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Tactical Selling Uncategorized

The best SalesLabs resources of 2021

The best SalesLabs resources of 2021

It’s nearly the end of 2021. I am heading back to Berlin tonight and I had some time this morning to do a retrospective of the last 12 months.

2021 has been a fantastic year, and here’s my list of top resources and wins:

Most downloaded free resource

  • What: The Ultimate LinkedIn Outreach Sequence
  • Downloads: 1.711
  • Why: This simple 6-step sequence perfectly illustrates my outbound prospecting philosophy. It shows you how to write a connection request, how to use video and LinkedIn voice notes, and a simple framework I use to get a 38% reply rate and an 11% meeting rate.

Most purchased online training

  • What: The New Outreach System
  • Purchases: 75
  • Why: As a student of the course shared, this course is “the missing link” if you’re in sales. With a 5-star rating, it’s a simple 90-minute resource to build a prospecting routine. Grab it for €59 with the code “2022”. (24 hours only)

Most downloaded podcast episode

Most consulted blog post

My proudest moment

Picture of the year

My office
  • What: My office in Berlin
  • Why: This picture is the materialization of my dream. It’s the confirmation that my business is healthy enough to commit to a 3-year office rent as a solopreneur. I got the office in July 2021, and it was a key milestone in my career.

Some stats

    • LinkedIn followers gained: +3.136
    • Events/podcasts as a speaker: 15
    • Website page views: 47.211
    • Mailing list size growth: +1.181
    • Discovery calls held: 162

2021 has been my best year so far, I have worked with hundreds of salespeople, helped them book more meetings, and reach their sales targets faster.

Can’t wait to see what 2022 has in store!

Cheers,
Thibaut

P.S. When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you.

→ Grab my 5-star course, The New Outreach System: How I use LinkedIn to get a 38% reply rate and an 11% meeting rate. Buy it here.

→Work 1:1 with me:
 If you need help booking more meetings, I can help you. We’ll go through your current situation and what’s not working. We’ll build an action plan to land you more meetings and more money in your pocket. Book me here.

→ Grab my course, The T-shaped Sales Development Program: This is the most comprehensive course I have about sales development. You’ll learn everything from optimizing your LinkedIn profile for sales to finding hot prospects, and running discovery calls Buy it here.

Subscribe to the Newsletter

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Tactical Selling Uncategorized

My 2021 prospecting stats

My 2021 prospecting stats

At the beginning of 2021, I decided to prospect every single weekday I was working. The year 2020 had been really challenging for my business, and I committed to outbound prospecting in order to make 2021 more successful.

2021 was my best year so far, and I didn’t expect such a simple habit to create the results it did.

Here are the stats of 216 days of prospecting:

1081 prospects contacted

When I started the year, I calculated my cruising altitude and found out that I needed to add 5 new prospects to my sequence every single day. With that number, I would be able to reach my targets.

It was relatively simple to find these 5 prospects every day, thanks to 3 main sources:

  • People who visited my LinkedIn profile/like or commented on my posts
  • People who reacted to thought leaders’ posts
  • People who attended LinkedIn events

374 prospects replied (34.6% reply rate)

In order to increase my replies, I created a 4-step outreach sequence on LinkedIn. I added 2 email touchpoints mid-year and then finished with a 5-step sequence that looks like that:

  • Step 1: LinkedIn connection request
  • Step 2: Tolstoy video
  • Step 3: LinkedIn voice note
  • Step 4: Tolstoy video (with 3 video paths)
  • Step 5: LinkedIn text

If you want to know how I structured each touchpoint, download my Ultimate LinkedIn Outreach Sequence.

53 meetings booked (14.2% meeting rate)

Most conversations I had didn’t lead to a meeting right away, but a good amount of prospects came back a few months later as inbound leads. I also had a lot of introductions and congratulations because people loved the creativity and relevance of my outreach.

And this was a key learning for 2021.

Prospecting is about starting conversations and proactively building relationships. When your goal is to get replies, you’ll end up having more meetings, more introductions, and more business.

But this requires building a prospecting routine and sticking to it. And if you need help building yours for 2022, go check The New Outreach System.

It’s €39 instead of €79 for the next 24 hours. Just use the code “almostchristmas” on checkout.

Cheers,
Thibaut

P.S. When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you.

→ Grab my 5-star course, The New Outreach System: How I use LinkedIn to get a 38% reply rate and an 11% meeting rate. Buy it here.

→Work 1:1 with me:
 If you need help booking more meetings, I can help you. We’ll go through your current situation and what’s not working. We’ll build an action plan to land you more meetings and more money in your pocket. Book me here.

