🚀Sales Leader EMEA | Sales Enablement | Bigtincan | Army Veteran🚀

My journey has been anything but ordinary, from the British Army to Cyber Security. 

Now, as Head of Business Development at Core to Cloud, I have come in to transform their sales processes and drive growth in the cybersecurity space.

Leading Core to Cloud’s mission to provide businesses with trusted cybersecurity solutions. By focusing on innovation, collaboration, and client success, I’m dedicated to shaping a secure digital future for organisations worldwide.

Core to Cloud is a trusted name in cybersecurity. Our mission is to provide businesses with personalised solutions to complex security challenges, ensuring every organisation feels protected and supported in today’s digital world. 

By focusing on trust, collaboration, and innovation, we empower teams to deliver exceptional client outcomes.

Feel free to reach out to me on here or visit our website: www.coretocloud.co.uk

Adam Weekes

Founder @ Sales Upskill & Founder Led Sales | Head of Growth @ Prospeo.io

There is no point cold calling an phone number that isn't real. Their is no point emailing and out of date email. 

The time wasting adds up. Instead...Email validated emails, call real mobile numbers of your ICP.

Prospeo.io

Matthew Putnam

I guarantee I have done more cold calls than you.

Also I miss my clean shaven phase.



And In all my years of doing cold calling, I can say with hand on heart… it has never been easier.

If you are stuck with a provider who gives you “direct dials” and refreshes the data every 4 months then maybe not.

But Prospeo…. Millions of mobiles, refreshed every 7 days. 

You are holding yourself and your team back by not using it. The data quality is incredible.

I guarantee they will have more conversations.

I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is.

If you want to try it, message me and I’ll sort you and your team a chunk of leads.

Matthew Putnam 🔵

Head of Sales | Prospeo.io | Co-Founder of Sales Upskill & Founder Lead Sales

We were quoted $45,000 for a 1 minute 30 sec advert. 

We said fuck that and did it ourselves, what do you think? 

Today is a big day. 

Prospeo has always been known for data accuracy, but before you needed  another tool to create the lead list. 

Now you dont! 

Prospeo.io V2 goes live today, 300million+ Contacts with verification built in as standard. 

This means: 

- Real email addresses
- Real mobile numbers

We refresh and re-validate every 7 days. 

So stop wasting less time on out of date contact info.

We also started our first ever outbound campaign, i'll share the stats tomorrow so you can see the impact of this data(it is ridiculous).

After 2.5 years, we have started our first ever outbound campaign 😂 

Imagine starting outbound after 2 years?! 

Rules: 

- Make the offer great
- Use prospeo.io data (The best data out there)

Now I've always been a user of the two big providers. 

And not once in my career have I seen a campaign go this well this quickly. 

1 in 35 responces. +3% positive response rate. 

Our copy was good, but that is not what has been the main thing here. 

The leads are 99.8% verified.

Something that simply isn't possible with ZI and Cog. 

So buzzed that we spent the last year and a half building V2. 

2 days after launch and we are outpacing our personal best sign up days by 2.5x 

We will be scaling these campaigns. 

If you would like to try us out just DM me, I can send you a chunk of credits to test it yourself. 

Plus...no 1 year contractual agreements, with notice periods you are likely to forget... 👀

7 cold call openers that get prospects talking

And they’re simple as f***:

1. Permission-based
“Hey [Name], it’s [You] from [Company]. I know I’m calling out of the blue.
Can I take 30 seconds to share why I called, and you can tell me if it’s relevant?”

2. Honest cold call
“Hey [Name], quick heads up, this is a cold call. Before you decide to hang up, can I tell you why I’m calling? If it’s not relevant, I’ll let you go.”

3. Inject some Humour
“Hey [Name], it’s [You]. I’m cold calling on a Monday morning, so I’ll keep this short. Can I give you the quick version?”
Or steal some of that Giulio Magic

4. Direct pitch
“Hi [Name], [You] from [Company]. We’ve helped teams like yours improve [specific metric] by [X%] in [timeframe]. Worth 30 seconds to see if that’s even on your radar?”

