6 Outbound Tips to Break Away from the Status Quo
As Jake Dunlap, CEO of Skaled, noted at the beginning of this recent webinar stated, “The sales status quo sucks.” Unpredictable changes in the economy have led to wild swings in budget spending across all industries and every size company and that trend won’t be changing in the near future.
That doesn’t mean expectations for sales teams are being lowered, however. Quite the opposite. There’s more pressure than ever to find ways to set your product apart from the competition and build a sustainable revenue pipeline.
Jake was joined by Orum Sales Development Manager, Taylor O’Brien, and they shared six tips to make sure your outbound sales process continues to succeed despite the economic downturn.
Personalization and relevant messaging
Jake stated that around 80% of the sales development process can be automated. That last 20%, however, is where you need to not only sell the value of your product but specifically the value of your product for your prospect. Before you can get to that point, however, you need to assure your sequencing and message sets you up for success.
For the sales team at Orum, this process includes setting up persona sequencing prior to reaching out to hone messaging for the specific prospect whether they’re a Chief Sales Officer or an SDR manager.
Orum has also created a concept of “conveyor belt messaging” where the team matches sequences based on the call dispositions that are logged after the call. This allows the team to put the prospect into a strategic outreach sequence that aligns with their timeline.
When you take the time to set up these processes initially, you’re able to then focus on crafting relevant, personalized messages for each prospect you connect with.
Unconventional prospecting: LinkedIn
Orum is a big believer in empowering the sales team to use LinkedIn for prospecting. Many reps have built their own following posting daily on LinkedIn, offering tips, tricks, and sales memes that are engaging and fun. Also, the team focuses on sharing data that every Orum user can find on the platform itself. In doing so, they’re reinforcing the messaging they’re using during their cold calls. They’re putting in the work on using Orum’s Live Conversation Platform and highlighting that work on social media. This shows that they know what they’re doing as well as the fact that the tool they’re selling is creating value.
In addition to the wins, Orum’s employees are also empowered to talk about the bad days as well. Sales is a hard job, and admitting when you miss your numbers is as humanizing as celebrating the wins. Sharing that transparency on LinkedIn resonates with the sales community at large and builds relevancy.
When you’re able to build a community on LinkedIn surrounding your product and services, your cold calls become less chilly. When Orum reps reach out to prospects and ask if they’re familiar with what we do, more often than not they say they are and it’s all thanks to the buzz being generated on LinkedIn.
Unconventional prospecting: Video
Video continues to be a differentiator for sales for several reasons. One, since many people are uncomfortable putting themselves in front of a camera and shy away from doing it, it’s an opportunity to stand out. Two, it’s nearly impossible not to personalize a video.
Jake’s advice regarding sending video content out in the world is to focus on the relevancy of the message for the recipient and not fall into the trap of being “gimmicky”. Recording and sending a video to a prospect enables you to craft your message quickly in a self contained environment where you remove objection handling entirely. After offering some relevant information, you can then ask your prospect to get back to you if they’d like more details. Video can be a great follow up step after your initial discussion.
Relevant gifting
Jake suggested that when it comes to gifting, make sure to focus on the gift itself and not the price. Companies send expensive gifts to their customers but if you take the time to personalize it to the experience with your service, you’re going to stand out. Gifting can be a powerful way to differentiate and show that you pay attention to details if you go that extra small step to make it relevant.
Taylor shared Orum’s gifting strategy called “Coffee and Cold Calls.” It goes beyond just giving prospects Starbucks gift cards but invites prospects to come on our platform and watch our team use Orum’s dialer in real time.
This creates a connection between salespeople because we can laugh with them about harsh rejections but the prospects also see meetings being booked in real time. The concept is to take our product from the, “Imagine what we can do for you” phase and into “This is what Orum will do for your reps.”. This enables the product to self itself.
Warm Calling
Warm calling comes down to selling with relevancy. There is an art to connecting with prospects that goes beyond just looking at their LinkedIn and commenting on what college they attended. Real value comes from understanding their organizational objectives, current positioning, and goals.
Before connecting with prospects, consider looking at their annual reports, if available, to understand what they’re trying to achieve and how your tools can get them there. Investigate what their executives are posting and focusing on and discuss those things on your call. Check out company blogs and learn what content is important to them.
Metrics that back into revenue
Conversion comes down to understanding what metrics help you book meetings and add pipeline. Whether it’s the amount of meaningful conversations you need to have, the amount of calls you need to make, or the number of industry-specific blitzes you need to build out for yourself. These metrics are different for everyone which is why analytics is so critical for SDR managers so they can better understand how their team works.
For Orum’s team, it’s all about consistency. When using a Live Conversation Platform, hitting a total number of calls can be done quickly which means you have more time to personalize your messaging and understand your own process. The consistency aspect is all about habit forming. If you’re adding new prospects to your funnel and sequences everyday, it’s easier to do it the next day as well.
Lastly, use the data that’s available to you. Look at your call history to understand what time works best for your SDRs to land meetings. Breakdown what openers are working the most often. For everyone it may be a bit different but the data is there and if you’re using it in your daily processes, you’ll be more likely to succeed.
