Cold Calling Is the Most Underused Growth Lever in ETA. Here’s the Real Reason Why.

Most ETA operators I talk to are leaving money on the table. They’ll spend hours debating CRM fields, building a LinkedIn presence, fiddling with email sequences… and never once pick up the phone. It’s not because they’re lazy. It’s because they tried it for a bit, it felt like a waste of time, and they gave up too soon. Cold calling only works when you understand the formula that actually makes it successful: Target. Voice. Script. In that order. Screw up any one of these and the whole thing falls apart.Let me break it down... 🎯 1. Target – 90% of the game If you’re calling the wrong people—folks who aren’t the decision-maker, aren’t in pain, or aren’t in-market—you’re wasting your time and burning out your team. This is where most ETA companies blow it. They take a list from the last trade show or pull something from ZoomInfo and hope for the best. That’s not targeting. Start with a narrow segment. Get obsessed with relevance. You should be able to say, “We’re calling 100 landscaping companies in Florida that manage more than 30 properties and don’t have a full-time safety officer.” That’s a target. 🎙 2. Voice – gets you the first 5 seconds The right script doesn’t matter if the person on the other end is hanging up before you get to it. Voice matters—a lot. Accent, cadence, tone, even background noise. This isn’t about discrimination; it’s about psychology. People make snap judgments. If the voice on the other end doesn’t sound credible and calm, they’re gone. I’ve tested this across industries. The wrong voice will get you labeled a spam call before you ever get to pitch. The right voice can sound like a helpful insider. Choose your caller like you’d choose your front-line salesperson. Because that’s exactly what they are. 📄 3. Script – earns you the next 30 seconds Once you’re talking to the right person and they haven’t hung up, the script has one job: keep them on the line and get them to act. Most scripts are either too cute or too formal. Keep it simple: - A quick opener that doesn’t trigger the “salesperson” defense. - A reason you’re calling that’s relevant to their role. - A clear next step—meeting, demo, quote, whatever fits your sales motion. Test the script at least weekly. Tweak one variable at a time. Over time, you’ll build a version that works like muscle memory. 📈 Here's how it's working for us... We worked with a life safety company that had zero outbound motion. We set up a simple system to make 100 calls per day, starting from scratch. In 30 days, they had 41 new leads and closed 3 new customers—including a national government agency. 💡The final piece? Consistency. We typically aim for one good lead per day. That doesn’t sound like much… until you see what happens after 3 months of stacking those up. Cold calling isn’t dead. It just feels dead if you’re doing it halfway.