Categories
Tactical Selling

Launching a new offering? Book meetings with these 3 steps

Launching a new offering? Book meetings with these 3 steps

In today’s newsletter, I’ll show you the exact steps I follow when launching a new offering. I’ve been working for myself for 6 years, and I launched many different services and products.

Right now, I’m working on creating a system to help remote salespeople go from being employed with a single source of income to highly sought-after portfolio professionals, so they can choose when, where, and how to work.

Here’s how, step-by-step:

Step 1: Build 3 to 5 assumptions

Before launching a new offering, you need to come up with a few assumptions about the specific challenges your prospects are trying to solve. You may already have a good idea of the solution to these problems, but it’s irrelevant at this stage.

Here are 5 assumptions I have about experienced remote salespeople trying to work for themselves:

  1. Salespeople don’t know how to market their skills → they think they need a product to sell to make money
  2. They don’t thing they have anything to offer → they don’t know how to package their skills
  3. They have golden handcuffs → they have great work conditions, so it’s hard for them to leave them
  4. They know this won’t last forever → they sense that the market is shifting, and employers want everyone back in the office
  5. Those who want to work for themselves want to do it within a year → when they made the decision to work for themselves, they want to do it quickly

Step 2: Do a LinkedIn poll to validate each assumption

Now that your assumptions are clear, you can start working on validating them with data from your prospects. At the time of writing this newsletter (August 2024), LinkedIn Polls are working well to generate good impressions and engagement.

Here’s a recent poll I did, where I validated assumption 5:

Image #1

As you can see, 320 people voted on the poll. 81% of people who answered want to start working for themselves at some point in their career, and 29% want to do it within a year.

With a poll result like that, I can already validate that a good chunk of remote salespeople in my audience would like to work for themselves. Some may need immediate help setting up their offerings and activating their networks, when others may need help to structure their thoughts and work on their skills to start working for themselves in the long run.

Step 3: Start conversations with people who voted on your poll

The poll in the example generated 320 votes. A good portion of these people may be interesting prospects to contact. When people vote on a poll, the author can see who they are, and what they voted for.

In the example above, I reached out in priority to people who were interested in starting within a year, and sent them the following message (either DM or connection request):

FirstName, thanks for voting on my poll about your plans to work for yourself. Planning on doing something soon? Super curious to know more!

And these are some of the answers I got:

Image #2
Image #3
Image #4

I then navigated the conversation and invited people who replied to join my waitlist or book a meeting, based on their answer.

And these are 3 simple steps you can follow to book meetings while validating a new offering. I recommend using this play if you’re getting started at a new company, validating a product-market fit, or launching a new offering.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

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

→ (NEW) Join the waitlist to build your portfolio career

→ Enroll in The Prospecting Engine

Need to train your team or invite me as a speaker? Book a call here

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.400+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

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Categories
Tactical Selling

Have you thought of working for yourself?

Have you thought of working for yourself?

In today’s newsletter, I’m going to do something a bit different. If you’ve been a long time subscriber of Tactical Selling, you know I mostly share tactical prospecting tips to help you start more conversations, and book more meetings.

I’ve been working for myself for 6 years, and every time I meet someone who would like to do the same (quite common these days), they have tons of questions on how I did the transition to working for myself.

I’ve recently started having more conversations with experienced remote salespeople, and almost all of them have the same observations about working for themselves.

1) Almost everyone I talk to would like to work for themselves, but they don’t know how to get started

Around 60% of people I surveyed on my website would like to work for themselves. All my friends working in sales keep telling me how tired they are to be working for their bosses, and many are playing with the idea of working for themselves.

But almost all of them don’t know how to get started. They don’t think someone would pay for their skills, they don’t know how to land their first contract, structure an offer, or manage a side gig while working a full-time job.

2) They don’t think they have anything to offer

Salespeople I spoke to are convinced no one would pay them for a short-term contract. They think they need to build a business, become a creator, or do stuff they don’t want to do in order to get paid.

3) They have golden handcuffs

Let’s be honest. If you work as an experienced remote salesperson, your life is often pretty amazing. You can work from home, you have a great salary, you skip the dreaded daily commute.

