There is a better way to approach sales development.

Every sales and marketing channel works.  Although each one has its own impact, speed, and costs.  

Prospect email can produce the most B2b leads with the highest ROI.  According to Chief Marketer, Forrester Research, and eMarketer Intelligence reports and briefings.  

The rate and speed at which we can learn from messaging, ad copy, landing page performance, and the most optimal positioning cannot be done through paid media.  It will take a lot longer and cost much more to collect valuable business intelligence, especially for younger companies.  

So why are b2b companies not using prospect email for sales growth and to learn and improve the entire sales and marketing operation?  

Companies do not know how to email at scale.  It is that simple.  

The reason is that too many companies miss the mark with it and give up on the channel.  The margin for error is so high and there are so many components to make it successful which is the reason why companies shy away from it. 

Email is intimate so companies need to get it right.  They need a controlled environment and the framework to do it in a safe, cost-effective, and impactful way.  

The problem is companies rely on sales development and new business teams to send emails on an individual level.  This process is typically started by downloading raw data from lead-data providers based on standard demographics and tech adoption.  This is an inefficient and expensive way to approach the market.  

Companies should be using prospect email to support their sales development and new business teams in scale.  Feeding the CRM with prospects at the interaction level; i.e openers, clickers, and engagement.  This allows salespeople to prioritize who they call based on the level of engagement.  

I promise and will guarantee this approach is much more cost-effective and impactful than the way companies think about, support, and do sales-led outbound demand generation today.  

Companies want more qualified leads for their sales teams.  Companies want to learn to adapt to the market and get smarter faster.  Companies want to grow their webinar registrations and participation.  Companies want to nurture prospects with relevancy and value through newsletters and opt-in email programs.  Companies want to build and grow podcasts.  Companies want to grow their customer base and revenue.  

Prospect email can have a seat at the table to help make an impact on all of the initiatives above in a safe and measurable way.  It can be used to efficiently find who expresses degrees of interest across our total addressable market through the recipient's own user behavior and to learn at a rate, speed, and cost that is not available with other channels.  

So instead sales development teams are working cold lists based on standard demographics and tech adoption because a company has a plugin to Marketo.  They begin to call Marketo customers who fit their standard demographic and the majority of their team's time is wasted.  In fact, 95% of their time is spent very inefficiently. 

95% of the people who they contact are either not in the market or not interested.  How many times do we get emails and served ads from businesses who will never have a shot at us?  

There is so much waste in sales development.  Prospect email can help position sales teams and assets to create a sales channel that is more conducive to the way buyers buy and consume information.  Instead of bridging timing and needs with brute force sales activity.  

I think we can do better.  Much better.  

#salesdevelopment #outboundsales #goingtomarket #prospectemailmarketing