How I Got to 7-Figures in Sales as a Socially Inept Introvert Nerd

Photo by Daniel Chekalov on Unsplash

When I first started selling technology, I had no idea what I was doing.

For weeks, receptionists slammed the phone on me. I was cursed at, told to beat it, and worse.

See, I’ve never been a “gift of gab” kind of guy. In fact, I had to go through speech therapy as a kid because I couldn’t communicate well. Socially, I’ve always been awkward and a bit uncomfortable. But, I was driven to find a way to sell.

Thankfully, my CRM was my lifeline.

My personal choice for a business of any size is HubSpot. The free tools allow startups to track their contacts and sales calls. However, as your business grows, HubSpot can be scaled to the large business level.

Having gone from $0 of revenue to $2.5M per year with a small team of 4 salespeople, here are the steps I would suggest implementing to start getting sales now:

1. Build a lead list. The best lead lists aren’t purchased; they are made. Think about who fits your ideal customer profile and manually build a list of 100–1000 contacts/businesses you can call on. Once, you have this list, import it into HubSpot.
2. Make sales calls. I won’t sugarcoat it. Making cold calls is scary and difficult. While I’ve worked with all-stars who can land a…