But you’re dependent on one employer, and when things stop working (they always do, eventually), you risk losing these work conditions, and you may even end up in an office job to pay the bills.

4) They know this won’t last forever

Despite having great work conditions, almost everyone I surveyed shared that they feared these benefits wouldn’t last forever. With return to the office policies, and shift in power from employees to employers, remote salespeople feel the pressure on their lifestyle.

5) Those who want to work for themselves want to do it within a year

Around 82% of people who said they wanted to work for themselves want to do it within a year. They have a strong urge to become independent, and to diversify their income streams.

They often have good ideas, but they don’t have a structured approach to validating and marketing them.

That’s where I want to help…

It’s becoming clear that experienced remote salespeople want something more than just a job. They want a say in when, where, and how they work.

That’s why I am creating a system to help these people go from being remote employees with a single source of income to highly sought-after portfolio professionals.

If this sounds like you, I have created a waitlist to share my findings as I’m building this system in public.

When you join the waitlist I’ll show you how to market your experience, without having to launch a business (or create content), so you can build your work around your life, not the other way around.

Hope to see you in there.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

PS: Don’t worry, I’ll keep sharing tactical prospecting tips. I’m just going to expand on other ways you can use this skill to become more independent.

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

→ (NEW) Join the waitlist to build your portfolio career

→ Enroll in The Prospecting Engine

Need to train your team or invite me as a speaker? Book a call here

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.400+ 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 5.400+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

Categories
Tactical Selling

If you’re a remote salesperson, you need to read this

If you’re a remote salesperson, you need to read this

In today’s issue, I’ll share what I’m working on to help experienced remote salespeople go from being employed to highly paid professionals, so they can choose when, where, and how to work.

If you’ve been thinking of quitting your sales job to work on something more meaningful, but never did it because you had bills to pay, this guide will give you a clear next step.

Let’s dive in:

The problem

I’ve been lucky enough to meet people from all over the world in my sales career. A lot of them are now friends, and, except for a few, they are all working in sales. Most of them have comfortable remote jobs, where they can work from home, go on staycations, and organize their day as they want.

But, as the years pass, a lot of them are tired to of having no professional boundaries, tired to work for crazy tech founders, tired to waste hundreds of hours in useless Zoom meetings every year.

But they are stuck. Why would they leave a comfortable job, as meaningless as it sounds, when they can skip commuting, office politics, and crappy colleague holiday stories altogether?

There has to be a better way.

A different approach: A Portfolio Career

A Portfolio Career is the perfect combination for experienced salespeople who want to:

  • find contracts that are interesting, well paid, and flexible
  • work from anywhere, without having to become an entrepreneur
  • build a diversified income, while working when and where they want to

Instead of looking for a job with the perfect working conditions, a great product-market fit, a founder with human values, and all these impossible attributes to find in a single organization, you focus on building a system to find multiple short-term contracts.

For example, if you have an extensive experience selling low 5-figure deals for a SaaS company, you can approach 5 to 10 SaaS companies trying to hire an Account Executive, and propose to start with a part-time, 6 months contract.

Some organizations won’t be comfortable doing that, but many will find the flexibility and initiative worth exploring.

Tying it back to you

I understand the concrete steps you need to take may not be clear. And that’s where I want to help.

I have spent the last 6 years figuring out how to make more money than I spend, and I still have a roof over my head, food in the fridge, and a ton of time to spend with my son.

I have trained, coached, and helped thousands of salespeople to get more commission with less work, and I have discovered a way to market your skills, so you can diversify your income.

So if you are:

  • a remote salesperson with 5+ years of experience
  • tired or your job taking most of your awake time
  • trying to building a life in your own terms

Then join the waitlist to discover what I’m building.

I’ll show you how to market your experience, without having to launch a business (or create content), so you can build your work around your life, not the other way around.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

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

→ (NEW) Join the waitlist to build your portfolio career

→ Enroll in The Prospecting Engine

Need to train your team or invite me as a speaker? Book a call here

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.400+ 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 5.400+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

Categories
Tactical Selling

5 sales tools I can’t live without

5 sales tools I can’t live without

In today’s issue, I’ll share 5 sales tools I can’t live without. I’ve tried hundreds of tools in my sales career, and most of them weren’t really helpful.

