How Joya Cracked a US Market B2B SaaS Role After Months of Cold Applications

What made you decide that I want to join School of SDR?

So before joining Cohort 34, I was working with a prop tech company, Edrat, and I was BDR there as well. But what made me join was it was 8 months into the role and I felt that I need more strategic pivot for my career. When I first booked call with you, I told you about Stripe, that Rahul, I saw that opening in Stripe of founding BDR. G2, and you were the first one to tell me, "Zoya, do you feel that you are on that ground that you can go and apply on that platform?" And after that call, I took like really good 15-20 seconds to address what I felt, and I realized that yes, there were a lot of gaps which were there present. And when I joined Cohort, I addressed a lot of things that I was lagging in, whether it be in terms of the cold calls, how we were structuring, or we could say email sequences. Like these are the minute things which I I also highlighted in my interview as well. The same question was asked to me. So this is why I feel that cohort, joining the cohort has changed me a lot. Like if I go back in time and I tell myself that, okay, this is where I am right now, I swear she won't believe this is something that has happened.

Before you joined the cohort, you had already resigned. So you had already made up your mind that, hey, I don't want this, or I want a different version of it, whatever we might want to call it. What prompted you that, hey, I want to book a call and find out maybe there's another world out there?

I resigned and I came back to my hometown, which is in Karnal, Haryana. And I was applying to a couple of roles, whether it be Stripe, G2. I also applied to Spring Verify, so I applied to that as well, but I was not getting any response. I was— I— it felt like I'm lost. I know what I want to do, but I have no directions or no one to tell me what exactly will lead you to where you want to be. And I remembered my senior who once told me about you, and there was one post. I opened LinkedIn that day, used to see a lot of your posts where you used to post that, uh, during this that particular segment that you highlight, crime in the corporate, when people fire you for no reason. So I was always intrigued by that as well. And I thought, okay, let's take a chance. Everything is going wrong. What else will go wrong? So I booked that call with you when I was lost. I had no idea what was going on. It was like literally my last prayer. I was literally standing in front of God and was saying, give me a sign. And it was you. And I booked that call. So yeah, it changed pretty much after that.

I remember on the call, I told you some pretty blunt things, some about the companies you were targeting, like Stripe and some about where you also come from. What was going through your head at that time when I said that? And why do you think it changed things instead of pissing you off, maybe?

You know, whenever I talk to someone, when you are changing job or something, everyone was like kind of judgmental that, okay, why would you want to go back and train? Like everyone I looked up to, even in my previous company or in my friend circle, they were like, there is no need to do upskilling or no need to learn something new. Right. You are doing already good. But I had known this in my heart that I'm not doing good. It was average. And when I hopped on a call with you, you were so blunt with me. For a second, I was like, okay, someone can see through me. This is something I wanted, someone to show me the mirror. Okay, Zoya, you stand here. You are at point X, and if you want to reach Z, then Y is something you have to work on. That was the one thing that made me actually choose you. I went to my mom. I told her, this is the call I had with Rahul. This is what he has said. And my mom was like, bit skeptic. Okay, now what we'll do? Aastri baa was the one who connected with me after your email. I talked to her, then I told my mom and the amount of bluntness also, you know, convinced my parents as well. They were like, okay, take the chance. What else could go wrong? If he's being so straightforward, then we don't think so there is something wrong in this. He's not hiding something. He's not, okay, I'll do everything for you.

I remember during the cohort term you had some family situation because of which you kind of attending some sessions and you were kind of behind on the leaderboard. I'd love to know what kept you from dropping out? How did you recover? Because this is a very common situation which could happen with a lot of people, and it does happen with a lot of people. Sometimes they feel they fell behind and they're like, oh, it's impossible for me to get back. But you did. You did really, really well toward the end again. So you kind of picked up. What was going through your mind?

So of course there were some personal issues going on. But you remember after when the issues were going on, we had one call. Okay, so this is something like when I start doing something, I put my heart into it, right? And when I joined your cohort, it was like I'm putting my pedestal. Like, Rahul has some expectations with me, but I have to go beyond those expectations, right? And when you said that we need to connect, I was literally shivering. I was telling my mom, he said he wants to connect, maybe I did something wrong, I did something wrong. I was thinking too much in my head. But when we had a call, you had literally a constructive feedback for me. This is where you are lagging, this is what you can do to start. And I implemented the feedback. So this is something about me, anytime I'm getting a feedback, right, I'll just put that and I'm not going to ignore that feedback. I'm going to put that and push myself again. I used to wake up in the morning, early morning. Okay. I'll do a cover up everything. And then before the call, everything should be in my mind. So when Rahul is on the screen and he's saying, hey, can anyone cover what you covered in the last session? I'm like, okay, I'm going to speak whether or not anyone likes it. So this is pretty much what pushed me because I was in desperate need to learn and put that feedback to work.

