Outbound sales: why it is becoming less effective and what can you do

The current state of play

Having been in commercial related roles for the past 12 years, one of the areas which has clearly become less effective is outbound sales. Or termed another way, outbound prospecting. 

When was the last time you bought a solution from a business you have never heard of following a cold call? Or a cold LinkedIn message? Or a cold email? Likely never or on a very limited basis. 

This is partly due to the significant increase in competition across the marketing ecosystem in the UK today. Availability of venture capital funding with the promise of an attractive 10x multiplier upon exit has seen a marked increase of SaaS, or subscription led businesses available to prospective customers.

This increase in competition has made it more complex for the buyer to understand the value-add of a potential offering, in turn making it more difficult for businesses to drive predictable revenue using an outbound methodology only.

How have sales organisations evolved?

Sales teams in the UK are typically made up of 360 degree individual contributors who are targeted on driving their own outbound leads and closing c. ￡1M in ARR. 

With the increase in SaaS related organisations in the market, commercial operations have started to dissect the sales process. These new structures typically include the following functions: 

• SDRs (or Sales Development Representatives): Generally junior sales people focused on prospecting using outbound prospecting techniques (e.g. calls, emails, LinkedIn, videos etc.)
• Account Executives: Experienced sales people primarily focused on delivering signed contracts - from qualified opportunity and beyond

The main reasons for this shift is sales organisations have become much more metric led. Important indicators such as CAC, LTV, CAC/LTV are just some of the acronyms discussed in boardrooms across the country. If we drill down further, important pipeline metrics have become much more measurable and controllable using these split functions including: 

Average order value

• Function responsible: SDRs
• How & why? As SDRs are primarily on the frontline and speaking to prospects at an early stage, they are able to effectively anchor clients on the business model and estimated fees

Conversion rates & sales cycle

• Function responsible: Account Executives
• How and why? As the AE is the owner of an opportunity once it has been transferred to the sales pipeline, they are able to have a direct impact on both metrics by carrying our diligent steps at each stage of the sales process

This new structure doesn’t work in isolation

What would happen if this new setup had no help from the marketing team (e.g. top of the funnel). SDRs and AEs would be tasked in contacting a set number of contacts in-line with a cadence system using a predefined number of steps. Tactics used would likely include cold calling, cold emailing and cold LinkedIn messages. 

The aforementioned challenge would remain — potential customers would still lack an understanding of your product value and offering. The result being a lack of qualified opportunities and the risk of annoying potential future prospects. 

How can you educate the market and get prospects to come to you? 

One of the areas in the new set up which tends to get neglected or poorly implemented is marketing. Or more importantly, content marketing. The number of businesses which I still come across who rely on driving scalable new customer acquisition using only outbound sales techniques is staggering. 

By investing a % of the budget spent on expensive outbound techniques on high quality, SEO-led content, businesses would start to create a consistent stream of inbound leads. The targeted personas who would actually have an interest and a requirement for the technology/service on offer would begin to engage with your business at the top of the funnel. 

Types of content which can drive these inbound leads can be in the form of blog posts, white-papers, e-books, infographics, checklists - the list does go on. Ensuring a large % of the content produced is downloadable will result in the capture of valuable opted-in data from potential buyers who are keen to digest your content. And stick with it — the results won't happen overnight and will likely take 2-3 months. However it will worth it in the mid-long term.

The results: inbound + warmer outbound leads

By producing high quality, valuable content you will start to create a relationship with your potential buyers — educating them on your value and service. From a lead perspective this will result in the following:

• Inbound leads: you will start to drive a significant increase in the number of inbound enquiries for your product/service which can be qualified by your SDRs
• Outbound leads: you will begin to see your outbound sales efforts improve by creating more brand awareness at the top of the funnel, resulting in warmer outreach for your SDRs and sales teams

The resulting set up should start to look like the below diagram, in the form of, yes, another funnel.

And the good news is it doesn’t have to be a costly exercise — many businesses produce great content through leveraging freelance creators. Over time, this will evolve where businesses may look at hiring in-house content creators, layering on marketing automation technology (e.g. HubSpot) and becoming even more sophisticated with the machine in place (further details on this will require a whole other blog post!).

In conclusion

Focusing your efforts on an outbound only is a strategy that will likely leave you behind the competition in an ever competitive market. Putting in place a structure which will encourage inbound leads and ensure your customers are aware of your offering whilst carrying outbound sales should be of the utmost importance in this current climate. In doing so, you will begin to lay the foundations and develop a commercial offering which drives more qualified opportunities and sales - and more importantly, predictability.