A step-by-step guide to creating a successful outbound sales strategy
Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2024 10:14 am
Not long ago, there was a belief that outbound sales are old news . Many experts claimed that inbound sales are the dominant sales line and that having a strong brand that can attract customers on its own was the future.
While it is important to create a brand identity that is attractive and captivating, that does not guarantee that you will reach the right audience who can become your customers.
Your business depends on you connecting with the relevant audience. You can't always wait for ideal clients to come to you; you can approach them yourself. That's why outbound sales have little chance of backing out.
To be successful in outbound prospecting, you need to have a calculated job function or professional person and industry email list approach. You need to know who to pitch to, with what tools, when to follow up, and how to understand which methods are effective.
In this article, we will discuss the steps you need to take to obtain a favorable outcome.
Create buyer persona profiles
The most important part of any outbound sales strategy is knowing who you are selling to.
Find out what your average buyer looks like to know which leads are a good fit for your business. You can generate a pool of leads, but you'll waste time unless you narrow it down to a smaller group.
brooke-cagle-NoRsyXmHGpI-unsplash
To do that, you need to determine which potential customers need your product the most. Analyze your current customers and see which ones benefit the most from your solution.
These companies have certain characteristics that make them successful with the help of their product. Understand what similarities they have and you will also be able to notice these characteristics in the leads you generated.
You can identify these attributes by answering questions like:
What is the size of the company?
What industry are they in?
How beneficial is your product for them?
Which department uses the product?
What are your clients looking to achieve?
There are many other questions you can ask yourself, but it depends on factors such as the industry and the nature of your product.
This will help you and your sales team perform well. You can notice a pattern among your customers and the best ways to approach them. But first, you need to write down a list of your customers' attributes so that your sales team can know which leads could turn into conversions.
Make sure you spend time properly defining these personas, as it can be crucial to the success of an outbound sales strategy.
Create a sales cadence
According to IRC Sales Solutions , only 2% of sales are successful after the first contact. That means your strategy needs to have different methods to get in touch with your potential customers. The first attempt is likely to be unsuccessful, so follow-up is a must .
You know your sales team's strengths, so if they're good at cold calling, let them warm up the prospect with an email or LinkedIn connection request before bringing up the big guns.
inlytics-linkedin-analytics-tool-2SE1zwzeLOs-unsplash
To increase your chances of making a conversion, we suggest you make a detailed plan of which day you will use which method. So, if you send a LinkedIn request on the first day (with a short introduction in the message), wait a couple of days before sending an email. If you don't get a response, don't give up, wait a day and send another email providing a different value.
After a couple of days, you should follow up with a call, and if you don't get a response, you can leave a voicemail. The next day, send another email, etc.
The point is to be persistent but not to spam with 20 messages and call in just three days.
Remember, your client is probably bombarded with proposals from other companies and marketers. So, if you want to be ahead of them, try to stand out. Try adding personalized videos in your outbound email prospecting strategy. You might stand out from the bunch of robotic emails filling their inboxes!
Choose the right tools
If you're not using tools for your outbound sales, you're behind your competition. We can't stress enough how beneficial some tools can be. Start using them today!
CRM or Customer Relationship Management is the foundation and toolkit for any successful sales team. In fact, a study by Innoppl Technologies claims that 78% of sales teams who did not use CRM failed to achieve their goals.
arlington-research-nFLmPAf9dVc-unsplash
CRM tools are great: they help your team be efficient and organized, help them follow a predefined sales cadence, and reduce the loss of valuable time spent making sales.
They can send scheduled emails, keep track of all communications, remind SDRs of certain tasks, and provide everyone with all the information, allowing each member to easily participate and help their team. It’s great for your outbound sales strategy. Here are some of the best CRM tools out there.
In addition to CRM tools, email automation tools can be of great help in your outbound prospecting. MailChimp is one of the most famous tools on the market.
Note: Some CRM tools also include email automation.
Social media tools are also a great help for your sales team. There are tools like LinkedIn Automation Tools that can generate leads from LinkedIn groups or can send many automated but personalized messages on LinkedIn.
Train your sales representatives.
Your sales team may know the basics of sales, but you need to make sure they know how to adapt to your business needs. That’s why you need to provide them with proper training and prepare them on how to execute your outbound sales strategy.
sales-solutions-linkedin-1LyBcHrH4J8-unsplash
Be sure to provide them with additional education on new tools, the latest trends, or a different industry you want to dive into. This process is also called sales enablement .
Simply put, it is the process where you provide your sales team with all the necessary information, tools, and content or facilitate communication with the marketing team. Basically, do everything that can help SDRs sell your product or service.
