My SDR team has noticed that their open/reply rates have dropped massively in the last 2 months. Any advice on how to boost the email conversion rate?

We've been prospecting like crazy. A shit ton of calls, emails, etc. Still -- no results, which affected our quota goals and opportunity conversion rate.


Thanks for your suggestions, in advance.

Advice

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🔎 Prospecting
8
salesnerd
WR Officer
7
Head of Growth
So there's a lot to unpack here... 

If your open rates have dropped, then your total replies are likely to drop as well. However, is your open:reply rate staying steady? If so, you likely need to change up the subject line in order to encourage opens. What has worked in the past might not be working anymore. Sometimes you just need a refresh. 

Additionally, have you checked your deliverability? You might need to check in on that. 

However, you also mention that you're making a ton of calls and no luck. Are people picking up and no meetings? Because if so, that means your messaging isn't resonating. If you're not connecting it might be a data quality issue.
PeterSwan
Opinionated
0
Sales Specialist
First of all, thanks for the feedback. Deliverability looks steady. But the open rate went down by a few percent, which is a lot in B2B sales. 

We use ZoomInfo for numbers, most of them are accurate, but very few people pick up the phone.
salesnerd
WR Officer
2
Head of Growth
Yeah, so it sounds like you need to tweak the subject line then. Also consider the 'from'. I've seen some people have varying success depending on what they put as their name. Sometimes [First Last] is best, sometimes it's [First at Company] is better.
Salespreuner
Big Shot
0
Regional Sales Director
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this tip! Will implement too
HarryCaray
Notable Contributor
3
HMFIC
Try leading with a phone call, leaving a voicemail.  My SDR has a lot of success with the subject line "voicemail - (our company name)".  Gets a lot of email replies and calls back from that.  I guess it's just another way to show you're a real person with real intention of speaking to that individual.  Prospect is less likely to view it as spam.
PeterSwan
Opinionated
1
Sales Specialist
We'll make sure to try that. Thanks!
SalesHead
Opinionated
3
Enterprise AE
Agree here with @salesnerd. I think it is important to look at the data for these cadences you are running and see what the difference has been to the reply to open ratio. If opens are staying steady but replies dropped, I would focus on the messaging and not so much the subject line.

When breaking down the call conversions, I would also break down the data of dials->connect->meetings. There are two different courses of action if the dial to connect rate has decreased, or if it's a connection to the meeting rate that has dropped. One is data quality, and one is how you deliver your value on the call. 
SaaSsyB
Opinionated
2
SDR Manager
As most have said here, there are lots of additional data aspects to look into.  

I can attest as an SDR - COVID has crushed connect rates - mine is currently around 2% - so my AE and I pivoted.  Everything was more personalized, we did specified campaigns, target accounts and sprints.  Although connect rates plummeted, our meetings stayed consistent because we ran multiple campaigns every month and had more personalized outreach.  

So the time I would normally spend on dialing I spend researching companies, industry news and creating thoughtful messaging.  

I am unsure of what your org sells, but if at all possible would suggest looking into more industry specific messaging.  Especially if the mass spray and pray approach has not been hitting.  

Times are tough, hope this helps! 
PeterSwan
Opinionated
0
Sales Specialist
It does. Thanks!
fuzzy
Notable Contributor
1
CMO (Chief Meme Officer)
What changed? WHAT DID YOU DO
Trinity
WR Officer
1
BusDev
Open rate is deceiving because someone can read the email without opening it (Microsoft Outlook reading pane). 
What's the YoY comparison? If you have not changed the messaging, then perhaps do combo prospecting + HarryCaray's comment regarding the subject line.
Are you sending a scaled email?
PeterSwan
Opinionated
0
Sales Specialist
The reply rate has decreased by 50% compared to this time last year. Yes, it might be that we haven't changed our messaging but it also happens with the new sequences (that are old like a month or two). 

Yes, we send them in bulk.


Trinity
WR Officer
1
BusDev
Check Sahil's post regarding cold email. He provided his framework + example. You can A/B test.

My company hyper-personalised every email, but our ICP is large enterprise and Persona is C-suite/VP/Director. 
PeterSwan
Opinionated
0
Sales Specialist
Will take a look at it. We are targeting the same seniority, as well. Thanks
ChefK
Good Citizen
1
SDR
Subject line that’s working for me “name of prospect<>name of your company. 


example: Mike<>Bravado

have a huge open rate with this one. 
PeterSwan
Opinionated
0
Sales Specialist
Thanks, Chef. I Will test it!
ChefK
Good Citizen
1
SDR
Lmk if you get any results!! 
nreskin
Big Shot
1
Account Director
A/B test everything and don't be afraid to get creative. The worst that happens is your team is in the same spot it's in now. The more data you have, the more you can learn what works and what doesn't
PeterSwan
Opinionated
0
Sales Specialist
I completely agree. Thanks for the feedback.
SleuthstarSDR
Opinionated
1
Sales operations for SaaS Corp
Stats support no more than 3 words . Use all lower case . And don’t ever use a “?” . My open rate on my emails are 30% 
BCD
Politicker
1
BDR
Loooooooose the subject lines that end in questions - red flag that is a sales/cold email 
PeterSwan
Opinionated
0
Sales Specialist
Thanks mate!
Beasthouse
Opinionated
1
Corporate trainer
so this is always a huge conversation, it really depends on your market's culture. for example, law offices open every email but always book appointments on calls, IT only checks email, lead gen companies reply the most on linked in etc. 

i would start with an informative email then a linked in message referencing the email 

then a call that references the email. 

that is very dependent on you having relevant and engaging emails that include either case studies use studies or review links. 

i would also personalize all of them with dubb or Vidyard videos describing the email with emotion and excitement making you human.

also don't know if this is your case but a lot of times the authority you display on linked in can take influence people's decisions to engage. either you belong in their market place or you don't based on their assumptions. keep your content relevant to your icps on linked in.

you may also want to check if your email addresses have been flagged by any blockers or servers like googles or Microsoft or avg for example. there's lots of sites to confirm that. 
PeterSwan
Opinionated
0
Sales Specialist
So, looks like a BIG NO for LI Prospecting haha
Carlosg
Politicker
0
SDR
We are doing some A/B Testing on Subects in order to see which ones are more relevant and how to achieve higher open rates.
4

Thoughts on the Agoge Sequence for prospecting? Apparently provides 2x response rates for cold outreach...

Discussion
8
I would use the Agoge method
66% Yes, seems legit
34% No, you moron
44 people voted
3

Conversion Rate- Reversed Engineered

Advice
9
6

For all you mail mergers out there, do you see more success emailing one DM or all DMs on a custom thread? I've noticed that putting all relevant DMs on one campaign that is 100% customized to their business has a much higher response rate (28% meeting sucess)

Discussion
5
Do you see more success emailing one DM or all DMs on a custom thread
74% One Decision Maker per Email
26% Multiple Decision Makers per Email
58 people voted