Dear Growth Guru… I Hate Cold Calling but I’m in SaaS

Dear Growth Guru,

I’ve recently moved into a Senior AE role at a high-growth SaaS firm. The product is world-class, the commission structure is life-changing, and the culture is great.

There’s just one problem: I absolutely loathe cold calling. Every morning, I stare at my power-dialler with a genuine sense of dread. I find it intrusive, inefficient, and, frankly, soul-destroying. I’m great at the “consultative” part of the sale, but I feel like a fraud every time I’m told to ‘just hit the phones.’

Am I in the wrong industry, or is there a way out of this?

Dialling in Dublin

Dear Sidelined

Dear Dialling, Let’s cut the fluff: You don’t hate cold calling; you hate the feeling of being a “nuisance.”

You’ve fallen into the classic SaaS trap of viewing sales as a binary choice: you’re either a “sophisticated consultant” or a “pavement-pounding telemarketer.” Because you’ve attached your ego to the former, you find the latter beneath you.

But here’s the reality for 2026: The “Goldilocks” era of inbound leads falling into your lap is over. If you aren’t generating your own pipeline, you aren’t an Account Executive; you’re an Order Taker. And Order Takers are currently being replaced by AI agents.

Here is How We Rewire Your Prospecting Mindset

Stop Calling, Start Rescuing: The reason you feel like a “fraud” is that you’re focused on your activity (making a call) rather than the outcome (solving a problem). If you truly believe your SaaS product is “world-class,” then every prospect who hasn’t heard of you is currently suffering from an inefficiency you could fix.

The Fix: Shift your internal narrative. You aren’t “interrupting” their day; you are interrupting their downward trajectory. When you view your call as a “Search and Rescue” mission for a specific business pain point, the dread vanishes.

Master the ‘Pattern Interrupt’: You likely hate the phone because you’re using 2015 scripts in a 2026 market. If you sound like a robot, you’ll be treated like a nuisance.

The Fix: Stop the “How are you doing today?” openers. Use a “Research-First” approach. Mention a specific trigger: a recent funding round, a new hire, or a competitor’s failure. When a prospect hears that you’ve actually done your homework, the “cold” call becomes a “lukewarm” consultation. Your ego stays intact because you’re leading with value, not a pitch.

Audit Your ‘Activity vs. Anxiety’ Ratio: In SaaS, it’s often overthink the “Strategy” to avoid the “Execution.” You spend three hours “curating a list” to avoid thirty minutes of dialling. This builds a mountain of anxiety out of a molehill of work.

The Fix: Use the Power Hour method. As we’ve highlighted in our guides on High-Performance Habits, the elite 1% don’t sprinkle calling throughout the day. They batch it. Block 60 minutes, turn off Slack, and hunt. You’ll find that the “dread” only exists in the anticipation. Once you’re five calls in, the adrenaline takes over.

The Bottom Line: The phone is the only channel left that hasn’t been completely diluted by AI-generated spam. It is your most direct line to the truth.

If you want the “life-changing” commission, you have to do the work that others find uncomfortable. Stop waiting for the “perfect” inbound lead and start building the “perfect” outbound career. Your edge isn’t in your ability to demo; it’s in your willingness to start the conversation.