35 Outbound Prospecting Mistakes

Outbound Prospecting?Strategy Mistakes???

• You Don’t Follow Up?- One “rookie move” for junior salespeople is lack of follow up.?Don’t be the rep who does all the hard work to get a decision maker on the phone and doesn’t follow up because they’re not interested.?You should expect the first?couple?of?times you get a prospect on the phone they will brush you off. The trick is to keep following up so the prospect starts to understand you really believe you can help them. Following up helps you build credibility and build a relationship by doing what you said you were going to do.?
• You Don’t Get Referrals?– Getting a referral should not be some weird accident that occasionally happens. Getting warm referrals should be a part of your game plan.?A referral will get the attention of your decision maker and make your cold call a little warmer.?Decision makers are suckers for reps who actually “put the work in” and are not just blindly reaching out.????
• You Don’t Call Enough?– Some of the best prospects almost never pick up the phone but sometimes they do! If you believe your offering can help your prospect, you are doing them a favor by continuously calling until you get them on the phone.?Your competitors are making a few attempts and are giving up. Don’t be them.?Be the rep that gets the decision maker to say, “I never pick up these calls, you got lucky.”?
• You Don’t Call “High Enough”?– Trying to break into an account but getting no traction with typical decision makers??If you are serious about getting into an account and months are going by with no results, go after the CEO or other C-Level executives. C level can be harder to get on the phone or via email but not impossible.?The payoff can be huge and the sales cycle short when an initiative starts with the C-Level.??
• You?Don’t?Go “Low Enough”?– If you have a product or service that has a potential for lots of users within an organization, you should be contacting those potential users.??Depending on the size of your addressable market, a phone call might not be worth it, but you should at least get some?cadence?emails out to potential users.???
• You Don’t Call “Wide Enough”?– Being “multi-threaded” is an effective way to close a deal, but it is also a great way to start a deal.?You probably assume you know exactly who you need to talk to in order to get a deal done. However, the best route to find the actual decision maker might be by contacting other stakeholders first.?If you prospect a wide array of potential decision makers, you will end up with the actual decision maker(s).?Plus, you will likely now have some support from actual stakeholders and a better understanding of the prospect’s challenges.?
• You Don’t Have a Multi-Channel Approach?– A calling only approach doesn’t work anymore.?An email only approach won’t work for long. Same?for social.??The best way to make sure you get in front of important decision makers is to combine all channels.?You should be systematically using phone calls, emails, and social touches to complement each other.?Otherwise, you risk not reaching a decision maker simply because you chose the wrong channel.?

Outbound Prospecting?Style Mistakes??

• You Don’t Sell the Meeting?– Stop selling your product or service.?If you think your prospect is sitting around waiting for your call you would be wrong.?Any decent prospect who picks up an unsolicited call will not listen to your product pitch in an engaged way. Instead, sell the prospect?on?scheduling a meeting so they can discover a solution to a problem you believe they likely have.???
• You Don’t Use Curiosity?– Don’t tell the prospect everything during a cold call.?Even if they ask, keep your answers short.?Instead, build curiosity so the prospect will want to schedule a meeting to learn more.???
• You Don’t Respect the Prospect’s Time?- Keeping your talk track short and sweet sends a message to your prospect that you respect their time and likely will also respect their time in the future.?If you drone on talking about features and functionality (even if they ask), you can expect the prospect will tune out and be resentful that you are taking up their time. Remember, when you called the prospect, they were in the middle of something else.?Respect their time and schedule a meeting!?
• You Don’t Sound Confident?– If you don’t sound convinced in what you are saying, why would the prospect want to sign up for more of the same by accepting a meeting? Instead, believe in what you are saying and know you can help. The prospect will sense that, and they will be more likely to invest their precious time with you and your team.??
• You Don’t Have a “Help the Prospect Attitude”?- If a prospect gets the sense that you genuinely want to help them, they will be more likely to schedule a meeting.?If they sense you just want to schedule a meeting with anyone, they will be more likely to pass.?
• You Take “No” for an Answer?- Any decision maker worth their salt will brush off your first attempt to schedule a meeting.?Usually the better the prospect, the better they will be at brushing you off.?It is a game.??Prospects want you to convince them a meeting will be a good investment of their time. Go ahead and convince them and schedule the meeting.??
• You Don’t Take “Yes” for an Answer?- If you know you have the right decision maker, and they are willing to schedule a meeting – just schedule the darn meeting.?Resist the temptation to keep selling your solution. The point of the cold call is to sell the meeting. You’re done.?
• You Don’t Go Slowly Enough?–?The most?junior reps typically go way too fast when talking to prospects.?Going too fast is a signal that you don’t believe in what you are saying and that you don’t think it is worth the prospect’s time.?Go slow.?If you are new to prospecting and think you are going too slow, go slower.?
• You?Don’t?Use Social Proof?– Prospects?don’t?want to miss out.??You should offer?social proof?to build your credibility and create curiosity about how your solution is helping other organizations.?Example: “Customers like IBM and LinkedIn came to us because they struggled with __________.”?