5. Mutual connection
“Hi [Name], it’s [You]. I was speaking with [Mutual Connection] and they suggested I reach out about [topic]. Do you have a minute for a quick question?”

6. Current event
“Hey [Name], [You] from [Company]. With the recent changes in[trend/regulation], I wanted to flag something we’re seeing.Can I share it quickly and get your take?”

7. Problem-centric
“Hi [Name], [You] here. I’ve been talking to a lot of [job titles] in [industry], and [common problem] keeps coming up. Is that something you’re running into too?”

If you only take one thing from this:

Ask for a small yes first. Then earn the next minute.

Which opener style works best for you?

I honestly think tomorrow might change my life...


Anyway, I am posting everyday this year and here is how its going: 

Posts: 11
Likes: 607
Comments: 270
Saves: 167
Impressions: 47,000
Followers: 155

Now, majority of my posts, I am aiming for them to be 'useful' to who my audience is here, Sales people and Sales Leaders. 

I'm currently weighing up the type of content formats to go for this year, as last year I would mainly do resources and memes. 

I think I opted for those as they would usually get the most likes and I would get the short term endorphin rush. But I started falling out of love with the posting grind. 

So this year I am trying to stick to helpful stuff. I will add funny bits in to cheese the algo ahah but this will be with tactical advice. 

Most people will be back from holidays next week so lets see how this progresses! 

 
Boy oh boy am I excited for tomorrow 👀 👀

Im posting everyday this year to see if it improves my life. 

Here is how its going: 

Posts: 18
Likes: 1447
Comments: 592
Saves: 187
Impressions: 79,000
Followers: 372

The posts this week, mainly focused on the launch of Prospeo V2, which has been wild. 

Less saves this week, but more engagement on the post. This is due to us leaning on humour to drive attention to the release. 

If you are wondering about posting or not, for leads I can say this last week did just that. 

However we were pushing hard on how good Prospeo is, how strong the data is. 

My usual stuff isn't always best for that, which we will be returning to next week.

Hoping this week we cross the 45,000 follower mark. 

So please....

For charity....

Smash that follower button.

How much would you need to be paid to get a tattoo of your employer? Serious answers only.



My price? 

A year license to the best damn data provider in existence Prospeo.

No alternative text description for this image

What “ideal” contact data filters should exist?

Shoe size? Languages? Top speed? Comment and I’ll make it happen.

Relying on just Job title, location and employee size doesn't help you reach out to with relevance. 

If there isn't any relevance there is no point. 

This is Prospeo's attitude, by providing you the best contact database with the best quality emails and numbers.

You will have more conversations. 

Fun fact, those with smaller shoes tend spend 4x as much money on AI related software. 

Crazy right?!













Thats a lie. 

But would make fantastic outreach. 

"Yo John 🤜 🤛 

My fellow size 8 timberland boot wearer. What is happening brother?!

I speak to Sales Leaders like you all the time and they all say the same thing. Why do my team not pick up the phone???

Blah blah blah. Etc etc" 


What filters do you want?

Sale Experts! What do you think will perform better out of these?

A or B

When it comes to Sales, I am the boss. So I am going to start trying different things I never could. 

ICP Information:

We sell to Founders, Sales Leaders, Rev Ops and Outbound Agencies. 

Company Size 5-2000(Currently)

Prospeo is the best B2B Database out there with 300+ million contacts and verified contact data. It helps these teams have more conversations as the data is actually real.

Now picture these ICPs
- Founders
- Sales Leaders
- Rev Ops teams

Which of these two calendar links are they more likely to click? 

Place you bets, Ill report back in 2 weeks. 

(For context we are alternating which one we send)

Place your bets! 

I am weary of advice from Sales Leaders and Sales People who sold in pre-2010. Here is why: 

Bribery wasn't Illegal. 

Boy oh boy I bet that was fun as f***

Asking how qualified a deal was back then with MEDDPICC

Metrics – How much ‘relationship building’ is budgeted?
Economic Buyer – Who enjoys the finest hospitality?
Decision Criteria – Which perks move things along fastest?
Decision Process – Lunch → drinks → agreement
Paper Process – What can’t go in the CRM?
Identified Pain – They hate procurement slowing things down
Champion – The one who knows where the bodies are buried
Competition – Who booked the better dinner?


