I started at Gong as an SDR 5.5 Years ago. I was making 50-100 cold calls a day,

By Jc Pollard · October 16, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog

I started at Gong as an SDR 5.5 Years ago.

I was making 50-100 cold calls a day, was insanely competitive, and wanted to be the best.

I was in my third month at Gong and my cold call conversion rate was lower than our top two performers, I couldn't figure out why.

My manager pulled me aside and showed me a stat that blew my mind, my patience score (how long I waited before responding/interjecting) was abysmal.

Way lower than our top reps.

So we set a measurable goal in the Gong insights tab of getting my patience score from a .3 to a .8.

I physically had to mute myself on calls because I was getting so excited and wanted to interject to talk about how cool Gong was.

Turns out pausing, and letting people fully articulate their thoughts, questions, objections etc. was a massive unlock.

My cold call conversion rate jumped 7% the next month.

Here I am 5.5 years later and guess what... I have FULLY regressed haha. Worst patience across my whole team.

Time to refocus on this 🤣