How to book more sales meetings (part 2)
Moving from strategy to execution
Make sure you read part one before reading further.
Now that we have established the strategic aspects like product vision, marketing, positioning, ICP, personas and personalization. We can now move into execution and steps to book more meetings.
There are three main channels to focus on email, cold calling and LinkedIn. Nailing these three, finding which one(s) works best for you and creating a playbook for each will help build a strong foundation for your outreach efforts.
Email
This is one of my favourite write-ups on how to craft a killer email. I use a similar process detailed below.
Tone
Before you start writing an email, really nail your tone. On the spectrum of texting your closest friend about an upcoming party to writing a note to the Queen, you should be somewhere in between.
Way too much outreach has a tone that makes sellers appear lesser than the buyer. Using formalities like “Dear” or apologizing for reaching out “sorry to bother you”, make you instantly appear as a non-peer.
Your tone should be casual, and informal. Use industry jargon and jokes. Your outreach should make a potential buyer believe you are an equal. This is not to say act unprofessional, but lighten up the tone, drop the sir and talk to people like they are a peer.
Intro
A simple “Hey or hi” is perfect. Cut the fluff, “hope this email finds you well”, “sorry to bother you” just stop! Get to the point, potential buyers will not be swayed by these phrases. They will be swayed by a punchy and personalized email.
Ask a question
This is where your pain personalization and persona work comes in. Ask a question tied to these two things. Maybe there is a running joke in the industry you can poke fun at or you know exactly what their day looks like. Your question should also tie into the next part of your email. Eliciting a head nod or a chuckle is what you want here.
Value proposition + trust building
Again focus on your persona here. Your main value prop for a potential buyer should be clear, concise, simple and tied to that persona. Also, add a quick sentence or two about who you work(ed) with. Make clear the value that the client has achieved with your product or service. Even better if you can use metrics, names, titles or anything that makes your claim more legitimate.
Call to action (CTA)
Utilizing a strong CTA will set you apart from the competition. Time-bound CTAs like “Do you have 15 minutes this week to chat?” perform worse than interest-based CTAs like “Are you interested in learning more?”. Don’t trust me? Check out this Gong data. Also, I would hyperlink a calendar link here, to reduce the friction to book a meeting.
Cold call
There is SO much advice out there about cold calls. Trying to trick people, keep them on the phone longer, etc. This all sucks.
Keep it simple stupid = KISS
“Hey Prospect Name, this is Your Name from Company X, do you have a quick second to hear why I called out of the blue?”
If a yes (permission) go into a quick 10-20 second pitch. If interested ask to set up a call for the same week.
Simple.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is extremely powerful and used poorly by many companies or even straight-up ignored. I view LinkedIn as a long game.
Sending connection requests to potential buyers well before reaching out. Don’t add a message to a connection request a LinkedIn Sales Rep told me connection requests without a message gets significantly higher acceptance rates versus ones with a message. Just think about the cringy notes you get with some connection requests.
Interact with potential buyers' content, and comment on their posts and their promotions. Being connected also allows you to DM them versus InMails which are much more personal and visible.
Now that we have nailed the three main pillars of outreach. We can focus on using them all to book more meetings.
Use sequences!
A sales sequence, also called a sales cadence or a sales campaign, is a series of clearly delineated steps to convert your prospects into paying customers. Sales sequences usually contain between five to seven steps, and take an omnichannel approach. Platforms like HubSpot, Apollo, Outreach, Salesloft and more have this function.
If you are not using a sequence you are missing out on valuable data to know if your outreach is working. If you are starting from zero or close to it. Build a basic sequence (5-6 emails), I use one sequence per persona, remember personalization at scale?
I like to start with a fully automated email-only sequence. It is my lazy sales approach. As a founder you are busy, why not try something that is already personalized to a persona and completely automated to book meetings?
After a month and ~100 potential buyers going through your sequence look at the data. Is your open rate bad? Change your subject lines. Is your open rate good by the reply rate bad? Change your content.
Once you have data you can make impactful decisions. Change one variable at a time, again keep it simple. Changing one variable and creating a V2 sequence will help you understand if your change made a meaningful impact. Keep iterating monthly till you reach a “perfect” sequence. Think of it as a recipe. You are always fine-tuning one variable at a time till it’s perfect. Layer in LinkedIn or cold calls as you go to see if they make a significant impact on meetings.
This version approach to sequences will help you build a killer sequence that is always improving month by month, you will have data to help you make changes and you will know which variables are making an impact.
I hope these two parts help you book more meetings fast. Check out my website and feel free to get in touch with me if you need help taking your sales from zero to one.