You need a plan for how to implement this process, so spend some time making sure you can provide all of this information to your sales team.
While it is important to create a brand identity that is attractive and captivating, that does not guarantee that you will reach the right audience who can become your customers.
Your business depends on you connecting with the relevant audience. You can't always wait for ideal clients to come to you; you can approach them yourself. That's why outbound sales have little chance of backing out.
To be successful in outbound prospecting, you need to have a calculated job function or professional person and industry email list approach. You need to know who to pitch to, with what tools, when to follow up, and how to understand which methods are effective.
In this article, we will discuss the steps you need to take to obtain a favorable outcome.
Create buyer persona profiles
The most important part of any outbound sales strategy is knowing who you are selling to.
Find out what your average buyer looks like to know which leads are a good fit for your business. You can generate a pool of leads, but you'll waste time unless you narrow it down to a smaller group.
brooke-cagle-NoRsyXmHGpI-unsplash
To do that, you need to determine which potential customers need your product the most. Analyze your current customers and see which ones benefit the most from your solution.
These companies have certain characteristics that make them successful with the help of their product. Understand what similarities they have and you will also be able to notice these characteristics in the leads you generated.
You can identify these attributes by answering questions like:
What is the size of the company?
What industry are they in?
How beneficial is your product for them?
Which department uses the product?
What are your clients looking to achieve?
There are many other questions you can ask yourself, but it depends on factors such as the industry and the nature of your product.
This will help you and your sales team perform well. You can notice a pattern among your customers and the best ways to approach them. But first, you need to write down a list of your customers' attributes so that your sales team can know which leads could turn into conversions.
Make sure you spend time properly defining these personas, as it can be crucial to the success of an outbound sales strategy.
Create a sales cadence
According to IRC Sales Solutions , only 2% of sales are successful after the first contact. That means your strategy needs to have different methods to get in touch with your potential customers. The first attempt is likely to be unsuccessful, so follow-up is a must .
You know your sales team's strengths, so if they're good at cold calling, let them warm up the prospect with an email or LinkedIn connection request before bringing up the big guns.
inlytics-linkedin-analytics-tool-2SE1zwzeLOs-unsplash
To increase your chances of making a conversion, we suggest you make a detailed plan of which day you will use which method. So, if you send a LinkedIn request on the first day (with a short introduction in the message), wait a couple of days before sending an email. If you don't get a response, don't give up, wait a day and send another email providing a different value.
After a couple of days, you should follow up with a call, and if you don't get a response, you can leave a voicemail. The next day, send another email, etc.
The point is to be persistent but not to spam with 20 messages and call in just three days.
Remember, your client is probably bombarded with proposals from other companies and marketers. So, if you want to be ahead of them, try to stand out. Try adding personalized videos in your outbound email prospecting strategy. You might stand out from the bunch of robotic emails filling their inboxes!
Choose the right tools
If you're not using tools for your outbound sales, you're behind your competition. We can't stress enough how beneficial some tools can be. Start using them today!
CRM or Customer Relationship Management is the foundation and toolkit for any successful sales team. In fact, a study by Innoppl Technologies claims that 78% of sales teams who did not use CRM failed to achieve their goals.
arlington-research-nFLmPAf9dVc-unsplash
CRM tools are great: they help your team be efficient and organized, help them follow a predefined sales cadence, and reduce the loss of valuable time spent making sales.
They can send scheduled emails, keep track of all communications, remind SDRs of certain tasks, and provide everyone with all the information, allowing each member to easily participate and help their team. It’s great for your outbound sales strategy. Here are some of the best CRM tools out there.
In addition to CRM tools, email automation tools can be of great help in your outbound prospecting. MailChimp is one of the most famous tools on the market.
Note: Some CRM tools also include email automation.
Social media tools are also a great help for your sales team. There are tools like LinkedIn Automation Tools that can generate leads from LinkedIn groups or can send many automated but personalized messages on LinkedIn.
Train your sales representatives.
Your sales team may know the basics of sales, but you need to make sure they know how to adapt to your business needs. That’s why you need to provide them with proper training and prepare them on how to execute your outbound sales strategy.
sales-solutions-linkedin-1LyBcHrH4J8-unsplash
Be sure to provide them with additional education on new tools, the latest trends, or a different industry you want to dive into. This process is also called sales enablement .
Simply put, it is the process where you provide your sales team with all the necessary information, tools, and content or facilitate communication with the marketing team. Basically, do everything that can help SDRs sell your product or service.
You need a plan for how to implement this process, so spend some time making sure you can provide all of this information to your sales team.