Sales tools are often great to automate repetitive parts of our job, but they often include a ton of useless features (all the AI email writers, icebreakers, etc.) and they end up wasting everyone’s time.

There are over 5.529 sales tools, in 25 sub-categories, and here are 5 I can’t live without.

AmpleMarket

AmpleMarket is the ultimate, all-in-one sales engagement platform. I use it everyday to grab LinkedIn profiles, put prospects into sequences, and make sure that I’m actually reaching out to them on a structured and direct way.

You can use my link if you want to give it a try (and get a 10% discount if you decide to go for it).

Kaspr.io

Kaspr is an amazing Chrome extension you can install to discover phone numbers and emails from prospects. It’s really useful if you’re not using an all-in-one platform, and if you’re looking for hard to find prospect data, especially in EMEA.

LinkedIn Native Videos

LinkedIn Native Videos are videos recorded within the LinkedIn app. They are incredibly powerful to stand out, as most salespeople don’t even know they exist (you can only record them with the app). I wrote a detailed guide to help you use them in 2024.

Prospecting Template Swipe File

The Prospecting Template Swipe File is a collection of killer prospecting message templates from top sales creators and influencers. I have collected over 25 cold emails, LinkedIn, and cold call templates you can use to start more conversations with prospects. It’s regularly updated.

It even includes prompts to help you make these templates yours.

Sales Process Calculator

Finally, my Sales Process Calculator is a resource I use every day to understand how many prospects I need to add to my sequence in order to reach my targets. It’s a simple formula to turn my revenue targets into daily activity.

And these are 5 tools I can’t live without. This shortlist is the result of years of trial and error, and they help me to:

  • build lead lists
  • find prospect data
  • put them into sequences
  • reach out in a structured way

Hope this list was helpful. If you know of another tool I should try, just reply to this email.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

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

→ Enroll in The Prospecting Engine

Need to train your team or invite me as a speaker? Book a call here

→ Sponsor my content & get 45K+ eyeballs on your ad

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.400+ 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 5.400+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

Categories
Tactical Selling

My 2024 guide to video prospecting

My 2024 guide to video prospecting

In today’s issue, I’ll share my 2024 guide to video prospecting. Video prospecting has been around for quite some time, and it was really hot during COVID.

In 2024, many salespeople seem to have forgotten how to use video to prospect, which is a great opportunity to use this media to catch the attention of your prospects, and start more conversations.

Here’s how, step-by-step:

Step 1: Use LinkedIn native video

The first step is to use LinkedIn native videos. Native videos are videos that are recorded using the LinkedIn mobile app. Here’s a quick video where I show you how it’s done:

There’s a good reason to use that feature over a video prospecting tool. As it’s only available on the mobile LinkedIn app, most salespeople won’t use it because they prospect with LinkedIn on their computer. You will mathematically stand out by using native videos, just like LinkedIn voice notes.

Step 2: Write a simple script

Next, write a simple script. You really need to avoid blabbering for five minutes because no one’s going to actually watch this video. It needs to be direct, concrete, and last 30 seconds or less. You can use this simple template:

  • Trigger: Your excuse for reaching out
  • Problem: A problem faced by many of your customers
  • Teaser: A teaser of a resource to solve that problem
  • CTA: A simple ask

Example:

  • Trigger: “Ara, saw you also liked Josh’s post about SDRs being too inconsistent.”
  • Problem: “I speak with a lot of VPs of Sales who are struggling to keep their SDRs prospecting consistently.”
  • Teaser: “If you’re interested, I have a quick checklist to help your team start their day with a prospecting block, and get closer to prospecting every single day.”
  • CTA: “Should I send it over?”

Step 3: Record your video

You have your script ready, now make sure to practice before recording your video, because you’ll be stressed. After a few tries, you’ll get better, I promise. Here’s an example with the script from above:

Step 4: Repeat

Now that you have sent your first prospecting video, you need to keep sending more. If you send one and stop, you may get lucky and get a reply, but there’s more chances this one prospect will ignore you.

