JCashmann805

AVP, West

Valued Contributor

Personal Narrative

What's the right 'message' to use for outbound lead generation?

I was on a sales team meeting this morning and one of my Demand gen staff asked an innocuous question - or so I thought - of the team: What's the right message for you to be using for outbound lead generation?

Suffice to say, we spent about 20 minutes as a team discussing (and yes, debating) what the "right" message was and how to best convey it.

My take on this was a bit different, but it seems that most Salespeople tend to forget that they too have a responsibility to plan, manage and test messaging as well as marketing does. And, outbound is at least 50% of the battle - sure, it's great when marketing and messaging is all connected and the inbound leads come in droves, but is that happening today? Not as much as it was.....

So, we came up with a simple approach to managing the effort: 4-6 week A/B testing methods for 2-4 messages at a time....Directed at a specific persona, based on existing ICP and persona-based searches via all the usual sources, and then splitting the outbound amongst a team of reps....each with an eye on one industry segment or one particular level within a company (i.e. CIO, VP IT or Manufacturing vs. Services clients)

I think we have already hit the proverbial nail on the head with several of our message approaches, but I don't know YET if this will work in our specific case, but if you have a niche market or have a wide-open TAM, then you have to narrow it down....I'd welcome feedback and opening this up wider....Of course it's overly simplified here, but willing to dive deeper....LMK what you all think?

🔎 Prospecting

👑 Sales Strategy

💌 Cold Emailing

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9 comments

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oldcloser

Arsonist

3

💀

"wide-open TAM" Resonates- this makes hyper-personalization really tedious and generally impossible with any big list that's cold. Zigging while others are zagging is wise H/T@RedLightning. For me it means using text. Very few do it.A little subject line shock value in text can go a long way in an sms message. It's legal in one-offs and gets your point across where you might not be able to in a call.

Bad example-
Text:
AI gonna replace you? See email with same subject line.
email:
Subject Line: AI gonna replace you?
Body:
{Prospect},
Of course it's not. Unless you adopt it, drive valuation and exit with a giant meal ticket.

Otherwise, I noticed {x}, this likely means {Y problem} for {Z Company}, here's what we do about it.

I may not get {Z Company} acquired, but I can definitely fix {Y problem}.

Worth a look?

I usually do this stuff when in tedium and dry to break it up. I've had number blocked. I've had dialogue.

RedLightning

Politicker

2

Mid-Market AE

It's tough to give feedback on specifics here for obvious reasons.

However, two things have always helped me. 1) jobs to be done theory by persona and 2) zigging where others are zagging.

Gap selling has a great jobs to be done framework to help understand challenges of prospects and implications. Taking that by role can help you nail down outbound messaging by persona. Talking to existing customers is also a helpful way to get that info too. Play with this for both calling and emailing scripts.

Overall, focus on the problem/challenge rather than your product.

Keep in mind that people selling anything to your prospect are also reaching out and likely doing a poor job of it. So phone and email messaging need to separate you from the (mostly shitty) noise.

As for the sales vs. marketing approach to this, marketing is mass comms and sales is 1-1.

sketchysales

Politicker

2

Sales Manager

zigging while others are zagging, i like that.

RedLightning

Politicker

1

Mid-Market AE

It's a hunch, but I think teams now are overcompensating and ramping up outbound volume- mainly on the email front.

So, not looking like a cadence email or showing some research should stand out.

Also a lot of those emails are going to come from marketing teams, so not coming across as a mass marketing email should cut through.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

0

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Just discussing this with our team today, as we also have a pretty broad TAM. Totally working on an approach that goes back to basics of recent successes, and looking to leverage that with ICP in the same vertical.

Maximas

Tycoon

0

Senior Sales Executive

In general Yes, I would agree with you that Salespeople should have the responsibility to plan, manage and test messaging as well as marketing does.
Any further discussion needs to be taken a case by case based on the Sales department you're working for and the type of product you're selling, etc,...!

TennisandSales

Politicker

0

Head Of Sales

I find it most helpful when you align on the general content of out reach.

what pain points do each personal have
what would i mention if its a director vs end user.

Then let the team put their personal touches on the out reach.

hopefully you have a tool that will track open rates and replies so you can see who is doing well so the team can adjust.

Justatitle

Big Shot

0

Account Executive

You are doing this right. Being willing to A/B test and then follow that up with data for what should be used

Armageddon

Opinionated

0

Enterprise Account Executive

Classic marketing trying to simplify something that can’t be.. there is no perfect messaging that can be mass spammed (as much as they continue to try and drive unsubscribes through the roof). A true savage knows you must personalize to the individual, company, role etc to be successful

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