js2458 profile picture
js2458 profile picture

js2458

Enterprise SDR

Politicker
Catalyst
Valued Contributor
+8

Lead Sourcing (High Outbound Phone Volume to Niche Market)

Hi all - conference company SDR here with high outbound phone volume (150+ dials per day). After about 2 months at my job, I think I've officially ran out of leads. I know - crazy take but I target a pretty specific niche: SMB and a few enterprise retail tech companies selling to North American Fortune 1000 retail.


A little more info on what these targets look like:

  1. They cannot be 3PL's or hardware solutions. The company needs to produce some type of software (a mix of hardware/software is fine).
  2. They must be able to pay at least 30k+ for our service.
  3. They can be customer experience focused, but my targets usually aid more-so with inventory/merchandising/POS solutions.
  4. They are almost entirely US/Canada based. (See below)

***As our service helps companies going after NA-based enterprise retail and requires people to be present for it to work, it is both difficult to convince non-North American companies to pay for our services and unlikely that they will align well with our solutions.


Another fun kicker: for almost all of my targets, I can only go for the CEO/Founder and the highest sales and/or marketing position. For larger, enterprise companies I can get a little more flexible but still can only do very targeted outreach.


As this market is somewhat niche and my call volume is high, I have run out of ideas to lead source from. I have already set up a ton of meetings and the rest of my leads either do not have phone numbers or have not picked up their phone after 50+ dials (we only call cell phones). I have looked at other conference/trade show sponsors, salesnav, zoominfo/linkedin, market maps, chatGPT, google news, etc.


The only thing I can think of now is going into LinkedIN/emailing (I have done some emailing/LinkedIN before, but not much) but, my concern is that my numbers will drastically decrease as cold calling seems by far to be the best way to get someone's attention. Another concern I have is that my manager is always harping on how many dials we do a day, and tells us constantly to hit the phones. If I do switch over to mostly email/LinkedIN, it is likely that I will be told to get back on the phones.


Savages - suggestions on where to go for lead sourcing or do I need to adapt and go to LinkedIN/Emailing?

Hmmm...what to do?

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12 comments

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oldcloser
Arsonist
5
💀
Is your boss the guy who lives and dies by KPI? Like… you show him a more efficient way to quota and he hates the idea because it wasn’t his? If so, take those call beast skills and find a happy home. He’s gonna lose his mind when you tell him you’ve nobody else to call.

If not, ask him for some room to innovate a bit. Sometimes you just gotta switch it up. You should get some space to re-engineer your way to getting the job done.
js2458
Politicker
4
Enterprise SDR
My boss is actually fairly new and respects me a lot simply because I set up the most meetings on our team by far. But, this is pretty much tied to the fact that I have the highest outbound phone dials/day and have experience in sales.

The concern ofc is that I do not have as much experience with LinkedIN and Email, and that my phone game will not translate over
-->boss telling me to go back on the phones.

But hey - maybe it's worth it to spend a week or so tanking numbers to work on skills that will help me when I move over to being an AE.
oldcloser
Arsonist
2
💀
Get a blessing first. Not an unreasonable request
jefe
Arsonist
5
🍁
I think there's a natural point of diminishing returns when you have that high volume and that niche of a market..
oldcloser
Arsonist
2
💀
Yep. Sooner or later you done called all of them.
jefe
Arsonist
3
🍁
Exactly. Good time to diversify the channels used. You can always (and should) circle back to calls but that seems exhausted for now
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
That’s an amazing amount of calls. I mean, you could always go back to the beginning and start again, Sisyphus, or you can mix up your approach and see if you can get some more interest. Cold calling + LI and email outreach may be your best path to shaking some more meetings loose. There have been a number of good posts about effective LI outreach to check out. Good luck!
Maximas
Tycoon
1
Senior Sales Executive
Cold calling is the best way to me always!
coletrain
Politicker
0
Account Executive
Typically I would say keep dialing, however with 750+ a week, that's clearly not the issue. Once you start getting to that deal size, multiple points of contact should be focused, not just dials.

However, dials is always the refrain of those overly focused on KPIs as a tool to micromanage. That's not bad by itself, the overreliance is the concern.
Streamgoat
Valued Contributor
0
Account Manager
Smile and Dial WOOO!!!!!
JMSwiggidy
Politicker
0
Enterprise Account Executive
As someone who used to work for a conference company likely selling what you are (smaller, targeted events in specific niches - sponsorship, etc)… I can tell you email/LI generated a majority of my business.

I targeted decision makers as well as lower-level, it would work well.
js2458
Politicker
0
Enterprise SDR
Yea issue with lower level is that it makes the sales cycle super long. Coupled by the fact that I am instructed not to do so - probably not a great idea.

As for email/LI, I’ve done some AB testing with templates and have so far mostly struck out. We will see how it goes but I’m expecting a dry spell…

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