Lets bring back bribery

Actually pumped for tomorrow!! Bring on 2026. 

What’s coming:

- Prospeo News inbound 
- Sales Upskill & Founder Led Sales upgrade
- Tonnes of Sales resources to help you all
- 361 LinkedIn posts

My mission here is to either make you laugh or give you something useful to take away.

Some personal goals:

- Double Prospeo ARR
- Double users on Sales Upskill and Founder Led Sales
- Double my height

As long as I achieve 2/3 it will be considered a successful year.

What are your goals?

The LinkedIn comment strategy that generates leads

The Strategy:

Step 1: Identify the right posts to comment on
- Posts from your ICPs (the people you want to sell to)
- Posts from influencers your ICPs follow
- Posts discussing topics related to what you sell
- Posts with high engagement (100+ likes) where you can add value

Step 2: Be first (or near first) LinkedIn's algorithm boosts early comments. Try to comment within the first hour of posting. Early comments get more visibility, more likes, and more profile visits.

Step 3: Add value, not noise Bad: "Great post!" / "So true!" / "👏👏👏" Good: A genuine thought that adds to the conversation

Examples:
- "This resonates. We've seen [related insight] with [type of company] too."
- "Interesting point on [X]. One thing I'd add: [your perspective]."
- "This happened to us at [Company]. Here's what we learned: [insight]."

Your comment should make people want to click on your profile.

Step 4: Engage with replies If someone replies to your comment, respond. Conversations in comments drive more visibility and build relationships.

Step 5: Be consistent 10 thoughtful comments per day > 1 comment per week. Consistency builds familiarity. People start recognising your name.

The results:
- Profile views increase
- Connection requests increase
- People reach out to YOU

When you reach out to them, you're not a stranger

The math: 10 comments/day × 5 days/week = 50 comments If 5% lead to profile views and 1% become conversations, that's 2-3 conversations and potentially leads per week from commenting alone.

Two sales reps. Same quota. Which one would you hire? 

You can pick only 1!

Because I keep seeing this exact debate in hiring loops.

- Option A: 4 years at a bigger company, consistent target hitter.

- Option B: 3 startups, about 12 to 18 months each, overachieving with mixed results.

Here’s how I think about it.

Rep A (4 years, consistent at a bigger org)
 ✅ Likely understands process, forecasting, and operating rhythm.
 ✅ Proven they can repeat performance across multiple quarters.
 ✅ Usually steadier in enterprise cycles and stakeholder management.
 ⚠️ Might be optimized for enablement, brand inbound, and mature ICP.
 ⚠️ Sometimes less comfortable in messy, zero-to-one environments.

Rep B (3 startups, big spikes, mixed outcomes)
 ✅ Usually scrappy, adaptable, and fast to learn new products.
 ✅ Often great at building pipeline without perfect conditions.
 ✅ Can thrive when the playbook is still being written.
 ⚠️ Risk of “always resetting” before the long-term grind shows.
 ⚠️ Mixed results can mean situational talent or inconsistent fundamentals.


So, what do you prefer when you’re hiring?

A or B, and why?

Sales Rep A or Sales Rep B

The 10 Questions:

Budget Questions:
(1.) "Is there already a plan or budget earmarked for addressing this?" 
Direct but not presumptuous. If they have budget allocated, you're in a real conversation. If not, you know where you stand.

(2.) "What kind of investment range are you expecting for a solution like this?" 
Gets them to anchor first. Better than revealing your price and watching them react.

(3.) "How have you funded similar initiatives in the past?" 
If they've never bought something like this, you need to understand how they'll make it happen. If they have, you learn their process.

Timeline Questions:
(4.) "Why tackle this now instead of six months ago or six months from now?" 
The answer reveals urgency. If they can't answer, there might not be real urgency. If they can, you've got a compelling event.

(5.)  "When do you need this solved by?" 
Simple and direct. Some prospects have hard deadlines (fiscal year, board meeting, product launch). Others don't.

(6.)  "What happens if you don't solve this by [their deadline]?" 
Creates awareness of consequences. If nothing happens, urgency is low. If there are real consequences, urgency is real.