→ Grab my course, The T-shaped Sales Development Program: This is the most comprehensive course I have about sales development. You’ll learn everything from optimizing your LinkedIn profile for sales to finding hot prospects, and running discovery calls Buy it here.

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.900+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.900+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

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Tactical Selling Uncategorized

Why I became an advisor for Tolstoy

Why I became an advisor for Tolstoy

It’s been a few months since I discovered a new video prospecting tool called Tolstoy. Most of my last emails and LinkedIn posts have been about the use cases I have discovered while I was using the tool.

After a few exchanges with the co-founders Dov and Omer, we thought it would be a good idea to have me as an advisor. Here’s why:

I love the vision and execution of the team

I heard about Tolstoy for the first time in a coaching call I was having with one of my students. I went to the website and loved that the tool was free (it still is, but that won’t be the case forever).

The team is currently identifying the product/marketing fit and focusing on collecting data from different ICPs. They chose to keep the product free while they are doing that, which I find brilliant.

The word of mouth around the product is great and a lot of my students have reported great results using Tolstoy. A CSO even called me to tell me one of his SDRs booked her first meeting with a Tolstoy video!

Here are some examples of how salespeople love Tolstoy:

Clem
Craig

I keep finding mind-blowing use cases daily

As you know, I prospect every single day during my power hour block. I have recently revamped my outreach sequence to include Tolstoy. Here are some examples of the prospecting use cases I have discovered:

These are just basic examples of how I use Tolstoy so far. In fact, I love the flexibility of the tool, and I see it as a video chatbot. I have a few Tolstoys on my website and courses landing pages.

Tolstoy is a tool you can use for sales, marketing, customer service, and this is why I think it’s the future of sales. Successful salespeople are already building their personal brands and converting attention into opportunities, and Tolstoy is the ultimate tool to do it with video.

I love working with the team

I’ve been working with the leadership, the growth team, and the product team and I love the dynamic of the group.

When we jump on calls together, everyone shows up in the coworking space in Tel Aviv and they throw questions, observations. They also work hard on pushing killer features and the tool is really robust.

Also, being originally from the South of France, I love the Mediterranean approach to life and work, and I can definitely find it with the team.

Want to help?

If you’re interested in trying Tolstoy and providing feedback on how you use it, and what you want to see in the tool, I have two options:

  • If you’re an individual contributor -> Signup for free and hit me up with suggestions/results on LinkedIn
  • If you’re leading a team of SDRs/AEs -> Signup for free and reply to this email so we can organize a quick chat and collect your suggestions
I’m so excited for what’s coming for Tolstoy, and I feel like it’s the right tool and the right team to build a kickass sales tool.

Cheers,
Thibaut
P.S. When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you.

→ Grab my 5-star course, The New Outreach System: How I use LinkedIn to get a 38% reply rate and an 11% meeting rate. Buy it here.

→Work 1:1 with me:
 If you need help booking more meetings, I can help you. We’ll go through your current situation and what’s not working. We’ll build an action plan to land you more meetings and more money in your pocket. Book me here.

→ Grab my course, The T-shaped Sales Development Program: This is the most comprehensive course I have about sales development. You’ll learn everything from optimizing your LinkedIn profile for sales to finding hot prospects, and running discovery calls Buy it here.

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.900+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.900+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

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Tactical Selling Uncategorized

How I use LinkedIn’s away message to start conversations

How I use LinkedIn’s away message to start conversations

LinkedIn is filled with hidden features you can use to start conversations and create value for people who interact with you. A recent feature I have started using to do that is the “Away message”.

It’s normally intended to send an OOO message, but you can activate it to reply on your behalf when you’re away.

Here’s the one I use:

Away Message

The explanation

As you can see I start with an explanation for my away message. I am often away from LinkedIn, and I try to batch my time to stay productive.

It’s a good way to set expectations and make sure you protect your time. You can obviously reply as soon as you receive the message, but this feature will cover your back when you’re away.

Resources

I could end the message here, but that would be a waste of precious real estate.

In general, people who send you messages belong to one of these 3 categories:

  • They have no clue about you or what you sell – COLD
  • They know about you or what you sell and want more details – WARM
  • They want to speak with you – HOT
Your goal is to get COLD people to become WARM and WARM people to become HOT.

Here’s how you can do it:

1) Resource #1 – COLD: A free template/checklist/ebook

Go check what kind of marketing material exists on your company website. I’m not talking about one-pagers or solution-centered resources, but insightful resources that help your prospects solve a problem.

In my case, my Ultimate LinkedIn Outreach Sequence will help you create a LinkedIn prospecting sequence. It’s not about what I can offer, but about helping you get more replies and meetings on LinkedIn.

