My “23/52” Educational Outbound Methodology
My custom program with proven, proprietary process ensures that every lead your Marketing department has spent their time and budget to generate is fully processed. This process is backed with data intelligence taken from live conversations to understand where your best leads are coming from, where budget should or should not be spent for leads based on their quality and sending only the most qualified leads to sales reps so they can spend their time selling. These processes are adjusted based on the size of the market we're approaching (SMB, mid-market or enterprise.)
Based on over 2 million outbound calls and counting...
Enterprise Outbound Sales Development Example
We have found that for an inbound lead in an enterprise market ( and a $150,000+ average sales price), it takes an average of:
21 calls to have 1 conversation
32 conversations to create 1 qualified meeting
672 calls to create 1 qualified meeting
7 qualified meetings to have 1 closed-won opportunity
The average sales rep makes 7 touches per lead with 10-20 calls per day. If it takes 32 conversations to create 1 qualified meeting, an average of 672 outbound calls are required to schedule that one meeting. The more leads you speak to, the more qualified meetings are created and the more data intelligence you can collect to improve the effectiveness of company efforts to generate revenue. With my process combined with high outbound efforts to ensure we are having enough conversations with the right people will help you grow your business.
Inbound 23 Touch Process Response Rates
Where most reps give up
“Death Valley”
Where we see responses increase
Outbound 52 Touch Process Response Rates
Where most reps give up
“Death Valley”
I customize your outbound program while utilizing the 7 pillars of outbound communication:
Calls
Direct Mail
Voicemails
SMS
Emails
85% meeting attendance for meetings booked/confirmed over the phone
VS.
E-mail/Social lead to conversation or awareness/branding, however, only had
28% attendance rate without having a live conversation
Video
Social
High Velocity with Intelligence
No Lead Left Behind Mentality
I don’t believe in cherry-picking leads…
• Utilize all leads to gather information
• Account Based Prospecting through Referrals
• Learn about the organization
• Is Marketing messaging resonating?
Market Analysis
• Territory Planning
• Persona-Based Messaging
• Understanding Value Proposition per Vertical
• Story Telling using current customer success to demonstrate
value
Data Transparency
Fully integrate sales and marketing tool stacks to ensure streamlined process and visibility
Custom reports and dashboards for real-time visibility into the team’s activity
Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly Reports
Even if your team is making more calls than the average salesperson, you could still be falling into a big sales problem -- making uninformed calls. Many sales teams focus only on the number of calls they make per day (even if they still make too few calls). Volume is important and essential to a strong sales plan. But, you need to do more than make a lot of calls; you need to make informed and intelligent calls.
My strategy is “high-velocity with intelligence.”
High volume using intelligent tools, driving efficiency and getting the sales team in a daily rhythm (high velocity)
Training each salesperson by vertical and persona, then segmenting the database based on those factors as well as lead sources to cut down the research and drive relevant conversations that lead to opportunities (intelligence)
Before my teams make any calls, I come up with a plan that increases our chance at making a meaningful connection with that specific prospect. My teams don’t just spend our time cold-calling generic leads. We place every call based on a specific cadence, talking points, use cases, and stories developed using personas and relevant data.
Not being specific to personas.
A persona is a thorough description of a prospect. It outlines details about their demographics and role at work so a sales team can get a good picture of a lead before they call them. Many sales teams skip this process. They assume they know enough about their prospect and jump ahead and make the call. This strategy (or lack of strategy) limits their ability to connect with the prospect and move the lead forward.
Personas are at the core of our sales process. We spend a lot of time developing a variety of personas so when our SDRs reach out to prospects, they already feel like they know them. This strategy makes it easier for our team to quickly connect with the caller because they know the prospect’s needs, challenges, and pain points before asking the first question.
Not using data.
The other intelligence that many sales teams overlook is data. Lots of sales teams get caught up in a routine. They make sale calls that are unsuccessful and a few that are successful, but they never track the data that helps them see what could have led to an achievement over a failure.
We are constantly tracking and analyzing data to improve our sales process. In fact, we’ve been tracking and analyzing data for years which is why our current sales process is so effective. For each prospect, we track the:
Time-of-day of interactions
Prospect’s role within the business
Time between follow-ups
Number of interactions it took to convert
And other proprietary data points
I use all of this data to make sure every call we place is directed by intelligence that will produce the best possible outcomes.
Only making sales calls.
When we imagine inside sales, we typically envision a team sitting at desks making calls all day. But, sales has moved way beyond phone calls. Sales are no longer made by talking on the phone or taking a prospect to lunch. As you nurture leads, you must use both in-person and digital touchpoints.
We call this “digital sales.” It’s a hybrid approach that uses traditional outbound phone calls along with digital touches such as video calls, LinkedIn connections, and email. We’ve combined what works on the phone and in-person with essential online connections to make a mixed media strategy that converts more prospects than traditional sales tactics.
Not having a defined process.
Finally, one of the most detrimental problems that a sales team has is lacking a process for success. Many sales teams keep plugging away, going through the same motions, despite their results or return on the investment.
With my methodology, we don’t leave anything to chance. We used our data, personas, and years of experience to develop a specific sales process that outlines exactly what needs to happen during the sales process. This has been proven over 2 million touches that includes:
21 touches for inbound leads
38 touches for outbound leads
My strategy isn’t based on a hunch or good luck. It’s based on quantifiable data and proven results. I’ve created a proprietary process that we know always leads to the best results and highest ROI.