Yeah. I think you were, you definitely showed great signs of success in the beginning. Even after a small dip, you were able to pick it up. Yeah, ultimately turned out to be really well for you. And I agree with you that you had the whole science of, hey, if I'm in it, I'm in it, right? I remember, you know, when there was a time I gave you one feedback because you were kind of working on the easiest type of persona. So we shut it down. What did you realize about your own thinking in that moment, which you believe you could not see?

So it was me working in my comfort zone, like easiest persona. That was sales persona only. I was doing it for mock calls. So what I did was I would, I was like, okay, if I pick one persona that I'm comfortable talking with, it would be easy to, easy for me to ace cold calls, right? So I'll get marks and I'll be top of the cohort again. But when you literally told me that, Zoe, this is not going to work. You're not going to be in a sales persona company. That's nothing. That's something that's not going to happen, right? I felt like, okay, Rahul, this is so too much. Please spare me. After cohort, cohort used to end around 10:30 or something, right? I'll have my dinner and from 12 to 2. I used to go back to Blue, the hardest persona, which was not in sales, and used to practice again and again and again. It was so frustrating. At some point, my parents used to come and say, you need to sleep. Like, you really need to sleep. I used to record it because I was like, yes, I was choosing my comfort. But see where I am now. We are not dealing with salespeople. And I'm really glad that you told me early in the cohort that, so yeah, this is—

Tell me about the day your offer from Recruiterflow came through. What would the role look like? What did you tell your parents? What was going on in your head?

So I was literally skeptical about recruiters. I was like, whether or not they'll choose me or something, because you know how my life was going around. I was literally in circles. But when I had the last call with Nisha, right? And she, I was talking to her as if I'm already in the role. It's the same, the BDR role, but the US market. And this quarter we are focusing on US. After that call, Yakshi called me and she said, okay, you are selected. Hop on a call this next Monday, right? I was so excited. I mean, you won't believe it was like 2.5 months, around 2 and a half months I was at my home and my parents were clueless as well. And one month I was with you in the cohort, the last month. And I told my parents, they came back. So my father and my mom was out of town, I guess, that day. They came back, I told them that I got the job and they were like, seriously, you got the job? You got the job? What the job looks like and all? I was so excited, like This is the company and I saw that they went to Thailand. This is something they're doing. I was so excited to tell them. And then on the Monday, Yakshi connected with me. I mean, touch wood. When she explained everything to me, it felt like a breath of fresh air. It was like, this is something, it was in my head, right? In my subconscious mind that I wanted something like this in my plate or something. But when Yakshi started speaking, I was literally stunned. Okay, this is there. That is thing. This XYZ. And the call ended. I didn't even think twice. I think I told you that day only, I'm going to sign up. There is no questions asked, nothing. I'm going to sign up. This is the site. And when my parents got to know, oh my God, Rahul, you should have seen the look on their face. And I think my father also commented on your post. Like, he was so mesmerized. I mean, the other day also he told me.

Yeah, I think I saw it. I wasn't sure if it's your father. I'm like, okay, it seems like somebody's father.

Yeah. And even yesterday also, he was literally—

I don't know your last name till today, by the way. I don't know your last name.

It's Gupta.

Use balance.

Yeah, but you should have seen, like, yesterday also he was literally boasting about this. He had no idea this much could happen in a life and all. We hail from a small family, a small town. We have not seen this much in life. And getting to this platform because I made the decision and he told me that it was the right call to go ahead what was in your head and choosing Rahul as your mentor. So everyone was asking, you should have seen that.

Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it. I mean, I could have probably done some sort of Big Boss camera or something. That's the only way to find out now. Okay. All right. So there's someone like you who's watching this, who's probably stuck in a job that's underpaying them, draining them, and they think the answer is to apply for more companies. What would you tell them?

