this discovery process many times, I’ve become good at it, and it works well for me.