In today’s newsletter, I’m going to share a 4-step process we developed with a customer to book meetings with comparative logic.

Outbound prospecting is about catching the attention of your prospects, and showing them what they are potentially missing is a great way to get replies.

Here’s how I do it, step-by-step:

Step 1: Define a quantifiable problem

The first step is to have clear idea of a problem your prospects are trying to solve. You may be tempted to pitch your offering, but focusing on problems will get you more replies.

Finding a quantifiable problem is important, as it is the basis of the comparison you’ll use.

Example: Missed sales because SDRs don’t prospect existing accounts.

(Note: You can use my Cold Message System if you need help finding the problems of your customers).

Step 2: Ask if they can quantify it

Now that you have a clear idea of a quantified problem, you need to mention it in your cold outreach. The whole idea is to create FOMO with your prospects, by asking how much of this problem they are having.

Example: “Do you know how much sales you’re leaving on the table because your SDRs don’t prospect existing accounts?”

Step 3: Tease a calculator

If you did your research correctly, you should have the attention of your prospects. You may be tempted to directly pitch your offering, but you need to provide value so you maximize the chances of booking a meeting.

You can create value by sharing a simple calculator to help your prospects quantify the problem they are having.

Example: “If you’re interested, I can share a simple calculator to help you find that number?”

I took 10 minutes to create a simple problem calculator here. The idea is to help your prospect visualize a before/after situation and what they are missing by not doing anything.

Note that you don’t want to share the calculator before getting a reply. You just share it when they asked for it.

Step 4: Ask for interest

I don’t know about you, but if someone identified a problem I have and proposed to help me find the size of that problem, I’d be interested to know more.

Now if they start pitching their offering, I wouldn’t reply. That’s why you need to use a simple call-to-action to find out if your prospects are interested.

Example: “Should I send it over?”

Here’s how a cold outreach message could look like:

“Jack, noticed you recently got promoted to Head of Sales Development.

Do you know how much sales you’re leaving on the table because your SDRs don’t prospect existing accounts?

If you’re interested, I can share a simple calculator to help you find that number?

Should I send it over?”

And this is how you can create interest with your prospects using comparative logic.

TL;DR:

• Step 1: Define a quantifiable problem

• Step 2: Ask if they know about it

• Step 3: Tease a calculator

• Step 4: Ask for interest

Hope this helps!

Thibaut

In today’s issue, I will break down the failure of many SDRs to book outbound meetings.

Booking outbound meetings is more challenging than ever, mostly because money isn’t flowing as it used to. Prospects are careful with their budgets, and they are reluctant to take calls with stressed out sales reps.

But if you’re in sales, you still need to book meetings and to generate pipeline.

So today, I’m going to break down the 3 most common mistakes I see sales reps making with outbound prospecting, and what I’d recommend they do instead.

Mistake #1: Writing essays

I’m writing this newsletter right after a training session I gave to 20 sales reps. We went through their cold emails and they were making the same mistake as 99% of people I train.

Their emails looked more like essays, with convoluted sentences, buzzwords, and way too many words.

Imagine receiving a cold outbound message and having to spend time deciphering it. You would do it once and ignore every email that remotely looks similar.

This is what prospects are doing, and the reason you can’t get replies.

Mistake #2: Being inconsistent

Consistency is 80% of your success in cold outbound. Most sales reps I train have no prospecting routine when I first meet them, and those who choose to create one see quick results after a few days.

Here’s a typical week of an inconsistent SDR:

• Monday: Spend hours looking for 100+ new prospects

• Tuesday: Send a first touchpoint to a part of their list

• Wednesday: Send the remaining touchpoints to their list

• Thursday: No replies, 100+ follow-ups

• Friday: Still no replies, slowly becoming desperate

If this schedule looks familiar, then you’re doing something wrong.

Mistake #3: Not focusing on existing accounts

The last type of mistake I see all the time is the result of the “growth at all cost” model that was predominant in the tech industry until Q1 2022.

The last 5 years were exceptional in terms of funding, and the goal of most high-growth companies was to acquire new logos. If they could show that they were able to open new accounts, they’d get money. As a result, SDRs have been exclusively dedicated to opening new accounts.