You have to integrate video prospecting into your daily prospecting routine and do it every day for a few weeks to really measure the results this can bring. If you stick to your script, keep your videos short, and send a few every day, you’ll start seeing replies, you’ll get more conversations going, and you’ll book more meetings.

So remember:

  1. Use LinkedIn native videos
  2. Write a simple script
  3. Record your video
  4. Repeat

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

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

→ Enroll in The Prospecting Engine

Need to train your team or invite me as a speaker? Book a call here

→ Sponsor my content & get 45K+ eyeballs on your ad

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.400+ 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 5.400+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

Categories
Tactical Selling

A simple prospecting shift to book more meetings

A simple prospecting shift to book more meetings

In today’s newsletter, I will walk you through an important mindset shift for salespeople:

Moving from booking meetings with total strangers only (net new logos), to booking meetings with people you already know.

This shift will drastically improve your prospecting results, as you’ll start a lot more conversations, and book more meetings as a result.

It’s important because it will change your focus from something that requires advanced prospecting skills – convincing a total stranger to meet with you, to something you naturally do every day – starting conversations.

Let’s dive in:

The biggest mistake

Most salespeople who are prospecting have one goal: turning strangers into customers. This approach is understandable, because that’s what they are measured on.

However, when you are focusing on booking meetings with total strangers only, you make your job a lot harder than it has to be. Without reaching out to people they already know (active customers, previous customers, partners, and so on), salespeople end up having less conversations, and losing motivation.

Before you know it, you’re sending hundreds of emails each week, without getting any reply, and you start worrying about reaching your targets. You change your messaging too often, and your inner voice starts doubting your capacity to book a meeting.

A better approach: focus on people you know

Here’s how I recommend building pipeline with people you already know:

  1. Create prospect tiers: What type of people can you reach out to? Existing customers, past customers, lost opportunities, partners, etc. ?
  2. Get accurate data: Is the contact info still relevant? What kind of trigger can you use?
  3. Build a sequence skeleton for each tier: What concrete steps will you follow to get them to answer?
  4. Write your messages: What are you going to write in your touchpoints?
  5. Set time blocks and execute: How can you protect your time to get in touch with these people on a daily basis?

Example: Booking meetings with past customers

For example, let’s say you have a good amount of past customers, but no active engagement with them.

Start by following the 5 steps from above:

Create prospect tiers: From all these past customers, you may have some who churned, some who worked with you for a few months, or standalone projects. List every prospect type and assign them to a different tier.

Get accurate data: Now that you have your list, you need to make sure your information is up-to-date. Is their email or phone number still accurate (check Kaspr if you need good quality data)? Did they change jobs? Did they get promoted? Find all the information you can to make your outreach message relevant.

Build a sequence skeleton for each tier: With people you already know, your chances of getting replies are way higher than with total strangers. But you can’t expect everyone to immediately reply and jump on a meeting with you. Using 3 touchpoints over email and LinkedIn is preferable because it helps you preserve your relationship, without being too pushy.

Here’s a sequence structure you can use:

Sequence


Write your messages: You have your sequence skeleton, now you need to write something relevant to get your prospects interested (check these additional templates). Remember, your messages should have the following elements:

  • be short (under 125 words)
  • give a valid reason for reaching out
  • tease curiosity

You can use the 3 following frameworks to do so:

First message:

  • Trigger: A mention of your relationship
  • Reason: The reason why you’re contacting them
  • Teaser: A short sentence to tease the curiosity of your prospect

Second message:

  • Trigger: A mention of your previous message
  • Question: A question related to a problem they had
  • Teaser: An intriguing piece of information
  • CTA: A simple ask

Third message:

Bump: A one or two words question

Here is an example:

Messages

Set time blocks and execute: You may be tempted to launch your sequence and contact as many prospects as possible, but it’s not the best idea. If you reach out to too many prospects at once, you’ll quickly lose motivation. You will end up with too many follow-ups at once, which will most likely discourage you.

Instead, create daily time blocks to protect your time, and add a set number of prospects to your sequence every day. I personally contact 2 expansion prospects per day, as part of my 5 daily new prospects to contact. This creates a steady input of prospects, which turns into a predictable output (replies and meetings).

