Stuck in the Starting Blocks

Finding New Business?

One of my new clients recently said, “We have been stuck in the starting blocks for the last 10 to 12 years.” As I work with small but established companies, many have grown by getting referrals from happy customers. However, business stalls at some point as the rate of referrals slows. When questioned about finding new business, they tell me they have tried to hire salespeople in the past but have felt it did not work. It was an expensive 6 to 9-month exercise.?

The Challenge of building a salesforce?

Finding salespeople that “get it” can be a daunting task. Even if the candidate interviews well, there is no guarantee that the new hire will deliver or that they will not jump ship after a couple of months. Then, as the owner/founder, they have the challenge of doing their day job and onboarding, training, and managing the new salesperson. Also, their expertise is not in managing salespeople and finding new business. Until now, new business has come via referral, and they have not had to prospect actively.????

Prospecting vs Account Management?

These owners/founders often miss the critical distinction between prospecting and account management. Most so-called salespeople have never had to prospect; if they did, they hated it and did not do it for long. Consequently, they did not become very good at it. Aaron Ross is known as the “Father” of sales development. Working for Salesforce, his groundbreaking insight was splitting his sales team into those who would engage with prospects and those responsible for moving the qualified opportunity to close. Those accountable for prospecting were called Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) or Business Development Representatives (BDRs). In his book “Predictable Revenue”, Aaron makes a strong case for using SDRs to outbound or prospect daily. If you are not trying to set up meetings with prospects daily, at some point, you will not have sufficient pipeline to hit your revenue goals.??

?Research?

The longer I work in this field, the more convinced I am of the importance of research. Regardless of how good the salesperson is, if they speak to the wrong companies or job titles in those companies, they cannot succeed. We speak in terms of the Ideal Customer Profile. (ICP). Not everyone with a credit card is your ICP! Many companies stuck in the starting blocks have never taken the time to think this through. An excellent place to start is to analyse your existing customer. Group them by industry, by employee size and by revenue. You will be surprised at what jumps out by looking at the data.??

Your Angle – why should they care???

I always tell clients that you better have an angle when you reach out. Jason Bay of Outbound Squad ( https://outboundsquad.com ) teaches the concept of a reverse pitch. Start with one of the job titles involved in the purchase decision. What are their two main priorities? Then, think in terms of how they solve them today. As you think of these current solutions, try to uncover issues that these solutions have, which your offering overcomes. If you can do this, you have the basis for your value proposition. It is your angle.??

This takes time.?

Typically, as xSELLerate, if we are working with a client, we find a minimum of 3 to 4 workshops of roughly 60 minutes are required to lock the ICP, the job titles and the value proposition. Then, there is a lot of analysis to confirm and document the playbook. So, if you are doing this yourself, work on at least 15 to 20 hours of work.??

Be Willing to Course Correct?

Then, once you start outreach, you must be open to correcting the course. Maybe the people you thought were vital are the wrong people. Sometimes, the message does not resonate. Some of our best campaigns have started slowly and have become complete blow-away successes with one or two tweaks.?

Outreach?

SDRs are a relatively new concept in South Africa. This is not telesales. The art of outreach has evolved and has become a sophisticated omnichannel discipline, with Gartner Sales endorsing a very scientific and structured approach. Omnichannel refers to using different outreach channels like phone, email, text, LinkedIn, etc.??

The Phone?

The phone is still the most effective way to meet with the prospect. Mobile and direct numbers are what you should aim for. This requires a fair investment in providers like ZoomInfo, Lusha, and Apollo, who specialise in this. The more conversations you have with the correct job titles, the more meetings you can book. We advise not to waste time with office numbers and trying to get around gatekeepers and navigate phone trees. So mobile numbers are the way to go. Get over the concern that someone will be upset that you called them on their mobile. It hardly ever happens. So, the choice of the dialer you use is critical. You want auto-diallers or power diallers which can call more than one number at a time. These are not cheap tools but essential when calling a targeted list. You do not want your SDRs dialling manually. Their time is their most precious resource. Also, they tend to be less focused if you get them to do manual dials. Let them focus on having conversations as opposed to dialling.??

