So, you’ve finally started seeing a healthy amount of leads being generated for your business. And it looks like things are finally working well for you.
All you have to do is convince your leads that your product can genuinely help their business. And there will be times when you strike a chord with them on your first try.
But let’s be honest!
More often than not, you have to make a real good effort to stand out from your competition to get them to listen.
So, how do you break through?
How can you get noticed?
Most importantly, how do you navigate the fine line between being persistent and harassing them?
This blog will discuss a few actionable tips that will help you cut through the clutter.
Be Prepared for your First Touchpoint
It’s a cliche for a reason — the first Impression is the last impression — yet it makes a lot of sense for today’s B2B sales processes. Your first email, call, your icebreaker, etc., can set the tone of the deal.
When making the first touchpoint, there are certain things to prepare for before jumping right into the deep end.
Ensure that:
#1 Identify the right channels
Should you reach out via email, or should you call your prospect? Everyone has their own preference. Both email and phone calls have their pros and cons. Let’s look at them one by one.
Email — Emails are flexible. You can take your time to articulate it exactly how you want it. For your prospects, it allows them time to think through your proposition, share it with their colleagues, label and group them under a category.
But at the same time, an average person receives more than 120 emails per day. Can you imagine how many they read?
Chances are pretty high that your first email remains unopened. So be ready to follow up with a series of emails later on.
LinkedIn — LinkedIn is the newest kid on the block. Over the past few years, LinkedIn has seen rapid growth as one of the best social platforms for working professionals. As a result, most of our ideal prospects and leads are much easier to reach via LinkedIn.
And the best part about it is its similarity to email as an outreach channel. You can set up similar LinkedIn flows as you do for your emails.
Phone Call — Phone calls are a double-edged sword. On the positive side, they can quickly establish you as an expert.
On the other hand, calls at the wrong time can annoy your prospects or end up in voicemails. Today people are attending meetings more than ever due to the pandemic. And, unsolicited calls can tick your prospects off, who probably already have been busy all day long.
That’s why the best solution is to use emails, LinkedIn, and phone calls to complement one another. For example, you can write an introductory email or LinkedIn Inmail and propose to your lead an appropriate time to discuss things in detail over a phone call. Similarly, you can share sales enablement resources with your client via email after a specific phone call.
#3 Use less formal channels to build genuine relationships
I have realized that the B2B SaaS space has had an open-door policy in the last five years. This is because B2B folks like to network and exchange information. And this has allowed sales reps and marketers to connect with businesses using social media itself, rather than relying on just email and calls.
In fact, social platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter allow us to lower our guard and approach our leads like next-door neighbors. And if you approach this well, do your homework by studying their platform activity, work, etc., you can strike a conversation that makes the subject matter.
Be Wary of Timing
Everyone is busy today. Be aware and thoughtful about reaching out to your leads. And also, how often do you reach out?
For example, sending multiple emails in just a single week could quickly annoy your prospect. Or, if you make phone calls outside business hours, the chances are you’re interfering with their personal time.
Here are some things to keep in mind:
- Try to contact a client with a series of 2-day emails and then space out the follow-ups and outreach between 3-12 days.
- Always reach out mid-week and 2-3 hours later from the time your prospects start their day.
- Avoid early morning, lunch breaks, and weekends.
- Keep track, create email templates and remove clutter by looking at what worked and what didn’t.
Leverage Videos and Visual Content
When the pandemic started, many organizations began using work-collaboration tools like Asana, Basecamp, and more. I was one of the people who chose Basecamp.
The story around selecting Basecamp wasn’t because I liked the platform, but it was how their sales rep reached out to me. He created a short 2-minute video telling me how I can use Basecamp to manage the content calendar for myself and my team.
I instantly felt that Basecamp could solve my remote work issues, and I booked a meeting with the rep. In 2 weeks, he answered all our questions and got us signed for two years.
The takeaway from this was pretty simple. There is a variety of screen recording software and services available for free, which can help you create a personalized pitch to your customers. If you have done your homework on your prospect, creating these videos and visual content takes minutes and makes a huge first impression.
Offer Genuine Information at Every Touchpoint
Every email and phone call you to make to your leads or prospects is a potential opportunity to move them to the next step of your sales process.
When you are reaching out to your prospect for the first time or with follow-up, you must look at how you can leverage the first 10 seconds of their attention. Rather than writing a plain-jane email, look at if you can provide them with actionable solutions for their use-case and requirements.
If you can include:
- Use-case or requirement-based demos.
- Any glaring problem in their tech stack, sales process, and others that might have gone unnoticed.
- How your product can help them solve their business problems.
When you add actionable information while reaching out to your customers, your emails or calls are more likely to get a reaction from the client rather than ending the email graveyard.
Remember Persistent Selling is a Game of Patience and Numbers
There are various reasons why people don’t reply much to sales reps. Some of your prospects are eager to talk; some might not even reply even though you’ve crafted the world’s best outreach email ever.
Most of the time, this could be disheartening. And the reps who give up too soon are since they have seen rejection quite a lot. However, regardless of rejection, you should remember that your leads will keep increasing, and if they aren’t persistent, most of them will leave.
The sales team’s responsibility is to be pleasantly persistent, and this blog will help you do that. When you can incorporate these points into your practice, you see a positive change. Once you have a concrete structure for persistent selling, you’ll see how the table is turned.
Remember to have patience, and remember that this is a numbers game. Your patience and continuous persistence will reap the benefits as the numbers keep on increasing.
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