# David Patterson-Cole

David Patterson-Cole works on systems for outbound sales to small and midsize businesses. His posts focus on improving cold-call volume and decision-maker connections through data, targeting algorithms, and sales software.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/david-patterson-cole/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidpattersoncole
- LinkedIn followers: 3,499
- Topics: artificial-intelligence, sales, sales-development
- Based on 12 dated posts, latest 2026-10-05

## Summary

Useful for practitioner-led content on making SMB outbound sales more productive through data, targeting, and sales systems.

- Best for: A B2B sales technology company selling a dialer, sales-engagement tool, or SMB contact-data product.
- Not for: A consumer brand or broad-reach B2B brand wanting large audience scale or off-the-shelf packages.
- Check first: Ask for audience demographics by role, seniority, industry, and geography plus collaboration terms and pricing.

### Takeaways

- An average SMB rep dials about 50 times a day.
- Teams can reliably double that within a week; trained reps peaked above 300 dials.
- Reps need 15 or more decision-maker connects a day, with 30 as gold standard.

## Main ideas

- **Increase call volume before betting on better conversion**: Teams often focus on signals and conversion, Patterson-Cole says, but conversion is harder to improve than call volume. They argue that higher volume should come before relying on better targeting alone.
- **Diagnose outbound as volume, connects, and conversion**: More calls are not the whole answer. Patterson-Cole breaks cold-call-heavy outbound into three parts: volume, the rate of reaching decision-makers, and conversion. They recommend tackling friction in each part rather than looking for one fix.
- **Make decision-maker conversations a daily operating target**: Patterson-Cole treats decision-maker connects as a key measure of whether SMB outbound is working. They argue that effective outbound can be a competitive advantage: more conversations and revenue give a company room to reinvest.
- **Use data to choose which business to call, and when**: Patterson-Cole’s targeting idea goes beyond selecting promising accounts: software should also help choose the best time to call, using business type and call history. They want the system to handle that analysis so reps can focus on conversations.
- **Build a connected sales system, not a standalone tool**: In describing DataLane Deployed, Patterson-Cole links account data, targeting algorithms, purpose-built software, and experienced sales staff. They emphasize how the pieces work together to increase rep productivity, rather than presenting a data product alone.

## Work to read

- [Volume beats conversion in SMB outbound](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/davidpattersoncole_if-youre-trying-to-improve-your-outbound-activity-7498382517419417600-2QeS)
- [The outbound formula: volume × connect rate × conversion](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/davidpattersoncole_bad-news-many-smb-outbound-programs-are-activity-7500920532918444033-vt2U)
- [Building a sales system to make BDRs 5–6x more productive](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/davidpattersoncole_our-big-bet-build-the-best-sales-system-activity-7512875562642612227-NhqP)
- [Next Best Dial: timing cold calls by business type](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/davidpattersoncole_one-algorithm-were-having-emile-flavin-and-activity-7503091065072095232-Xaq3)
- [15+ decision-maker connects per day: an SMB outbound benchmark](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/davidpattersoncole_sales-reps-need-15-decision-maker-connects-activity-7506365987219382273-Jw2-)

## Brand relationships

- **DataLane** (disclosed_partnership)

## Partnerships

David Patterson-Cole’s posts focus on sales methods and products, including cold-call volume benchmarks, decision-maker connect-rate targets, the Next Best Dial targeting algorithm, and the DataLane Deployed service. They do not disclose sponsorship packages, rates, or a media-kit inquiry route. Named people and companies appear as colleagues, customers, or peers—not as disclosed paid placements: Emile Flavin and Matthew Danics are credited with building the Next Best Dial algorithm, a CRO named Kyle is described as a thought partner in rolling out DataLane Deployed, and Owner is cited as a best-in-class example of outbound economics. Buyers should contact Patterson-Cole directly to discuss a paid collaboration.

## Alternatives

- Chris Lingenfelter: Choose Lingenfelter for a campaign aimed at building the conversion layer behind outbound rather than raising dial volume. One post describes a manufacturing quality software company generating 10 to 12 new opportunities a year that was rebuilt across targeting, activation, and conversion to reach 23 sales qualified appointments a month, 78 booked appointments in a quarter, and 5 closed-won deals. The argument that deep tech, AI, and human SDRs only work when wired together as one system suits a buyer selling outbound enablement, sales-development services, or a full-funnel system. Posts on agency life and competitive drive also fit operator- or culture-led content for a BDR-services audience.
- Mohan Sundar: Choose Sundar for a campaign focused on enterprise BDR scaling, SDR-to-AE handoff design, or continuous win-loss and competitive intelligence. They describe Rippling rebuilding sales development from 30-40 outbound BDRs to a 400+ BDR organisation, with Stage 1 qualification on authority, need, and timeline; an AI workflow checking Gong recordings against rules of engagement before an opportunity advances; and new SDRs trained inbound-first as a route into AE and leadership roles. They also use Jevons Paradox to argue AI expands RevOps demand rather than shrinking it, and describe win-loss shifting from a quarterly exercise to a live feedback loop, citing Klue, Crayon, Hyperbound, Gong, Highspot, and Avoma. That fits a buyer selling RevOps, conversation-intelligence, or sales-enablement software into larger organisations.
- Chris Marin: Choose Marin when the buyer sells outbound automation, lead-data, or AI agent tooling and wants an automation-first position. The material argues that fully automated outbound campaigns can handle data enrichment with precise targeting, context-aware personalisation at scale, multi-channel coordination, real-time response handling, and performance optimisation. It claims well-designed automation can produce higher-quality outreach than most human BDRs by removing fatigue, inconsistency, and knowledge gaps. A companion post explains turning top-LTV customers into a targeting and copywriting blueprint using a directory of 70m+ accounts. That suits a vendor whose product replaces or reduces manual rep work.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/