The objective of an SDR is to qualify if the prospect should have a meeting with an account manager. At xSELlerate, we would argue to book the meeting even if you are not 100% sure it is a fit. Remember, you are cold calling, so you do not have much time to get information. If the person does not provide too much information but accepts the meeting, go for it. It would be best if you often had a foothold in an account to get things moving.??

Personalised Email?

Some people will never pick up their phone. So, it would be best if you explored other channels. Email open rates are typically somewhere between 20% to 50%, but this is misleading. Email open rates can be inflated because some email clients automatically download images in emails, which can trigger the tracking pixels used to measure opens. This means that some recipients may appear to have opened an email even if they did not read it or click on any links. Another reason is that some email filters may scan the contents of emails to check for spam or malware, which can also activate the tracking pixels. Therefore, email open rates should not be considered a reliable indicator of prospect engagement. Instead, SDRs should look at other metrics, such as reply rates and click-through rates, to assess the effectiveness of their email campaigns. Reply rates are typically in the single-digit range.??

The best way to improve reply rates is to keep the email brief and use personalisation. One of the thought leaders in this space is Becc Holland, CEO of Flip the Script (https://flipthescript.com). She has some excellent advice on how to personalise email. My take on personalisation- which differs a bit from Becc, is that you should select the individuals who are the best fit for your solution and take the time to personalise your email for them. All prospects are not equal in value and equal in likelihood to respond. It is going to take an SDR roughly 5 to 8 minutes to personalise an email when you factor in the research and the actual writing. So, you may not want to personalise every email.?

LinkedIn??

LinkedIn is not the death of the phone. It is instead an alternative channel. To be effective, you need to be able to message prospects. To be able to message prospects, they either need to be a first-degree connection, or you need to pay for Sales Navigator, which gives you inmails. Inmails are LinkedIn’s email-type communication system. Typically, a prospect will look at your profile before accepting your connection request. SDRs must ensure that their profiles are current and represent their company. No one is interested that you crushed your quota and have been to the president’s club for the last two years.? Make sure you come across as genuine and someone who can add value. Think of LinkedIn being used to showcase how you can help a prospect instead of your online CV. Spend some time developing your LinkedIn profile.??

Then, we suggest sending a blank connection request. A blank connection request comes across as less salesy. Once a person connects, please do not rush to pitch to them. Thank them for accepting your request, and then back off for a few days. Then, instead of sending them a simple text message, open your mobile and select the contact who accepted your connection request. Then click on the plus sign next to “write a message”. Then, select the video message. While going for a walk, send them a brief video message telling them who you are and why you would like to have a call with them. This is a more effective way to engage. (Please note you can only video message using your mobile phone. So, ensure the LinkedIn app is installed on your phone.)??

Qualification – Discovery meeting.??

You should always do discovery meetings virtually. There is no sense in spending 60 minutes travelling to and from the meeting until you are sure of an interest and a solution fit. The format should be a brief introduction where you demonstrate you have taken the time to do a bit of research. So, tell them what you have picked up from their website and LinkedIn profile. If you know someone in common, bring that up. It is often an excellent way to break the ice.??

It would be best if you said the purpose of the meeting is to decide whether it makes sense to carry on talking. Then, get them to explain why they took the meeting and what their experience with your type of solution has been. Try to have a couple of good questions you have prepared. However, the real key is to listen and ask questions based on what they say. Do not be scared to ask them to explain something you did not understand.???

Pitch your solution at this point if it makes sense. Otherwise, gracefully exit if you do not believe a good fit exists. Ask for the next step. I am shocked by the number of people who agree to send more information and then say they will chat. If you qualify the prospect, set up an agreed time in the calendars for the next step which makes sense for both of you. Agree on this before you get off the call.??

Getting out of the Blocks?

Getting an outbound motion up and working requires focus, effort, and patience. You must begin the journey to get out of the starting blocks and scale your business. If you are the leading salesperson as an owner and founder, bringing on an SDR or engaging with an SDR agency that will allow you to employ the SDR assigned to the campaign is an excellent first step. The SDR will get to know your company and solutions, and you will see their work ethic and whether they are a cultural fit. If they are, you potentially have the first account manager to back you up and have a person on the team who understands cold outreach. Now you are in the race!?