I F*cked Up a Sales Call

Hello Predictable Revenue community,

Book update: I buy a lot of books, I skim most of them, and only buy the physical book if it’s good enough that I want to take notes. Sometimes it’s handy to have the kindle version so I can look things up from my computer but I rarely buy them. If you bought a copy of my book and would enjoy having it in a different digital format (ePub or Audio), send me your receipt and your desired format and I’ll share a link with you.

Community update: GTM Club is next Friday and I’ll be sharing into a new tactic I’m using to find the right people in Clay. Hit me back if you’re interested in joining.

Onto the newsletter…

I just wasn't good.

I wasn't prepared. I was a minute late jumping onto the call. And I didn't follow my typical process once I got on.

The worst part? The call was with a previous customer who I really liked working with and is now working for a huge company. He put his name on the line and vouched for me with his new team. And I didn't live up to my own expectations.

Not his expectations. Mine. Though I’m confident he was disappointed too.

The Easy Part Is Excuses

I can make up excuses for why I was late and unprepared. I had back-to-back calls all morning. I was dealing with a client issue that needed attention. My calendar was packed.

But none of that matters.

When we're busy, it's easy to let ourselves get sloppy. To lower the bar just a little. To tell ourselves that being 90% prepared is good enough when we're stretched thin.

The problem is that 90% becomes 80%. And 80% becomes "winging it." And winging it becomes a habit.

I think it's important to maintain a high level of expectation for ourselves. Because culture is created more by what we tolerate than what we talk about.

And if we don't hold ourselves to a high bar, then how can we hold others to one?

If I don't hold myself to a high bar, how can I teach others to do the same?

So today, I'm writing this as an admission that I got sloppy and a commitment to doing better.

What Actually Happened

Let me give you the play-by-play so you can see how this unfolded.

I had a call scheduled with this prospect Monday at 2pm. A discovery call. Standard stuff, except it wasn't standard at all because this was someone I'd worked with before. Someone who knew what I was capable of. Someone who was betting his reputation that I could help his new team.

I looked at my calendar this morning. Saw the 2pm block. Noted it was busy. And then moved on to planning the rest of my day around the busy blocks.

What I didn't do was actually click into the meeting to see who it was with or what we were discussing.

At 2:01pm, I joined the call. We started with the standard hellos but it wasn’t until 10 minutes into the call that I remembered I had promised to do something different on this call. And in that moment, my stomach dropped because I knew I'd screwed up.

I had no notes pulled up. No research on his new company. No thoughtful questions prepared. I was showing up completely cold to a warm introduction.

That's disrespectful. Not just to him, but to the opportunity he created for me.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

You might be reading this thinking, "Come on, Collin. It's one call. You're being too hard on yourself."

Maybe.

But here's what I know: the small things compound.

When I let myself show up unprepared to one call, it becomes easier to show up unprepared to the next one. When I let myself be a minute late once, it becomes easier to be two minutes late next time.

And eventually, the standard I hold myself to isn't the standard I want to hold myself to. It's the standard I've tolerated.

This matters because I teach this stuff. I help founders build their sales processes. I tell them to respect the prospect's time, to show up prepared, to treat every call like it matters.

And if I'm not doing that myself, then what am I really teaching?

I'm teaching them that it's okay to talk a good game but not actually live it.

That's not who I want to be.

The 20 Minute Rule

After the call ended, I felt like an idiot.

I sat there replaying every awkward moment. Every question I should have asked but didn't. Every opportunity I missed to demonstrate that I actually gave a damn about helping them.

I allowed myself 20 minutes to wallow in it. To feel the full weight of screwing up something that mattered.

And then I decided to move forward.

Pain is only pain unless you learn from it. So after my 20 minutes elapsed, I sat on my stairs and wrote the draft of this email.

Jerry Seinfeld once said pain is the sensation of experience entering the body. You can choose to accept it for the growth opportunity it is, or you can focus on the pain.

I've had my 20 minutes. Now I'm focused on the growth opportunity.

Because here's the thing: feeling bad about a mistake doesn't fix it. Wallowing in it doesn't make you better. The only thing that makes you better is figuring out what went wrong and committing to doing it differently next time.

What I'm Doing Differently

The root cause is simple: I was too busy and didn't prepare for an important meeting.

Here's what I'm changing:

Full calendar review every morning. 

I typically do this. But this morning I only looked at the busy/empty blocks and planned my time based on that. I totally missed the context of what this particular block actually was. From now on, I'm clicking into every meeting to review who it's with and what we're discussing.

Color-code new prospect meetings. 
I may also change the color of meetings with new prospects so they stand out visually. A bright red block is harder to overlook than a default blue one.

15-minute pre-call buffer. 
For any discovery or sales call, I'm blocking 15 minutes before to review notes, pull up their LinkedIn, and get my head in the game. If the call got wedged in between others, like this week, then I’ll do the prep before that call block. 

These aren't excuses. These are reflections on what to do differently next time.

Because the goal isn't to never make mistakes. The goal is to not make the same mistake twice.

It's About Respect

Part of this is respect. Respect for the prospect. Respect for their time.

When someone takes 30 minutes out of their day to talk to you, they're giving you something valuable. And when you show up unprepared, you're telling them their time isn't worth your effort.

That's not the message I want to send. Especially not to someone who went out of his way to create an opportunity for me.

My grade 8 English teacher once told me something that stuck. I told him I forgot to do my homework and he said, "No, you didn't forget. You didn't bother to remember."

Mr. Antony was right.

Forgetting implies it was out of your control. But the truth is, I had control. I just didn't prioritize it.

Monday, I didn't bother to remember. But tomorrow I will.

The Real Standard

The standard you hold yourself to when no one's watching is the real standard.

Not the one you talk about. Not the one you aspire to. The one you actually live by when you're busy and tired and stretched thin.

That's the standard that matters.

And this week, I fell short of mine.

So I'm writing this down. Not to beat myself up. Not to perform some public act of contrition. But to remind myself what I'm committed to.

I'm committed to showing up prepared. To respecting people's time. To holding myself to the same bar I hold others to.

Even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

Collin

PS - I’ve been playing around with Manus to rebuild a startup of mine that we bailed on in ~2023. Our goal was to help people establish exercise habits by enabling them to play games with the fitness data. Think 1 minute of exercise = 1 point in the game. We had a fantasy football inspired game, a Battleship inspired game, a game where you’re getting chased by a bear, and a solo game where you’re climbing Everest (and get to read about the different stages as you progress). If that sounds interesting, hit me back and let me know if you’d be up for helping me test it out.

PPS - Huge thank you to Lee for the Amazon review, if his review doesn’t convince you to buy, then I don’t know what will.