Cold Call Practice With AI: 100 Calls, Zero Burned Leads

Ashif: A new rep burns about 40 real prospects learning to hold a cold call. 40 companies that will never take your call again. Here's how they burn 100 fake ones instead. This is a cold call practice against an AI, and I'm going to run it from end to end: the setup, 100 calls, the score, and what the coach says I did wrong.

So, let's build one.

First, we'll need to create a new role-play. So, up here, press add role-play.

We can link our website so the AI learns what we're trying to sell. For now, I'll just do pitchmonster.io.

We can also upload files like your entire product knowledge base, or even connect to Gong and Salesforce. But for now, we'll just press generate.

Watch this. The AI is scanning our website to get all of our information, to make sure we say the right things. For now, let's continue with setting up our AI agent.

We'll go to persona, and we'll switch it over to hard. You can also fine-tune exactly how you want this AI to behave. We'll just leave it as is.

Then the scenario. This is where you tell the AI exactly how you want your rep to be trained. So, go ahead and have a look, but the AI did all this work for us already. I'll make it a little easier on myself and delete some of these conversation steps, just for the video.

And now this is super important. We need to have a scorecard. This is the report card we're graded against. So, our main goal should be to sell the demo. And of course, we can attach our knowledge base, but for now, we'll leave it empty.

And now let's fine-tune our report card, and finish off the scenario by giving it a name. We can even adjust the time limit. I'll leave everything as is. We'll hit save, and we're ready to send it to our trainee.

All you have to do is press invite users and type in their email. And just like that, we're ready to switch over to what your trainee will see.

This is their dashboard. On the left, we have the newest cold call we just created. All your trainee has to do is click on it and start practicing.

Michael (AI buyer): Hey, this is Michael. I've got 30 minutes. What do you want to cover today?

Ashif: I'm going to purposefully give this a really bad cold call opening, to show you how this AI will react. Hey Michael, I'm Ashif. How are you doing today?

Michael: I'm fine. Let's skip the small talk. What's this about?

Ashif: So, I have this awesome program I'd love for you to get on board with. It's called PitchMonster, and it allows you to offload all your training away from your managers and into an AI platform. It gives you a realistic AI buyer to practice against, so you don't burn your real leads.

Michael: Sounds like a lot of fluff. What makes you think I should care about this?

Ashif: Well, we all know time is money, and managers have a lot of other things to do. They should be investigating ways to make your customers' experience better.

Michael: I'm not convinced. We've tried AI tools before, and they just spit out generic stuff that doesn't fit our brand or approach. How is this any different?

Ashif: So, our AI scans your products, whether you want to link in a website or your entire knowledge base. Like if you have an insurance sheet or car details, depending on whatever you want to sell.

Michael: Okay, but we already use Apollo and Outreach for data and sequences. What's the real edge here? Why add another tool to the mix?

Ashif: Cool. So, the software that you currently use, they're great. They're great to make sure your reps have said the correct things after they've already spoken to a customer. But what happens when you get a new rep? They haven't been thoroughly tested yet, and every time you put them against a real customer, that's potentially lost money. Why not have them train against an AI?

And of course, I see your situation with the additional software. You don't want to get bogged down. Well, I'll gladly tell you we have awesome integrations. You can integrate Gong, Salesforce, and your knowledge database, or just other PDFs, into our AI, and it'll make sure the correct things are said. That's how our AI stands out from generic ones.

Michael: I get the point. But honestly, I'm not sure I can sell this to our CFO right now. We're tight on budget, and another tool might be a hard sell.

Ashif: The way I see it, you're going to end up saving money by reducing your managers' load, but you'll also increase your revenue by making sure your reps are actually able to make the sales you hired them to do.

Michael: Maybe. I'd want to see the demo first before I even think about involving anyone else. If it doesn't show clear value, I'm not wasting anyone's time. No need to push.

Ashif: Just click any of those times, and I will talk to you then.

Michael: Fine, I'll do that. Let's see if this is worth it.

Ashif: Cool. Nice talking to you, Michael.

Michael: Yeah. Yeah, bye.

Ashif: Well, I deliberately kind of tanked that one, and at the very end, Michael got a little hasty. Let's see what our score is.

And check that out, our feedback is ready. We can talk to the coach right away, or we can see our feedback. So, 60 out of 100. I guess I sold it to him, but he didn't really like my approach.

So, let's see what we could have done better. If we scroll down into our feedback, we can see I did not set the agenda. That was one of our items in our scorecard, and I didn't meet the expectations. And if we keep going down, I didn't explore customer issues, but I did get him to agree to a next meeting.

Now, there are more insights. So, over here are pace, if we're using too many filler words, and all these other scenarios.

And here's the part that actually changes your next call: the AI Coach. He doesn't lecture me. He talks me through the points and makes sure I come to my own conclusion, so I learn. Let's give it a quick look.

AI Coach: Hey, thanks for the recording. Are you ready to start the coaching session?

Ashif: Yes, coach. Let's get started.

AI Coach: Ashif, what do you think was the strongest part of that call?

Ashif: I feel like I nailed his worries with my explanations.

AI Coach: You did stay in the pocket when Michael pushed back, especially on "we've tried AI tools before" and "why add another tool", where you gave clear differentiation around training before reps hit real customers. The bigger miss was up front. When he opened with "I've got 30 minutes, what do you want to cover today?", you jumped straight into the pitch instead of setting an agenda or asking about his current training process. So, you never uncovered a pain he actually cared about, and your value sounded generic.

Next time, say: "In 30 minutes, I'd like to understand how you onboard reps today, where training breaks down, and then show you if PitchMonster fits. Does that work?" And after "we've tried AI tools before", ask: "What specifically fell short, and what did that cost you?" What's the one thing you'll do differently on your next call?

Ashif: So, that was a small session with the coach, and instantly he was able to nail down exactly what I did right, and that feels good. It reinforces my good behaviors while pointing out the bad ones, so I can change for next time.

One call teaches you nothing. A hundred does. And that's the whole argument for practicing against an AI instead of a real person. Nobody has a manager with a hundred spare calls in them.

And as a manager, I don't sit through those hundred calls, either. I see who practiced, who passed, and who keeps dying on the same objection. And I assign that exact scenario to the three reps who need it.

That's cold call practice against AI. A hundred bad calls that cost you nothing. The tool is PitchMonster. Link's in the description. It's free to try. Paste in your URL and see where your reps stand. I'm Ashif. Subscribe if you want more of these.