Closer69

SDR

Does cold prospecting work?

Obviously cold outreach works, but most of it seems like luck. The top performer at my company is just really good at finding "hot" leads (old opps, inbound leads that aren't being worked, old call backs, etc.). So is it worth even trying to do cold prospecting, or should I let the other reps do that and just work warmer leads only? What are people finding success with in cold outreach?

🔎 Prospecting

💌 Cold Emailing

📞 Cold Calling

26 comments

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hh456

Celebrated Contributor

sales

Yes - lots of effort. Constant prospecting. Can’t be lazy. Be on the phones. It’s hard work but it is successful.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Don't mind lil ole me. Just here to agree with what you said.

Money

Executive

Head of Sales

Take your top performer out for drinks and befriend them to build trust. Get them to share their feelings. Offer them a hand when you can: help them move, build IKEA furniture, etc. Plan a trip to Vegas, hit a show, hit a club, have a great time. Now here’s the key, this is very important. Order them a hooker and take compromising photos of them with a ball gag in their mouth while the lady of the night wearing leathers and one of those rubber horse head masks smacks them with a riding crop. Threaten to unleash these photos to everyone in the office, especially the leadership team, unless they start handing over 40…nay, 60% of these leads they are finding and closing. Guaranteed to work and nearly no risk to your professional development.

TeamNZbattler

Opinionated

Account Manager

Holy smokes. This happened to me! It was the best thing to happen in my life. Now I wear the horse mask in the office just to hold on to the memories. I should ask for a set of photos.

Closer69

Fire Starter

SDR

This seems like the easiest way to double my numbers overnight, thanks for the advice!

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

You do realize that the top performer is just cold prospecting well and is better at converting those leads that others couldn’t close right? Instead of looking for the leads look at HOW they are converting them better than everyone else. They aren’t just getting hot leads, they are good at their job and that’s someone you should be learning from.

Closer69

Fire Starter

SDR

I definitely see what you're saying here. He has a good method of finding leads that have slipped through the cracks for other reps, but listening to his calls it doesn't sound like anything crazy. I guess a big key is persistence.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

Whenever you listen to top peformers calls they are never going to sound crazy because all they are doing is moving the prospect through the buying funnel effectively. There are no silver bullets, just sound sales skills.

Take that and compare it with one of your calls and notate the differences, its probably small tweaks here and there but those small differences are what takes a middle of the road performer to a top performer.

goose

Politicker

Sales Executive

No. Leave the cold prospecting to marketing. That's what they're there for.

Closer69

Fire Starter

SDR

Are you saying you only call on marketing qualified leads from your company CRM? I'm down to do this just worried that the well will run dry pretty quick

goose

Politicker

Sales Executive

Nope. Call people you know, call people they know, keep the train rolling. Everyone here knows no one likes a cold call.

JackTheKnife

Contributor

Hacked

1. Good e-Mail Database, you can build it even yourself with the right tools
2. Train your game => role play with colleagues, friends, train "your" story, be authentic
3. Reach out hyper personalized on LinkedIn, add real value to the conversation => this does not have to be related to your products or service
4. Yet, keep the numbers up, you won't get there by doing it two hours a day
5. Record your calls, re-listen, think: "would I buy from this guy..."
6. Ask for referrals: "would you happen to know others who might..."

...and it will fall in place - hot leads will reach your desk: a. you start creating them yourself, b. your success is being noticed, which leads to more trust, more accounts...good luck.

Closer69

Fire Starter

SDR

I like this, thanks for the feedback

TeamNZbattler

Opinionated

Account Manager

A healthy mixture of both approaches goes a long way.

You need to keep turning over stones looking for the juiciest worms. Doesn't matter if the stone was turned before because the worms might be there this time around.

Keep pounding them stones.

sellingsellssold

Politicker

SDR

I find that I usually get a couple solid leads each month from cold calling but it does need to be supplemented with messages and emails

LordBusiness

Politicker

Chief Revenue Officer

There are other ways to identify opportunities beyond trying to cherry pick “warmer” leads. What are the key elements/indicators that someone is or could buy your product or solution.

ColdCall

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Yes Cold works. I had a cold call, he passed me to someone else, then I spoke to the head of their team.

15 Minute Discovery call turned into 45 minutes.

At the end of the call he said 'Thanks for reaching out it was really timely and sounds like its exactly what we need.'!

Those moments help you get through the silence and lack of progress.

I think you have to manage expectations on a call. Are you going to book a meeting the 1st time you talk to someone, probably not. Can you get them to open up and tell you their problems? Probably. Can you use that information to book a meeting- absolutely!

cw95

Politicker

Sales Development Lead

100 million % it works. Instead of just going for big activity - do a bit of research to make sure that cold opp is perfect for you, much higher success rate than spamming and not knowing.

mitts2

Politicker

Account Executive

Does a bear shit in the woods?

Seriously though, all warm leads were at some point cold. Yes marketing can try and drum up leads for you but we all know that you cant count on them to warm up quality leads. You're going to have to do bear down and do it yourself.

Closer69

Fire Starter

SDR

"bear down" - I see what you did there. Yeah you're right, I'm just sick of getting smoked by a guy who only works warm leads. Feels like he's figured out a way to be an inbound rep getting paid an outbound commission! Maybe I'm just mad I didn't think of it first.

Beans

Big Shot

Enterprise Account Executive

God yes, relying solely on inbounds will have you outworked and outperformed by hungrier teammates.

Closer69

Fire Starter

SDR

This has definitely not been my experience but I see what you're saying

Beans

Big Shot

Enterprise Account Executive

It’s all relative. My team has the expectation of 80/20 - 80% inbound or BDR/SDR generated 20% self source. Best performers are almost always around the 50/50 mark instead.

payton_pritchard

Executive

RSM

It definitely works. Do it intentionally though, meaning don't just send out emails or call any and everyone who might be interested. Search for indicators or "triggers" that signify someone may be ready to engage and go from there - example - if you sell some sort of marketing solution find a job postings that relate and call out responsibilities/initiatives that company is looking to accomplish and send a personalized message from there

DataSlangah

Politicker

SAE

A - Always
B - Be
P - Prospecting

SaaSguy

Tycoon

-2

Account Executive

Yes.

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Closer69

Does cold prospecting work?

26 comments

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