You know, when you are stuck in your career, as I was, I would suggest you drop it down that time only. Book a call. See what is going on in the market. Because without guidance, you are not going to ace. You're feeling that, okay, I'm stuck, and you're continuing that process. You're just hurting yourself, your career. The later you get, you are losing a lot of opportunities. So it's better you drop it down, you take some time off, think about what you want to do, hop on a call, have an understanding. And to be honest, if I was talking to myself a couple of months back, I would literally tell myself, go Get that call with Rahul Wadhwa, have an understanding what he's saying. I know it might feel bad for how blunt he is, but it is definitely gonna pay off when you are in future and you have a really nice organization who looks after you, who looks after their people. They're like people first, and your role is something you look up to. Like, this is the role I am literally looking up to every day because I'm just excited. Okay, I'll do this, I'll do that. So this is something I would suggest drop it, think, and book a call.

Final question. Let's assume that, you know, School of SDR does not exist today. You know, there's no Rahul, there's no School of SDR. Think of an advice which you feel you could have got 6 months ago or 3 months ago, because you said, hey, for everybody who's stuck in the job, if you're feeling that, you know, book a call. Let's assume there's no option to book a call. There are people who, let's say, for some reason cannot afford it. There are people who are in that same sort of thinking that why do I need to train myself? It's my company's responsibility to train myself. I have so many years of experience in sales or whatever those people are thinking right now. What advice would you probably tell them? You think, you know, that would be like a little motivating.

The thing is, if you're thinking that you know too much about your role or your expertise, that's a hoax. Every time the world is changing, the things are changing. You have to be ahead. I wish someone would have told me that, Zoya, if you keep on repeating the same task and you are not feeling you're growing, growing by the skills. Going by the love for your role, then this is something you should not be doing. This is something I really wanted to hear. It took me so long to realize that, that I'm just doing same old work with no scope of growth, with no scope of learning, with no scope of even understanding what's going on in the market. And this is something I really needed to hear, which I got to hear later in life.

What do you think you'll do differently this year?

I feel I— so I can be specific, right? So you taught us one of the LinkedIn hacks, right, about video and audio prospecting. And I have been on call, I have been practicing my video prospecting like crazy. So the day I start calling or reaching out, even the people I'm reaching out to who are already clients, I have planned like what exactly prop I'll be using and how human I'll make it look. So how it will work out. Because the other day I talked with my colleagues as well. They used to do LinkedIn reach out, but for me it's like I'm looking forward for video prospecting and audio ones because it actually gave me so much result. A lot of people were coming in asking me about your school of SDR or something. I was reaching out for even for my dad as well. So it worked out really well. And so I've been, I'm looking forward to, you know, just putting those skills which I learned to use and how it's going to work. And Cadence is the other thing, which, which is like cherry on the top. I had no idea, Claymore, I had literally no idea what Cadence was. And I feel I also told you in the class as well. Rahul Wadhwa.

Thank you so much, Shoaib. This was wonderful. Honestly, I like the whole testimony. I can You could see it came from the heart.

Yeah, I mean, Rahul, I swear, you know what, when you come from a small place, Karnal, my parents, they had like really rough childhood and the only thing good was like my dad getting a job at Senex School, right? My mom was a primary teacher, Hindi teacher for school, and it was literally a big decision, a big call to pay that much of money and to convince them for that specific thing. It was a task as well. I was like, kina hai, I don't want to go back and go back to any organization and then cry about it. Oh my God, I'm not getting anything in my career. The look I see on my parents' face now when they talk about me now, they're like, okay, my daughter has done this, she's doing tech sales. It was like one time my parents, like, my parents used to get told that your daughter, your daughter will not do good, okay? So she's like, she's not an engineer. If she's not an engineer, she's not doing good. And I was not an engineer, but now I work in companies made by engineers to sell their products. If you were in India, I swear I would have called my parents to come to Bangalore, meet Rahul, and you would have seen the look on their their face. Man, it was so crazy. Even my little brother, he was so excited. He was like, everything. You won't believe, whenever there was class, so I used to plug in my charger and everything. My mom used to sit right next, right in front of me. My brother would be right next to me. My dad would be there. They'd be listening. They were really, really, literally excited. And this is like a new learning for them as well. Anytime, I don't think so I'll be able to, you know, thank you enough in this lifetime with words. I don't think so.

No, I think it's enough. This is good testimony, and I'm pretty sure it's going to help somebody maybe make a decision not about School of STI Art, but maybe about life. Thank you so much, Joya.