Tying it back to you

If your job involves booking meetings with prospects (it should be if you’re in sales), start by creating tiers of people you already know, and get accurate data about them.

Once you’ve done that, build a sequence skeleton, write your messages, and include these prospects in your daily prospecting routine.

This approach will help you start many more conversations, and help you land more meetings, without having to focus on total strangers only.

And if you want a step-by-step guide on doing this, and much more, then go check my flagship course, The Prospecting Engine.

Hope to see you in there.

Cheers,

Thibaut

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

→ Enroll in The Prospecting Engine

Need to train your team or invite me as a speaker? Book a call here

→ Sponsor my content & get 45K+ eyeballs on your ad

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.400+ 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 5.400+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

Categories
Tactical Selling

What I learned from the last sales job I ever had

What I learned from the last sales job I ever had

In today’s issue, I’ll share 3 key lessons I learned from the last sales job I ever had. If you can take these lessons and apply them to what you sell, you’ll be in a better position to start more conversations, book more meetings, and close bigger deals.

But first, a bit of context. The last sales job I ever had was an Account Executive position for a tech company based in the US. They had been successful in raising money and deploying their solution in many mobile apps on the US market. I stayed for a total of 5 months, before quitting and going on my own.

Here’s what I learned:

Lesson 1: If you don’t understand the product, your prospects won’t get it either

When you work for a startup, you may not have a product-market fit yet. The early funding is supposed to help the company find it, and help you sell you first deals. It’s especially true if you’re opening a new market (like I was supposed to do).

In many cases, the founders are convinced that their product is revolutionary, but they can’t quite explain you why. That was the case for me. I remember going to California for a 2-week onboarding bootcamp. I attended many product sessions, deal reviews, and so on, but I couldn’t grasp why people would buy what we were selling.

When I came back to Europe, I started prospecting and meeting prospects, but I was not capable to explain them what outcomes they would get from using the product I was selling. The pitch deck was focused on the features (woofing, as Skip Miller would say), but my prospects couldn’t care less.

Takeways:

  • Nobody cares about your product
  • Raising lots of money ≠ guaranteed success
  • What works in the US may not work in EMEA

Lesson 2: A founder is often a terrible salesperson

This last job gave me the opportunity to understand that selling isn’t a natural quality of many founders. They may be great at raising money, telling a compelling story to investors, or telling white lies, but they are often too focused on themselves to be good salespeople.

At my last sales job, I had the opportunity to go meet prospects in Paris, with one of the co-founders of the company. He destroyed every single opportunity I had been working on by reciting his fundraising deck. He was bragging about the “award-winning” technology we used, the size of our team, the crazy growth of the company, and so on.

There was just one problem. All these prospects were French, they didn’t really understand English, and they didn’t have any space to share what they were working on.

Takeaways:

  • Founders are often great at many things, but not selling
  • Their obsession with scale will hurt your deals
  • French people do not speak good English 😂

Lesson 3: It’s never about what you sell

This last lesson is the most important I learned from my last sales job. I had the opportunity to meet with Skip Miller during a 2-day training organized by the company, and it changed the trajectory of my career. I learned that everything your prospects are interested in is themselves.

They are only interested in understanding if your product can help them reach their targets, what outcomes it’s going to create for them, and how you can help them make a dent in their problems.

Takeaways:

  • If you don’t know your prospects problems, you don’t have deal
  • Nobody cares about what you sell, they care about outcomes
  • If you had the chance to meet Skip Miller, you were blessed

And these are the 3 most important lessons I learned from the last sales job I ever had. I’ve been working on my own since September 2018, and I like to say I’m totally unemployable as a result. Leaving this last job seemed risky at the time, but it was the best decision of my life, as I found out I was able to make money on my own terms, without having to report to anyone.