2) Resource #2 – WARM: An in-depth resource

Some prospects know about your solution and want to do more research about what you’re offering. A webinar recording, a product demo, a case study are great examples of how you can help prospects do more research.

case study could be a good warm option. In my away message, I use the New Outreach System because I also sell online courses, but you can replace this with anything that is more relevant to what you sell.

3) Resource #3: HOT: A calendar link or Tolstoy

Some prospects want to talk to you or book a demo. In that case, dropping a calendar link will help them do just that.

Alternatively, you can use Tolstoy to create a video path with different options. You can add additional options to create even more value.

For example, this Tolstoy in my example leads to 3 typical problems faced by my customers, a resource for each, and a link to my calendar. Like that, I know what problem people who book a call with me have, and it’s a great conversation starter.

If you need help figuring out which resources work for you, we can sit down together and I’ll help you use these resources in your away message and your cold outreach.

How to build yours

Now that you know what to say, you can build your away message. Here’s how to do it, step-by-step:

  1. Make sure you have access to LinkedIn Premium
  2. Go to the message tab at the bottom right of your LinkedIn feed
  3. Click on the 3 dots menu and then “Set/Update away message”
  4. Enter a start date and end date (it allows you to do it for 3 months max)
  5. Enter your message and resources (use Bitly to shrink the links)
  6. Save
And you’re all set!

If you use Bitly, you can even track how many people clicked on the links and you’ll have an idea of the performance of your away message.

And finally, drop me a DM on LinkedIn if you want to play with my away message.

Cheers,
Thibaut
P.S. When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you.

→ Grab my 5-star course, The New Outreach System: How I use LinkedIn to get a 38% reply rate and an 11% meeting rate. Buy it here.

→Work 1:1 with me:
 If you need help booking more meetings, I can help you. We’ll go through your current situation and what’s not working. We’ll build an action plan to land you more meetings and more money in your pocket. Book me here.

→ Grab my course, The T-shaped Sales Development Program: This is the most comprehensive course I have about sales development. You’ll learn everything from optimizing your LinkedIn profile for sales to finding hot prospects, and running discovery calls Buy it here.

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.900+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.900+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

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Tactical Selling Uncategorized

My 4-step framework to consistently get a 38% reply rate

My 4-step framework to consistently get a 38% reply rate

In 2021, I have managed to reach and maintain a 38% reply rate with my cold outreach. I have built a system to help me structure my prospecting routine and a key part of it is the copy I use in my touchpoints.

Here’s a framework I use all the time for asynchronous touchpoints.

Trigger

I start by finding a relevant piece of information about my prospect. It’s called a trigger and it helps prospects answer the question: “Did this person do some research about my problems?”

Here’s a list of my top 3 triggers:

  • Like/comment on a post
  • LinkedIn Event attendance
  • Profile view

When I have found a relevant trigger, I reference it as the reason for my outreach.

For example: “Hey Mary, noticed you also liked Heather’s post about boring hybrid events.”

Question

Now that I have the attention of my prospects, I want to get them to reflect on a potential problem they have.

A good way to do that is to use an “away” question. It’s a question focused on the negative outcome of a situation.

It starts with snippets like: “How are you preventing/avoiding”, “What are you doing to avoid/prevent”.

For example: “How are you avoiding boring people to death with boring hybrid events?”

Teaser

If my prospects face the problem I mention, they will be interested in reading further.

That’s when I try to enable the Netflix effect.

Ever wondered why you keep binge-watching series on Netflix? It’s because they finish episodes with a cliffhanger. They create a tense situation and cut the episode right before the tension is dissipated.

You want to use the same tactic to get people curious to know more.

Call-To-Action

Finally, I propose a simple CTA to satisfy my prospects’ curiosity.

Note that I’m not asking complicated questions or proposing to meet. I’m not dropping a calendar link either.

I just asked a close-ended question.

For example: “Interested?”

Here’s an alternative example:

Asynchronous touchpoint template

It’s really that simple.

So in summary:

  1. Find a relevant trigger and mention it
  2. Ask an away question
  3. Tease a resource related to the problem
  4. Ask if they are interested.

I would love to see how you adapt this framework to your prospects. Feel free to reply to this email with your version.

Cheers,
Thibaut
P.S. When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you.

→ Grab my 5-star course, The New Outreach System: How I use LinkedIn to get a 38% reply rate and an 11% meeting rate. Buy it here.

→Work 1:1 with me:
 If you need help booking more meetings, I can help you. We’ll go through your current situation and what’s not working. We’ll build an action plan to land you more meetings and more money in your pocket. Book me here.

→ Grab my course, The T-shaped Sales Development Program: This is the most comprehensive course I have about sales development. You’ll learn everything from optimizing your LinkedIn profile for sales to finding hot prospects, and running discovery calls Buy it here.

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.900+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.900+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.