Urgency Questions:
(7.)  "Where does solving this sit in terms of priority for you and the team?" 
Is this priority #1 or priority #17? The answer shapes how you run the deal.

(8.)  "What else is competing for your attention right now?" 
Understand what you're up against. Even if your solution is perfect, you're competing with their other priorities.

(9.)  "What would need to happen for this to become the top priority?" 
If it's not a priority now, find out what would change that. Sometimes you can influence it, sometimes you can't.

(10.)  "What's driving the timeline on your end?" 
Open-ended version of the timeline question. Let them explain in their own words what's creating pressure.

How to use these:
- Don't fire through all 10 like an interrogation
- Weave them naturally into conversation
- Go deeper on answers that reveal something interesting
- Use silence after asking - let them think

What discovery questions do you always ask? What am I missing? Drop them below

Disco Questions

700,000 words of sales training + 600 hours of recorded call transcripts.

Condensed into downloadable sales resources.

This is two years of work being structured properly.
The source material isn’t hypothetical.

It comes from real calls with some of the best active sales reps and sales trainers in the game, plus the training I’ve run myself across live teams.

I’m turning all of it into practical, downloadable sales resources covering:

1) Prospecting
2) Objection handling
3) Discovery and demo
4) Closing
5) Negotiation
6) Sales management


Patterns you only see after reviewing hundreds of real sales conversations.
What top performers actually say.
How deals really move forward.
The techniques to book new meetings daily

It’s still being finished.

If you want access when it’s ready, Lets connect, comment ACCESS and I’ll message you when it’s finished.

You're doing outreach. You're sending emails. You're hitting up LinkedIn. But the replies aren't coming.

Here's the thing: most salespeople have broken infrastructure and don't even realise it. Emails landing in spam. Lead lists full of people who left their jobs six months ago. Messaging that sounds like every other rep in their inbox.
In this session, we're fixing all of it.

We'll break down the three pillars that actually drive results: Infrastructure, Leads, and Messaging. You'll learn how to spot the signs your setup is broken, how to build a multi-channel engine that works across email and LinkedIn, and how to write outreach that sounds like a human wrote it.
What you'll walk away with:

How to diagnose and fix your email infrastructure so you actually land in inboxes
The lead hygiene basics most reps skip (and why it's killing your reply rates)
A messaging framework for email and LinkedIn DMs that gets responses

Join Matthew Putnam and Kseniia Skobelska from Snov.io for a straight-talking session on outreach that converts.

Why Your Outreach Isn't Working (And the 3 Pillars to Fix It)

Thanks to Prospeo V2, I am now an actor(if you saw our advert). This video is why you should practise your cold call openers, questions and objection handling. 

We said: F***, Sh*t, B**ls, ****(really really bad word) x 172 times. 

Actually, maybe we should have left these in the ad. 

Maybe...You should swear on your cold calls.

Partnerships @prospeo.io On a mission to inject storytelling into sales culture ☕️

A few of you have been asking about the new Prospeo.io updates

& by a few I mean yall are flooding my dms 🤠

Now while I love feeling this popular, I am quite tied up with partnerships and the fun storytelling bits so here’s a quick feature list in case you’re late to that party…


👑For my sale reps in the house:

- triple verified mobiles and emails for better pickup & response rates
-signal based targeting (job changes, hiring etc.) for better relevance
- chrome extension to grab info while prospecting on LinkedIn

📈For my agency owners:

- tight icp filters for niche targeting
- integrations (hubspot, slack etc.) to work with your existing channels
- database refreshing every 7 days (current industry standard is monthly or even quarterly) 



Soooo we’re not just a verification tool. Were a full blow list building powerhouse. And we’re dripping out more features over the next few months. 

Now is the chance to get your input because we BUILD THIS FOR YOU so tell me what would be helpful and I’ll take it to the devs 🤓


Ps. Enjoy these bloopers ❤️‍🔥

taplio

The Battle

Adam Weekes

Matthew Putnam

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreMatthew Putnam's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Adam Weekes

Matthew Putnam

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Matthew Putnam's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreMatthew Putnam's LinkedIn Performance