However, things are different nowadays. If you can’t expand new accounts, you’ll have a hard time generating new opportunities, and you will miss your targets.

Instead, here’s what you can do:

The first thing you need to do is to reduce the size of your cold outbound messages. Write messages with 3 to 4 sentences that can be easily read on a smartphone without scrolling. For example:

Mary, saw you changed position around 5 months ago.

What are you doing to prevent your team from turning off prospects with pushy LinkedIn messages?

If you’re into it, I’d love to share a quick video on how your team can start genuine conversations with prospects on LinkedIn.

Should I send it over?

Second, build a prospecting routine. I wrote a detailed article on how to do that here.

Finally, review your strategy and start focusing on existing accounts. I started doing it a few weeks ago, and I have already booked 5 meetings and closed one deal with this strategy.

TL;DR

• Don’t write essays

• Don’t be inconsistent

• Don’t ignore existing accounts

• Do write short messages

• Do prospect every day

• Do focus on upsells and cross-sells

I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Thibaut

In today’s newsletter, I’m going to share my 5-step process to navigate conversations to book a meeting.

Human beings are constantly making decisions, and they use mental shortcuts to avoid wasting brainpower in doing so.

One of them is called the reciprocity bias. When you accept a gift or help from someone, you’re more likely to reciprocate. Think about the last time someone offered help, and how you’d answer if they’d ask for a service in return.

Here’s how I use this psychological bias to book meetings:

Step 1: Use a problem question

Before reaching out to a prospect, you should always ask yourself what kind of problem they are trying to solve. For example, I’m selling to VPs of Sales or Heads of Sales Development, and they are typically trying to solve problems like:

• gaps between forecasting and actual revenues

• SDRs turning prospects off with pushy cold outreach

I can use these problems in my outreach to get their attention, and show my understanding of their business reality.

You can use the formula: “How do you avoid/prevent {problem}?”.

Example: “How do you prevent your team from turning off prospects with pushy cold outreach?”

Step 2: Tease a reciprocity resource

If your prospects are currently facing the problem you mentioned, they may be interested in a resource to solve it.

You can use a reciprocity resource to help them. It can be any marketing material from your company, partners, or even competitors.

For example:

• Whitepapers

• eBooks

• Podcasts

• Webinar recordings

I recommend downloading the resource, hosting it in Google Drive, and recording a short video on why it is valuable.

You can tease this resource in your initial outreach message, just like this: “If you’re interested, I made a 5-step sequence that typically gets a 38% reply rate.”

Step 3: Ask for feedback

If your prospect replies, share the resource (either directly, or with a short video), and give them a few days.

You can then ask for feedback on the resource, to find out if it was useful. For example: “What do you think of the resource? Was it useful for your team?”

In most cases, your prospects will feel obliged to reply (because of the reciprocity bias), and you’ll be able to see if the problem you’re solving is important enough for them.

Step 4: Use a negative-reversing question

If the problem is important enough, you should be able to ask a few other questions, and even get some from your prospects.

A good way to ask for the meeting is to use a negative formulation. Instead of writing: “Should we book a meeting?”, you can use the following formula “Would it be a bad idea to…”

Example: “Would it be a bad idea to hop on a quick call so I can give you a few tips on how your team can use this sequence?”

Step 5: Drop a meeting link

If your prospect agree to the meeting, immediately drop a meeting link or ask them to share some availabilities.

Example: “Good, here’s a link to book a quick chat. You can also share your availabilities if you prefer.”

A meeting link is a productivity tool. It helps your prospects align with your schedule. However, some people may not like using meetings link. They would rather share their availability, and have you send an invitation.

And this is how I get around 27% of people who reply to my outreach to book a meeting with me.

And if you’re interested in grabbing the system I use to get a 38% reply rate, and between 11% and 27% of people who reply to book a meeting with me, then check The New Outreach System.

TL;DR:

• Step 1: Use a problem question

• Step 2: Tease a reciprocity resource

• Step 3: Ask for feedback

• Step 4: Use a negative-reversing question

• Step 5: Drop a meeting link

Hope this helps!

Thibaut