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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by The AI Outreach System. It’s a tactical guide to using Artificial Intelligence to book meetings. I’m still building it, but you can already join the waitlist here.

In today’s issue, I’m going to share a simple, 3-steps process I’m currently using, as I’m changing my whole messaging to include the Cost Of Inaction (COI) to get more replies from my prospects.

If you can replicate this process, you’ll set yourself apart in a crowded market, you’ll get more replies, and you’ll book more meetings.

However, it’s important to be tactical and use relevant data when using this strategy.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Identify the problem

Let’s say your company sells a cloud-based project management software for remote teams.

One of the key problems your software addresses is the lack of visibility and communication within remote teams.

Step 2: Research the consequences of not addressing this problem

By not addressing this problem, teams may experience delays and miscommunication, leading to wasted resources and a decrease in overall productivity.

This could potentially lead to lost revenue and missed opportunities, in case nothing is done to solve that problem.

However, your prospects may not pay attention to it, because they cannot calculate a clear cost for this problem.

Step 3: Craft a message that highlights the cost of inaction

Highlight the cost of inaction by teasing a simple calculator with a before/after comparison.

For example, you could calculate the average time wasted per day per employee due to a lack of visibility in remote teams, and how your software reduces that amount.

Here’s how your message could look like:

“Danny, saw that you ditched your corporate office for good.

As good as remote can be, do you have an estimate of the time wasted daily by your employees because of your remote setup?

If you’re interested, I can share a simple calculator to find that number, and what you can do to reduce it.

Interested?”

If you follow these 3 steps, you’ll catch the attention of your prospects, you’ll get more replies, and you’ll book more meetings.

Give it a try and hit me on LinkedIn to tell me how it works.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

In today’s issue, I’m going to share a simple, 6-steps process I’m currently using, as I’m restarting my prospecting effort.

If you can replicate this process, you’ll set yourself for success in early Q1, by starting more conversations, and booking more meetings.

Unfortunately, 2023 isn’t looking as promising as 2022, and most salespeople are already wired to believe they won’t be successful.

In 2023, a prospecting system will be more important than ever

And without a solid outbound prospecting system, a few challenges will arise:

Challenge #1: You’ll get few replies: as most replies are obtained through follow-ups, you’ll miss conversations by not having a system.

Challenge #2: Your results will be inconsistent: you’ll prospect in bursts, then stop, which will attract scrutiny on your performance.

Challenge #3: You’ll lose confidence quickly: you’ll start worrying about your capacities, and enter a spiral of self-doubt.

You can overcome these challenges by creating a simple prospecting system.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Define your ICP

In 2023, you’ll need to focus on a niche and stop trying to sell to everyone. I recommend doing so with a clear Ideal Customer Profile Matrix.

The matrix is composed of your Ideal Customer Company (ICC) in columns, and your Ideal Customer Title (ICT) in rows. Your ICC is the type of company you’d like to go after, and the ICT is the type of job title you’d like to go for.

With this matrix, you’ll be able to test different assumptions of your ICC and go after different types of buyers (what we call ATL and BTL buyers).

Step 2: Find their problems

Another key topic in 2023 is understanding your prospects’ problems, and showing them that you have something to help them solve these problems.

First, you need to have a clear idea of the problems your prospects are trying to solve. I recommend googling “{jobTitle} challenges 2023” to get an idea of the strategic problems your ATL prospects are facing.

When you’re done, turn these problems into symptoms, to help your prospects identify with them, and motivate them to reply.

Step 3: Find where they hang out

Humans are social creatures, and they typically hang out with other humans who have the same interests. Nowadays, they mostly do it online, on social networks.

For most salespeople, LinkedIn is a great place to find prospects, and identify triggers to help them start conversations.

I recommend following these 4 steps to identify where your prospects hang out, and create personalized messages at scale.

Step 4: Build a problem-centric sequence

Now that you know who to go after, what problems they have, and where they hang out, you need to send messages that will get replies.

Two things matter most when sending cold outreach messages; creativity and relevance. Creativity is done through pattern interrupts (voice notes, videos, direct mail, etc.), and relevance through the correct use of triggers.

You can check my 4-step framework to create your cold outreach messages and get more replies from your prospects (I get a 38% reply rate with it).

Step 5: Create your daily prospecting routine

All these steps will result in nothing if you don’t create a daily prospecting habit. This step is by far the most challenging, since humans have a hard time building and keeping healthy habits.

I recommend doing the following:

• Step 1: Identify the time when you’re the most productive

• Step 2: Put a recurring blocker of 60 minutes

• Step 3: Follow the steps in this short guide

• Step 4: Repeat until it becomes a habit (at least 21 consecutive days)

Step 6: Use creative media in your outbound sequences

In 2023, prospects are busy putting out fires with limited resources. Grabbing their attention will become more challenging than ever, which is why you need to use creative media to stop them in their day, and pay attention to what you have to say.

I personally use two media for this, first one is LinkedIn voice notes, second is prospecting videos.

 

If you follow these 6 steps, you’ll be in good position to grab your prospects’ attention, engage them in conversations, and book meetings with people who are trying to solve a problem you can help with.

And if you want to create an outbound prospecting system to get your reply rates closer to 38%, then join 250+ salespeople who use my New Outreach System.

 

Cheers,

Thibaut

In 2021, I started a simple daily habit that I kept running in 2022. Every single workday, from Monday to Friday, I started my day with a 30 minute prospecting blocker.

In 2022, I kept experimenting with new prospecting plays, but the daily prospecting habit stayed.

Here are the prospecting stats of my year 2022:

723 prospects contacted

I knew from 2021 that adding 5 new prospects every single weekday was a good number to reach my targets. I kept working with that number in 2022, but the places were I went to find these prospects were different.

Instead of purely focusing on new logos, I went for:

• Current customers
• Old customers
• Lost opportunities
• Referrals

This was really helpful to bring my research time under 15 minutes daily.

258 prospects replied (35.7% reply rate)

I kept working with a simple LinkedIn sequence, but instead of tweaking it once every 6 months, I experimented with a new prospecting play every month.

With rapid experimentation, I was able to find what worked and what didn’t, and I double downed on the best plays.

In the second part of the year, I focused on reaching out to existing and old customers, which bumped my reply rate from 34.6% in 2021 to 35.7% in 2022.

49 meetings booked (18.7% meeting rate)

Finally, I booked 49 outbound meetings. As in 2021, a lot of the conversations didn’t lead to immediate opportunities, with a 37% opportunity rate only.

However, a good chunk of the prospects who didn’t turn into immediate opportunities came back later as inbound lead, or referred me to people they knew.

As a result, my sales grew by 77% in 2022, compared to 2021. And this was a key moment for me in 2022.

I had never been in a sales job for more than 3 years, and I learned that building a solid pipeline is about consistency and patience. I’ve been running SalesLabs for over 4 years, and each year is easier than the previous one.

It is simpler because my customer base keeps increasing, I’m bringing results to more and more people, and the risks of working with me are lower with each customer I bring on board.

If you’re prospecting stats aren’t where you want them to be, then sign up for my weekly newsletter, or go check one of my programs in the footer below.

Cheers,

Thibaut