Outbound Prospecting?Message Mistakes??

• You Don’t Get the First 10 Seconds?Right?– If you fail with your opening statement, you will fail with outbound prospecting.?The words you say matter.??Assuming you have a good list, if prospects are hanging up or brushing you off immediately, there is something wrong with the words you are saying and how you are saying them.?If you sound like a low-end telemarketer, you can expect your prospects will treat you like one.?
• You Don’t Have a Message Ready for a Particular Role?– You shouldn’t be completely scripted with a “one size fits all” message, but you must know exactly what you want to say. For instance, your message to a CTO should be very different than your message to an IT manager. Different?role, different problems. Speak to the prospect’s problems and you will get their attention and be more likely to?get?the meeting.?
• You Don’t Have Answers for Brush-Offs?– You are going to get brush-offs like “send me some info” or “call me next quarter”.?Brush-offs are part of the process.?Your job is to have an answer prepared and practice for every brush-off before it comes your way.?If you can skillfully handle brush-offs, you will schedule more meetings than most sales reps.?
• You Don’t Make It About Them?– Ultimately a prospect will schedule a meeting with you if they believe you can make their life better or easier.?Try finishing this sentence.?“My prospects want to schedule a meeting with me because they _______________________.”?

Outbound Prospecting?Social Mistakes???

• You Don’t Use LinkedIn Voice Messages?– Some decision makers no longer pick up their phone and their voicemails are always full.?If the phone doesn’t work, you should consider sending a voice message through the LinkedIn mobile app. This?is a surprisingly underused feature that is built right into LinkedIn.??
• You Don’t Use Video?– If you don’t use a tool like?Vidyard, you are missing out on an opportunity to become more human in the eyes of your prospect.?A prospect will forget about your emails and voicemails but is unlikely to forget about a compelling video.?You can also send videos directly through LinkedIn with your mobile device.?
• You Don’t Send a LinkedIn Request?– If you are not trying to connect with important prospects on LinkedIn, you are not serious about prospecting. If they are important, don’t send a generic request. Go ahead and customize it for best results.?
• You Don’t Post on LinkedIn About Your Company –?You can build your personal brand and your company’s brand simply by posting about your company on LinkedIn. Your prospects will see your posts in the feed and start to know, like, and trust you and your company.??

Outbound Prospecting?Email Mistakes??

• You Don’t Send Personalized Emails?– Cadence?email?are great, and some emails should be templates.?However, it is worth customizing some of your emails.?Personalize the first email in your cadence or emails to high value targets.??
• Your Subject Lines Are Too Long?– The purpose of a subject line is to create curiosity, and not to tell the whole story.?Keep your subject lines short and sweet for best results.??
• Your Emails Are Too Long?– Make sure your email passes the iPhone test. If the prospect needs to scroll to read your?cadence?email on their phone, your email?is?too long.??
• You?Don’t?Use Calendar?Tech?– Scheduling a time for a meeting can be challenging and awkward.??Tools like Chili Piper and Calendly are?a must?for email-based prospecting.?

Outbound Prospecting?Data Mistakes??

• You Don’t Target Correctly?– Making a lot of calls or sending a lot of emails makes no sense if you haven’t started with a good target. Make sure your lists include the right personas at organizations that fit into your Ideal Customer Profile.?
• You Spend Too Much Time on Pre-Call Research?– It typically takes 22 dials to get one conversation. If you spend 5 minutes doing pre-call research on every call, you will need to dedicate 110 minutes of research time for a single prospect conversation.?If you have a large addressable market, you just can’t afford to waste time researching one prospect when you could be talking to another.??
• You?Don’t?Use Good Data?–?If you are prospecting with bad data, you will get bad results.??Make sure you are using fresh data and removing?bad data?from your list?so you?don’t?waste prospecting time.??

Outbound Prospecting?Miscellaneous Mistakes?

• You Don’t Switch to “Real Time”?– Working with a script or framework is great but at a certain point, you better make sure you are in the moment.??Open up?the prospect’s website, LinkedIn profile, or CRM record to help the prospect understand you care about them, and you know them.?
• You Forget to Be Human?- It is great to be?polite?and respectful, but prospects want to know the real you. Has a prospect ever accused you of being a robot? If so, you might have a problem.??Be yourself and find a?real human?connection.??Also, being too?deferential?can be a sign of weakness.?
• You Don’t Take Breaks?– Cold calling when done well can take a lot of emotional energy and can be super frustrating.?A ten-minute walk can give you more energy and change your mindset, so you don’t just make more calls but?actually schedule?meetings!?
• You?Don’t?Listen to Your Call Recordings?-??Want to get better at your craft? Listen to your call recordings and imagine you were the prospect who was just interrupted.??Are you impressed???Do you have room for improvement???If your company?doesn’t?provide call recording software, go?ahead?and record your side of your call with your smartphone.???

To learn?more,?check out Koncert at?www.koncert.com?or call us?at?(800) 955-5040??

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