Poorly Performing Sequence and Bad(?) Management

I just started working in tech sales last year. I work for a smaller startup that has a fairly new sales process.


Our current outreach sequence has a sub 2% replay rate, more than half of which are negative (remove me from your list). And converts to meetings at less than 0.06%. From everything I have seen, this appears to be unusually low for a sequence. We use emails, calls, LI messages / connects. But the numbers do not suggest that this works.


My boss wrote the sequence and seems unwilling to change it despite glaring issues and an apparent lack of best practices. We utilize little to no personalization. The hope seems to be that we will spam enough people that someone will eventually say something back.


The primary issue seems to be that the email focuses almost entirely on what our product does, and not the pain it solves. But this has been justified as "solution selling".


I have permission to write a new sequence, but am I off base in saying that our current one is garbage?


Thanks for the advice.

Does the sequence work?

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🔎 Prospecting
13
sketchysales
Politicker
5
Sales Manager
Sounds like its broken. If you have been given the scope to write a new sequence, dont just write it.

Put some ideas down and just start doing them regardless and then document them as you find success and change them if it doesnt work out. No ones going to stop you doing something thats creating success. if they do they need their head reading.
DonJuanQuixote
Contributor
2
BDR
I agree, I made a few tweaks to our process and took the meeting set rate from 0.06% to 6% per 100 enrolls. But then we stopped paying for the database that enabled me to do that.

I'm going to take time this weekend and create a full sequence in line with the best practices I know so far.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
4
🦊
Whew chile this sounds a mess.
Gasty
Notable Contributor
3
War Room Community Manager
Not the first time I’m hearing this. I think we need to start collecting all these doofus managers in some sort of a list,l; who don’t know shit about outbound, or sequences, or management, or all of these.

“The big black list of stupid sales managers”


Experimenting with messaging is one of the few silver linings in outbound. Depriving your team of using their own sequences is criminal.
DonJuanQuixote
Contributor
1
BDR
Agreed, to their credit, they're much more interested in a revops role so the whole BDR management thing isn't exactly their strong suit.
Gasty
Notable Contributor
0
War Room Community Manager
get them fired
TennisandSales
Politicker
2
Head Of Sales
umm yeah this is 100% trash. idk why this is even a question worth asking.....
DonJuanQuixote
Contributor
0
BDR
What kind of reply rates / conversions do you see with your sequences?
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
2
☕️
How long has the current one been running?
DonJuanQuixote
Contributor
1
BDR
About 4-5 months with a sample size of over 1,500
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
1
☕️
Yeah, the n is large enough to say that the sequence is trash.
DonJuanQuixote
Contributor
1
BDR
Facts, it's the classic "data-driven" until the data doesn't support your opinion.
punishedlad
Tycoon
1
Business Development Team Lead
That is a completely incorrect view of "solution selling" on your boss's part. Is this their first time leading a sales team?
DonJuanQuixote
Contributor
1
BDR
Our product is very new. My boss has been in tech sales for awhile. But we hardly address any pain in our emails, at least not after the first one. I honestly still need to learn more about solution selling, but our approach seems off.
Pachacuti
Politicker
1
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
He not wrong - he’s trying to sell a solution so to some that is “Solution Selling”.

Your spray and pray strategy obviously isn’t working and to just reword it won’t work.
Maximas
Tycoon
1
Senior Sales Executive
So 2 things 2 work on here The sequence and The email tailoring.
For the sequence try to use your own as long as you can to create a more impactful one in terms of communicating with the prospects by considering the defects the old sequence your manager added to let the new one avoid them.
For the email tailoring you need to skip the defaulted spammy emails, only if you could tailor your own and I'm gonna use your words here to make sure to let them more into solving the pain more than explaining what your product does.
So make sure to try the two of em and see of any progress is gonna happen.
If your manager resists so that's not the right place to be at tbh!
Best of luck!
DonJuanQuixote
Contributor
1
BDR
Thanks for the advice! I'm working on the new sequence right now and plan on running it next week.
Maximas
Tycoon
0
Senior Sales Executive
Best of luck, hope it works 4 U eventually 🤞
jefe
Arsonist
1
🍁
That is... not good. At all.

Think about how many people you'd need to sequence to get a meeting, let alone a closed deal
DonJuanQuixote
Contributor
1
BDR
It is frustrating! But quick update. My new sequence is live and my boss likes it so much that a lot of the messaging could make its way into our main sequence. I'm going to run it for a few weeks and try to get an 800-1000 person sample. Then we shall see.
jefe
Arsonist
1
🍁
Good stuff! Thanks for the update
RedLightning
Politicker
0
Mid-Market AE
I'm running into something similar, but it's marketing written.

There's nothing more terrifying than the phrase "marketing built X that you have to use"
DonJuanQuixote
Contributor
0
BDR
I agree, not to mention that marketing has its own host of attribution and wording issues. All very frustrating
Justatitle
Big Shot
0
Account Executive
so a less than 1% positive reply rate whether it is yes for right now or yes but in 3 months. there probably something that needs to be tweaked to resonate more with the prospect or you are targeting the wrong people.
19
Members only

As the first order of business after getting a promotion to manager I will change my Li headline to “Sales Leader”

Discussion
25
25
Members only

Under performing rep with tons of excuses.

Question
30