This is the TitanX newsletter, where GTM is built on conversations, targeting, and, of course, Phone Intent™ - Read more.
Last week we broke down the difficult state of outbound: 2% connects, $2,500 per conversation, shrinking teams, leaders sweating the future.
The pain is real. The math is brutal.
But some teams have flipped this completely. And the shift isn’t just operational: it’s emotional.
You could choose to read this as a big ad for TitanX, and to some extent, of course it is.
It’s also a lot more than that.
Ask yourself:
When was the last time scaling outbound and hitting targets actually felt enjoyable?
Picture yourself – picture your own team – in these situations:
“We were more excited about the energy.”
Kevin Dorsey (CRO, Finally) put it best:
“There is nothing like an SDR rolling out TitanX and booking five meetings in a day… We were more excited about the energy than the result.”
Ultimately, it’s not about meetings. It’s about identity.
Thomas Pellegrino at InvestNext watched his reps’ first TitanX session:
“Pickup, pickup, pickup, pickup. Four in a row. You could see it in their face—they were pumped.”
When’s the last time you saw that enthusiasm on your sales floor?
“A rep came running into my office. Six calls, four pickups. He said, ‘I’ve never had this happen in my career.’”
Not because of quota. Because he finally felt good at his job again.
“Group call blocks are exciting.”
Said no one ever. Unless you’re on Thomas’s team at Investnext:
“They actually look forward to outbound now. Group call blocks are exciting. More competitive. More fun.”
He even started dialing with his team because he was excited.
That’s not tactic-level change. That’s culture-level transformation.
Why this matters more than the metrics
When connect rates rise, something else rises with them:
Victim → Agent: “The game is rigged” becomes “I know how to win this.”
Isolation → Team energy: therapy sessions become celebration sessions.
Scarcity → Abundance: not enough at-bats becomes more than you can handle.
Doubt → Confidence: “Am I bad at this?” becomes “Wait… I’m actually good at this.”
Reps stop questioning themselves. They start experiencing mastery.
That’s the real story.
My own moment seeing this
I once worked with an AE who’d been demoted to SDR. He hated it. Already interviewing elsewhere.
We ran an experiment across eight industries. Tested everything with TitanX. Dozens of conversations with each segment.
Four months later? Three industries hit. Five didn’t.
He was booking five meetings a day.
Then I learned most SDR quotas are 6–10 meetings per month.
He didn’t just outperform.
He stopped hating his job.
That’s the ROI no spreadsheet includes.
More at-bats means faster competence
Case Allin:
“Junior reps get more at-bats faster. Their objection handling improves because they’re actually practicing.”
Michael Rose (Docebo):
“First-day reps hit 25% connect rates. They get their weekly connects in one call block.”
Most teams are burning reps on 2–4% connects
Then wondering why quota attainment is at 40%.
You’re asking reps to master your market on 1–3 conversations per day.
You could be giving them 15–20.
Our two new SDRs logged 772 conversations in September—their first month.
Across 502 companies.
Then 936 in October.
29 hours of live talk time.
That’s fluency. That’s confidence. That’s a real talent pipeline.
Run this math right now
Fully Burdened Cost Per Conversation:
(SDR cost + tools + data) ÷ 260 days ÷ conversations per day
We commonly see $500–$800 per conversation.
Now model what happens if your team gets 5× more conversations.
Then think about retention. Ramp. Culture.
Then ask yourself:
Why are we still cold calling bad data?
No amount of motivational posters fixes 3% connect rates. But engineering a team that’s “pumped to make calls” is absolutely solvable. And it’s built on math, not hype.
Your move.
Thanks for reading,
Evan Dunn (LinkedIn)
P.S. If you have questions, hit reply. I read every response. And I promise next week's newsletter is a lot more hopeful.