Who to Call, How to Find Them, and Why the Phone Still Wins (Ask Jeb)

What It Covers

Jeb Blount addresses two listener questions on building prospect lists for keynote speaking sales and provides cold calling conversion data, including a live demonstration generating $250,000 in same-day revenue from 30-call outbound sprints.

Key Questions Answered

• •Multithreading Prospect Lists: For keynote speaking sales, target 8–10 contacts per company rather than searching for one decision-maker. Roles include event planners, CROs, VP of Sales, and sales enablement leads, since speaker selection is almost always a consensus-based decision.
• •SKO Hashtag Intelligence: Track LinkedIn and Instagram hashtags like #SKO and #SalesKickoff to identify companies holding sales meetings, spot decision-influencers in post comments, and time outreach for July–August when companies begin planning their next kickoff cycle.
• •Cold Calling Conversion Benchmarks: In B2B calls targeting director level and below, expect 5–10 pickups per 25 dials and one qualified appointment per 25 dials. Small business owners answer at significantly higher rates, especially before 7:00 a.m. when afternoon customer traffic is absent.
• •Structured Dial Blocks: Complete 100 outbound dials before noon daily to prevent deferral. Reserve afternoons for asynchronous outreach — one-to-one emails, LinkedIn direct messages, video messages, and physical mail — rather than mass email blasts that generate low engagement.