Hope this inspires you to be more intentional with what you want to do with your life.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

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

→ Enroll in The Prospecting Engine

Need to train your team or invite me as a speaker? Book a call here

→ Sponsor my content & get 45K+ eyeballs on your ad

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.400+ 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 5.400+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

Categories
Tactical Selling

3 intent triggers I can’t live without

3 intent triggers I can’t live without

In today’s issue, I’ll share 3 triggers I use every day to start conversations with prospects, based on their online activity. If you can identify and use these triggers in your outreach, you’ll start a lot more conversations, and you’ll book more meetings as a result.

Let’s dive in:

Trigger 1: LinkedIn post like/comments

This is the ultimate low-hanging fruit.

Your first step is to understand what kind of problems your prospects are trying to solve, and to identify influencers/thought leaders who speak about these problems on a regular basis.

When you have identified these influencers, you can follow them, and create a routine of checking their posts regularly, so you can select the ones that are useful to your prospects. Here’s an example.

When you find someone who fits with your ICP, you can export them with Amplemarket (or manually), and use the post as an excuse for reaching out.

Example:

“Mary, saw you also liked Kyle’s post about the new SDR/AE hybrid role.

Opposed to seeing how I helped 10 SDRs at Amplemarket do just that?”

Trigger 2: Champion left company

This trigger is my favorite because I can use it to contact two prospects, and potentially create two separate opportunities. It works when you’re working on a deal, and your champion leaves the company.

You can contact them to ask about their new gig with the following message:

“Josh, saw you recently left the company, how’s the new gig? Would it be a bad idea to hop on a quick call so you can tell me more about your goals?”

You can also contact the ATL (Above The Line) of the old opportunity and ask them about the project:

“Mary, heard that Josh is on his way out. Should we chat about the SDR training project he was working on, or is it leaving with Josh too?”

Trigger 3: New job

This trigger works well with people you already know. It can be from previous collaborations, lost opportunities, or active opportunities. I recommend avoiding lengthy emails, and simply asking them about the new job.

That’s how I start most of my conversations with people I didn’t speak to for a while:

“Harsh, how’s the new gig?”

I found that most people will reply, and they’ll immediately jump in to a business conversation if the timing is good (just like Aaron did below):

Image #1

And these are 3 intent triggers I can’t live without. If you can identify these triggers and use them when reaching out to your prospects, you’ll get a lot more replies, and you’ll book a lot more meetings.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

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

→ Enroll in The Prospecting Engine

Need to train your team or invite me as a speaker? Book a call here

→ Sponsor my content & get 45K+ eyeballs on your ad

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.400+ 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 5.400+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

Categories
Tactical Selling

Your recipe for a perfect Reciprocity Resource

Your recipe for a perfect Reciprocity Resource

In today’s issue, I’ll share the exact system I follow to create a Reciprocity Resource. If you follow these steps, you’ll tease the curiosity of your prospects, and you’ll start more conversations. More conversations = more meetings.

The biggest challenge salespeople face with prospecting is the lack of replies. They send tons of emails, LinkedIn messages, or calls, but all they hear is crickets. That’s because they focus on booking a meeting, instead of starting a conversation.

Humans are curious by nature. If you use this natural trait in your prospecting, you’ll start a lot more conversations.

Let’s dive in.

Step 1: Find a publicly available marketing resource

If you’ve been reading me for a while, you know I always insist on finding your prospects’ problems in details, before starting your prospecting sequence. When this is done, you can start looking for a publicly available marketing resource to solve a part of this problem.

For example, a lot of VP of Sales spend way too much time navigating complex sales dashboards, which prevents them from making simple decisions, because of the information overload.

This article would be a good resource to help them focus on a simple set of metrics, and solve a part of their analysis paralysis.

Now, go to the resource center on the website of your company, and find a few articles, blog posts, or webinars that could help your prospects solve a concrete issue they have. If you can’t find it on your website, go check your direct competitors’ for inspiration.

Step 2: Convert the resource into a checklist

Most marketing resources on your website are useful for prospects who are further down the marketing funnel. They help them validate their problems, but they can’t be used in this format to tease prospects’ curiosity.

That’s why sharing case studies, white papers, and eBooks makes no sense when prospecting.

Instead, pick a resource, and convert it into a checklist. For example, the article I mentioned earlier could be converted in a checklist with the 5 metrics, how to calculate them, and a benchmark for each metric.

