Account Insights, Outreach Timings & Prospecting Frameworks - Takeaways from Sales Leaders
In our webinar on 8th Feb, we sat with industry experts on innovative sales approaches to significantly improve response rates and close more deals.
Hey, Welcome to this week’s edition of “Future of Prospecting” Newsletter by “Evabot”.
We have been researching Generative AI Technology for the last 18 months and have been astounded by the use cases it brings in Prospecting through Hyper Targeting and Personalisation. For Sales leaders and Revenue leaders, the main challenge with AI-led Prospecting is “How and What not?”
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Let’s not abuse generative AI and kill prospecting altogether. LLMs has an even better super power - “Reasoning and analysing”
We had a webinar “Future of Prospecting” on 8th Feb with two sales leaders
Keith Weightman (Sales Leader and RVP Sales, Bullhorn)
Hamish Stephenson (Sales Expert and CEO, Selr.io)
More than 35 Sales Leaders from Enterprises and SMBs have attended the program. We covered the following topics -
Outbound is
deadreal hard?Magical Prospecting Triad to improve response rates
Hyper Personalisation
Account Prioritisation based on precise triggers
Leveraging frameworks smartly
How AI can actually help?
In case you have missed it, or would like to go through takeaways, keep reading…
Outbound is dead real hard?
We decided to host this webinar alongside two phenomenal sales minds because we're at a crossroads in our sales community.
There's a split:
— some claim outreach has lost its pulse,
— while others, like us, see it's still working—if you stick to the basics.
Initially, our outreach felt like shouting into the void; a dismal 0.01% response rate had us nearly pulling the plug on the whole operation.
Then, a pivot happened. We dove deep into the wisdom of sales mavens like Keith and Hamish.
Identified flaw?
A heavy reliance on tactics over timeless sales principles. We were playing the numbers game, not the value game. The epiphany hit: in an era where anyone can blast emails by the thousands, personal touch is king.
Generic Templates? Out.
Personalized, strategic outreach? In.
Actionable Takeaways
Tactics such as "spray and pray" or opportunistic outreach based on job changes are less effective in the face of automation and high outreach volumes.
The decline in response rates is attributed to the overuse of templated messages and the high volume of outreach facilitated by automation tools.
Checkout the recording of this section…
Magical Prospecting Triad to improve response rates
Hyper-Personalisation
Keith and Hamish emphasised that personalisation isn't just about slapping names into emails. It is about truly understanding who you're talking to, what makes them tick.
“Once, while going through LinkedIn, I stumbled upon a prospect's high school sports triumph. Dropping that into an email, their reply came swiftly. Not every message led to a 'yes,' but suddenly, my emails stood out in his inbox.”
Hamish won a CEO over with a simple band t-shirt, not his sales pitch, but a mutual love for music. While personalizing outreach, like digging up old social media, might tread a fine line between endearing and eerie, it's this level of personal touch that distinguishes memorable outreach from the forgettable.
Actionable Takeaways
Hyper-Personalization Goes Beyond Merge Tags: True personalization involves a deep understanding of the prospect's persona, interests, and challenges, leveraging details beyond the basic name and company tags.
Authenticity and Emotion Engage Prospects: Treating prospects as humans and connecting on an emotional level, with relevance to their interests and careers, significantly increases response rates.
Creative Outreach Stands Out: Unique and memorable outreach strategies, such as referencing personal achievements or passions, can dramatically improve engagement.
Checkout the recording of this section…
Account Prioritisation based on precise triggers
Keith and Hamish’s common opinion on account prioritization based on smart triggers
it isn't just about the right timing; it is about intimately knowing your targets.
Keith shared a vivid memory of when he had hundreds of accounts yet felt he never had enough. By focusing narrowly with detailed research, he achieved more with less, echoing the "go narrow to go wide" philosophy.
Hamish, on the other hand, advocated for an even more refined focus, suggesting sales reps specialize deeply within industries, maintaining active correspondence with no more than a hundred clients. This strategy isn’t just about sending emails; it is about becoming a knowledge base, understanding trends and patterns within a niche market
Actionable Takeaways
Narrowing your focus to a select list of accounts that fit your ideal client profile and their context towards your value proposition can significantly increase your success rate.
Specializing in a specific industry or niche allows for more meaningful interactions and positions you as an expert in your field.
Establishing genuine connections with potential clients, especially through personalized engagement, is key to standing out.
Utilizing smart triggers for timing and understanding your accounts deeply enables more relevant and impactful outreach.
Checkout the recording of this section…
Leveraging Frameworks Smartly
Keith recounted the creation of the PSA (Problem, Shift, Answer) framework, emphasizing its design for mobile readability and the strategic use of white space to enhance clarity. This approach, he noted, starts with
identifying a problem to evoke emotion,
outlining the industry shift, and
proposing a potential solution,
all within the concise confines of a mobile screen. This method, unlike generic templates, demands a deeper grasp of the buyer's world, ensuring the message resonates on a personal level.
Hamish, meanwhile, shared his enthusiasm for video outreach, particularly the 40-second format tailored to today's diminished attention spans. Drawing an analogy to the evolution from lengthy cooking shows to quick TikTok tutorials, he outlined a video framework designed to capture and retain attention every 10 seconds,
mixing personalization,
value,
social proof,
and a clear call to action.
This innovative approach to cold outreach, he argued, not only increases efficiency but also significantly boosts engagement rates, proving that personal touches and concise, value-driven messages can cut through the noise of today's crowded digital landscape.
Actionable Takeaways
Unlike rigid templates, frameworks like PSA, OPPS adapt to each prospect's unique challenges, requiring salespeople to deeply understand and articulate the problem, shift, and answer in a personalized manner.
With the majority of emails opened on mobile devices, formatting messages to be concise and easily readable on small screens is crucial for engaging today’s buyers.
Leveraging video in outreach, particularly with a structured approach that engages the recipient every 10 seconds, can dramatically improve response rates by offering personalized, valuable insights.
Checkout the recording of this section…
Gift from us
At the end of our session, we gave a surprise to our attendees with “Free Account Research on any 5 Leads”. If you also would like to have a free account research on 5 of your prospects, drop a mail on ayush@evabot.ai
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