King of the Castle, Relationships

Last week I shared that I was a cold calling machine dialing 229 calls with a .4% success rate. This week I decided to test the effectiveness of written messaging, sending 54 customized emails and 10 customized Linkedin messages. I know you probably think those numbers are low, but it takes time to research your contact, custom type your message and when you are in email all day it’s hard not to get distracted. Not to mention when emails come in we find ourselves responding, I mean we are only human.

The Results almost ZERO, well actually two no not right now.

I started the day by emailing many of the people I had not already emailed from my cold calling campaign last week and you guessed it, no response. Then I focused on my Top 10 accounts. These are prospects that fit our ideal customer profile, have a larger environment, or I know from the grapevine that they are looking at Managed Detection and Response, the solution my company Red Canary specializes in. Take a look at 3 different examples I sent, with prospect names and company’s removed of course =)

Example #1

Hi There,

I found you on LinkedIn and sent you a request, we are now connected, but have never met.?

I've been to your HQ twice in the same week when I went down for Sirius probably 6 years ago and loved it.

I'm curious to know if you have any security focuses you could share with me. I'm at Red Canary and we are a leader in the Managed Detection and Response space. Do you currently use an MDR or have any plans for one in the future?

Would love to set some time up to meet you if you are open to a zoom call next month?

Example #2?

Hi There,

I was viewing your Linkedin and it looks like your specialty is cloud security. Are you involved in any of the SOC Operations?

Curious to know if you run an MDR or if you have any pain points there?

If you would be open to it, I would like to grab lunch one day in Columbia.

Thank you and hope to hear back.

Example #3

Hi There,

I was taking a look at your linkedin profile, very cool to see you have been at your company for 18 years.?

I am aware that your company is preparing to go public, so I can imagine you are very focused on audit.

Curious to know if your team feels any pain points around threat hunting or threat remediation??

Also, I sent you a Linkedin request, I hope that is alright. I am looking to grow my network in security and meet like minded people in the industry.

I remember about 6 years ago having dinner at a very nice restaurant, I think it was your CEO’s wife's restaurant.?

?Thanks for reading.

You will notice in all of my emails, I have done my best to familiarize myself with the person I am reaching out to. An old boss of mine told me, “you always cut more grass with a sharp blade”. What that means is sharpen your blade by gaining information on the person before reaching out, showing that you actually care.

?Then I started to pivot as the day carried on and I decided to start emailing warm leads. I would consider these people I have talked with before.

I messaged a few old friends, C level executives, VPs, Directors, and actual influencers, the people that would use our tool and influence a buying decision. I wanted to see how everyone was doing and enjoying their summer. Then the magic started to happen and you guessed it, responses started coming.?

?Landing two responses from Linkedin and four email responses, plus the two no not right now from my cold outreach converting to a much better win rate then cold calling.?

8 returned messages out of 64 messages = 13% Let’s GO!

Out of those 8 returned messages we have scored 2 meetings = 3% Win rate

?It’s 2022 and holding a relationship with someone is the King of the castle, nothing has changed here since the beginning of time. In my experience cold calling is very ineffective, I do believe it is a great practice and the cornerstone to any great salesperson, however the data doesn’t lie. Written messaging is way more effective with a 7x return on invested time spent.