How Mutiny Uses Mutiny: The Signal-Driven Cold Calling Playbook

Every few months someone says, “Cold calling is dead.” Apple’s privacy updates ruined connect rates. Prospects don’t answer. Automation and AI are the only scalable ways left.

But my experience tells a different story. In the last two years, I’ve booked over $14 million in pipeline, and 60% of it came from cold calls. Not sequences, not AI bots, not flashy paid platforms. Just me, a phone, and real conversations.

The real problem isn’t that cold calling doesn’t work. It’s that most reps approach it with no system—random dials, canned scripts, chasing bad fits, and treating every call like a win-or-lose pitch. That’s what kills momentum.

Cold calling still works—but only if you treat it like a system, not a lottery.

The hypothesis I built my playbook around is simple: If I target the right accounts at the right time, lead with curiosity instead of scripts, and focus on making the conversation valuable for the prospect, cold calls will consistently create pipeline.

This isn’t magic. It’s structure, consistency, and intent.

My system has a few core pillars that make every call count:

Smart Targeting

Before I dial, I ask: “Is this the right person at the right company at the right time?”

I prioritize based on signals like new marketing leadership, recent funding, or teams hiring for growth roles. I also bucket accounts by ABM maturity—advanced, growing, or early stage—so I know whether to lean into strategic ROI conversations or just make the pain obvious.

Early on, I wasted hours chasing random names. Now I keep a living doc of accounts, notes, and triggers so I can jump into focused dials quickly.

Pain-First Messaging

Nobody cares about features on a cold call. What gets people to stay on the line is hearing their own problem reflected back.

That’s why every call starts with: “What pain does this person actually feel, and how does Mutiny solve it?”

I tie our product to pains like:

• “You’re driving traffic but it’s not turning into pipeline.”

• “Personalization is stalled because it doesn’t scale.”

• “Your ABM plays feel flat after activation.”

• “Ops is bogged down waiting on dev resources.”

If I can’t map the product to something they care about, I’m not ready to call.

Curiosity Over Scripts

When I first started, I leaned too hard on polished lines. I sounded like a salesperson reading a script, and prospects tuned out.

Now I approach calls with curiosity. I keep my tone steady, almost like I’m calling a friend. If they say something interesting, I think out loud, pause, and let the silence breathe. I’ve learned silence usually means they’re thinking—not that I’m losing them.

A prospect once told me, “I took your call because you didn’t sound like the five other vendors who dialed me that week.” That stuck with me. Pattern interrupts matter.

Objection Handling

At Yelp, I learned the objection triangle: understand, empathize, value pivot. It’s how I turn smoke screens into openings.

For example, when someone says, “We already use 6sense,” I don’t panic. I agree—it’s a great platform. I empathize—they’ve invested time and money already. Then I pivot—“That’s where Mutiny fits in. Most teams activate accounts fine but struggle to convert them.”

I don’t bulldoze objections. I explore them, usually three different ways. More often than not, the first “not interested” isn’t the real reason.

Structured Follow-Up

The call doesn’t end when they hang up—it starts the momentum. I log every call, whether they answer or not, and set a follow-up task right away.

I personalize recaps with things they actually said. Sometimes it’s a Loom showing how we’d solve their specific pain. Sometimes it’s just a line tying back to the problem they admitted on the call.

Some of my best meetings have come not on the first call, but on the second or third. The key is staying organized and showing up with context each time.

When I stopped chasing random dials and built a system around targeting, curiosity, and structured follow-up, my results changed dramatically.

Over two years, I’ve generated $14M in pipeline, with 60% directly from cold calls. That’s proof cold calling isn’t dead—it just needs to be done differently.

More importantly, it made the work feel sustainable. I don’t chase bad-fit meetings, I don’t waste time over-researching, and I don’t psych myself out when someone says no. I know every dial is part of a system, and momentum compounds.

The worst that can happen? Someone hangs up. That’s not failure—it’s part of the job. Every “no” gets me closer to the right “yes.”

Cold calling works. But only when you do.