If you need a more detailed guide to creating a reciprocity resource, you can check this one I wrote a few months ago.

Step 3: Tease the resource

Now that you have a checklist ready to use, you need to get it in the hands of your prospects. You could be tempted to send it right away in your prospecting message, but this would prevent you from starting a lot of conversations. If you share it right away, prospects won’t need to reply to get access to it. Instead, use a template like this one:

“FirstName, curious to know how you’re avoiding spending too much time staring at an overly complex sales dashboard.

If you’re interested, I can share a short checklist on 5 prospecting metrics you can’t afford to ignore.

Sounds interesting?”

And these are the 3 steps you can follow to create a perfect Reciprocity Resource. With this resource, you’ll get a lot more interest from your prospects (if you know their problems well), and your reply rate will shoot up.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

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

→ Enroll in The Prospecting Engine

Need to train your team or invite me as a speaker? Book a call here

→ Sponsor my content & get 45K+ eyeballs on your ad

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.400+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.

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Categories
Tactical Selling

How to optimize your LinkedIn profile for prospecting

How to optimize your LinkedIn profile for prospecting

In today’s issue, I’ll share a 3-step system you can follow to optimize your LinkedIn profile if you work in sales. Most salespeople I see on LinkedIn have optimized their LinkedIn profiles to find a new job, not to help prospects start conversations with them.

If your LinkedIn profile is filed with details about your sales achievements, how many times you went to President’s Club, and how you managed to extract money from difficult clients, then you’ll have a hard time booking meetings on LinkedIn.

Here’s how to optimize your LinkedIn profile, step-by-step:

Step 1: Update your banner

See the banner below:

Image #1

Every LinkedIn user has a space where they can display a customized banner. The one above doesn’t provide any valuable information. I like to think of your LinkedIn banner as a highway billboard. It’s free real estate on your profile, and it can be used to attract your prospect’s attention.

When prospects go to their “My Network” section, this is what they see:

Image #2

If your banner isn’t optimized to attract your prospect’s attention, then you’re missing out. Here’s what to do instead:

  • Respect the banner format: 1584 x 396 pixels
  • Use catchy, homogenous colours
  • Use large text and CTAs

Go check my LinkedIn banner to see a concrete example.

Step 2: Write a clear headline

Your LinkedIn headline has one goal: get prospects to understand you aren’t a threat to them (so they can accept a connection request). Your headline will be displayed everywhere your profile appears on LinkedIn. For example, prospects will see it in your connection requests (as seen below).

Image #3

Below is a simple structures you can use to optimize your headline.

  1. What you do: I train and coach
  2. Who you help: SDRs and AEs
  3. What’s the outcome of working with you: to book more meetings and close bigger deals faster.

“I train and coach SDRs and AEs to book more meetings and close bigger deals faster.”

Step 3: Optimize your featured section

Now that your banner and headline are optimized, you need to provide additional resources to help your prospects solve a problem they want to solve. You can do that by adding links in your featured section.

I often see salespeople highlighting a viral post in this section. It’s completely useless.

Instead, think of a simple resource to help your prospects. Here’s a list of resources that can be useful for your prospects:

  • A checklist
  • A one-pager
  • A link to a webinar
  • A link to book a meeting with you

If you can gate these resources (ask for an email in exchange of the resource), you’ll be able to follow up with your prospects. I recommend checking Distribute if you want to create a lead magnet and create your own content engine (even as an SDR or AE).

Pro tip: When you add a link in the featured section, leave the description empty. This will directly open the link in a new tab, instead of displaying an intermediary validation page (always done when linking outside of LinkedIn).

And this is how you can optimize your LinkedIn profile for sales. When you stop using it as an online resume, and start using it to help your prospects solve a problem, you’ll start more conversations, and book more meetings as a result.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

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

→ Enroll in The Prospecting Engine

Need to train your team or invite me as a speaker? Book a call here

→ Sponsor my content & get 45K+ eyeballs on your ad

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get my free, 4 min weekly newsletter. Used by 5.400+ 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 5.400+ salespeople to book more meetings and work when, where, and how they want.