More Weight, Less Scale....ing

No, this isn’t an article about weight loss, or new eating habits or fasting for the new year.

But it is about weight and it is about scale…ing.

I’m talking about the sales community’s infatuation with scaling our outreach and setting tons of appointments, the need for easy to follow 3 or 5 or 10 step formulas for prospecting success.? Or, the newest scaling technique, leveraging Artificial Intelligence in our outreach.

I don’t know about you, but we need MORE intelligence (real, not artificial) if the content that shows up in my inboxes every day is any indication of where we’re headed!

Now, I’m not totally against scaling or automation, I mean in the modern selling and marketing environment you can’t be- most of us use email programs to scale our outreach.? I think the problem comes when we then use those same techniques for ALL of our conversations and especially for outreach and prospecting conversations.

SCALING

Scaling is the process of increased cold outreach in order to reach the largest number of prospects with a message in hopes of converting prospects to clients.

This probably started with mail (no, not email, but snail mail, old-fashioned mail) where companies realized they could send out bulk outreach. Think sales catalogues, flyers, and ad circulars.? This cost them money, but at some point someone figured out that there was a return on the investment (ROI) in the positive.

Fast forward to the telephone era and companies realized that they didn’t need to pay postage to conduct cold outreach, they just needed a list of phone numbers.? Hence the age of telemarketing began and is still alive and well today.

In the 2000’s with the invention of email, another scaling avenue was discovered and that’s why we have spam and junk folders and filters within our chosen email software.? This avenue also spread onto social media and now we see scaling efforts not only via email, but LinkedIn connections requests, InMail and direct messages.??

Most of the articles and blogs I read regarding cold outreach stats show a 1-3% success rate for cold calling and less than 1% for cold email outreach.? All of these articles were making a case for scaling.? Let’s face it, even if we go with the highest success rate of 3%, would you rather have 3% of 100 (3), or 3% of 10,000 (300- yes, I have to use a calculator to make sure I had that right ??)?? The argument is the higher the number of people you reach out to the higher the number you convert.? The problem is that when you use this scaling technique on a social networking site like LinkedIn, there’s more risk.? Instead of thinking about ROI, you have to start thinking about ROM- Return on Missing.? To understand this concept check out my article from last year on the topic HERE.

Scaling is all about transactional engagement- I have something that I think you might be interested in or you may need and here’s the offer please click through.? For me, I use scaling (email outreach) to convey information and education.? I have a list and I try to provide value.? I do provide a CTA (call to action) if someone wants more information or to meet, but I try to keep these messages value forward, providing information and education.

I do not use scaling efforts on LinkedIn.? I value true connection over gathering followers or connections and I don’t pitch or sell on LinkedIn.? I truly view LinkedIn as a virtual networking space where I can meet people and build relationships.??

Scaling on LinkedIn, aside from InMails, most likely would need outside software to send bulk messages.? Most of this software, if you use it, will cause you to violate the LinkedIn User Agreement you agreed to when you created a LinkedIn profile.? Violations of this agreement can result in you losing access to your account and, if multiple violations occur, you can be banned from the platform.? I’m no expert in this, but be sure to read through the UA HERE and pay close attention to section 8.2 (the “Don’t” of LinkedIn).

WEIGHT

So what is this weight I’m speaking of?? Weighter connections, weighter conversations.??

While scaling is all about reaching a larger audience in hopes of converting a few, weightier outreach focuses on the few in hopes of building trust, connecting on a deeper level and taking that connection to a next step.

The first step in weightier conversations is to understand who you want to have conversations with.? This goes beyond just prospects, but also networking partners and congruency partners.

Congruency partners are people who you align with on some level, not necessarily business related.? You may have similar spiritual beliefs or support similar causes.

Once we know who we want to have weightier conversations with we have to connect with them in some way. Whether by connecting with them on LinkedIn, engaging with their content or reaching out via phone or email, we have to realize that a weightier conversation happens when we think of the other person first.? I’ve written plenty of other articles about connecting on LinkedIn authentically and engaging with people to build trust. Here are a few previous articles:

Conversational Engagement

Cold Outreach

Connecting for Connection

Having weightier conversations means we need to know how to actually talk to people about more than our offering, more than the features and benefits of our product or service and talk less about us and more about them.?

Weightier conversations means we have to be passionately curious about the other person, in the right way.? The person we’re engaging with shouldn’t feel like the meeting is an interrogation, but that we’re interested in them as a whole person.? This takes practice, training (especially in active listening) and diligent perseverance.? You won’t master this in just one meeting.

A few questions I like to ask (because I really want to know!) is what was the highlight of a certain period or season.?

“Hey John, great talking with you.? Hey, I’m curious, what’s been the highlight of your summer so far?”?

Or the highlight of the recent holiday season.

You can also ask what was one big win they feel they had in 2024.? They might not know, that’s ok, it will give them something to think about. And don’t forget to know what you’d answer to this question, because they might ask it back to you.

If you want to keep it professional and business focused you ask them what was one major win for their team in the past year, quarter, month.? Or, ask them to think ahead to this time next year and ask, “What would be one of two things that need to happen this year for you to say that it was a great year?”

PRACTICE

This time of year is a great time to start new habits and make changes in how we’re engaging with our prospects and clients.

If you want to get started with having weightier conversations with your prospects, may I suggest you practice with your clients?

What better time of year to meet with your established clients than the beginning of a new year.

These are people you should be already comfortable with and have had meetings with before.

Start with some simple questions about the highlight of their holiday.

You can also ask them about the value that you provided them in the past year. This is a great question that can help you in talking with people in similar positions and industries.??

You’ll find out what questions resonate with them, and my guess is, you’ll find it fun to be focused on them and not on having to try and sell them or upsell them.

If Scaling is working for you, that’s great. But make sure you’re adding weight to the conversations that you’re having.? What’s the sense in obtaining meetings with people if you’re not able to talk to them like they are people?

As Jeffrey Gittomer says, “People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy.”

Let’s not sell, but let’s have weightier conversations that lead people to buy.

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