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Inside Sales Account Executive

Who writes your sales emails/sequences/cadences

Assuming you're using some form of sequence or cadence in our prospecting efforts - Who is responsible for writing the sales copy that goes into emails, texts, etc.

In your experience, do individual AEs write their own sales copy/build sequences, or is that handled by another team/person?

🗝 Sales Enablement

💻 Automation

48 comments

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funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

Yours truly.

I would never work anywhere that didn't let me have control over what I write/say to prospects. I'm not a script reading/sending monkey and contrary to popular belief, sales knows how to sell - not marketing, customer service, or an executive who hasn't pitched in 34 years.

Paid

Valued Contributor

Inside Sales Account Executive

I feel the same, which lead me into my current situation. The powers that be liked my sales copy enough that they now want me to write all the sequences for the whole direct sales team to use across all of our primary verticals. This puts me in uncharted waters, so I was curious how other orgs are handling this.

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

Flattering they like your work, hopefully you’re getting compensated for that task.

I’m all for sharing ideas with my colleagues. My pitches and emails are a combo of myself and ten or so of the best salespeople I know. When I was a newbie I relied on the material given to me by management as a starting point but am super happy that once I had some deals under my belt that I was encouraged to change it up to what’s most natural and works best for me.

Paid

Valued Contributor

Inside Sales Account Executive

Definitely flattering. Feeling mostly OK about the compensation aspect of all this - though I'll have to give it some thought if they want me to do it full time.

I think I'm just wrestling with the fact that I know I prefer to write my own stuff, so it feels strange to write the copy that everyone else is supposed to use.

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

I think it's fine if it's going to be more of a "here's something to get you started," for the newbies or people who struggle. But I wouldn't like it if the company was forcing all reps to use my copy no matter what.

Pedrocastenada

Good Citizen

Account Executive

Where did you learn to write copy for b2b? Any books or courses you recommend? Same to you @funcoupons! My org desperately needs better outbound email campaign.

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

I honestly learned from the experienced salespeople I know. Some colleagues, some were friends in sales. I don’t have any book recs on the subject, sorry!

TheOverTaker

Politicker

Senior Account Executive

preach it

GoBlue

Old School Bravo

National Account manager

Agreed. Marketing does some Pardot cadences.

SaaSam

Politicker

Account Executive

I've always done this shit myself. I prefer it this way though, if something is coming from me, I want it in my own words.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Myself (RevOps) or our VP of Sales (ghost written by our Head of Marketing).

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

Lol at ghostwritten. The shade. 💀

Paid

Valued Contributor

Inside Sales Account Executive

you mean to tell me there's something a VP sales DOESN't know how to do?!? /s

Incognito

WR Officer

Master of Disaster

Um, me? I’ve definitely grabbed shit from other reps and reworked it into my own words, but how the fuck would anyone else know what’s gonna resonate with my prospects when they haven’t done the research I have on each one?

my last firm gave us templates and they were so Fukkin bad. I cringe now even thinking about it.

@funcoupons , @poweredbycaffeine , @InQ5WeTrust know best

TheOverTaker

Politicker

Senior Account Executive

I have always written my own stuff. If its comin from me, I want it to come from me. All the good. All the bad. My words

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Our current cadences are written by Marketing and heavily edited by me. They're not being sent in my name, but are being sent to specific accounts I'm targeting, so I appreciate that I have at least some control over the messaging.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

I write my own shit. I like to customize to each contact.

TheViking

Personal Narrative

Director of Enterprise Sales

I think AEs ultimately need to have control over their own emails/messaging - but I do believe that having content that can be modified / changed and re-used is very helpful. I think re-inventing the wheel by every AE is not useful use of time, but blasting out just the standard template isn't either - so to me the answer lies in the middle.

Gyro25

Notorious Answer

Account Executive

I do, in conjunction with my AE and sales director. We iterate over process, Subject lines, A/B test stuff and do our own experimentation.

It used to be marketing and then we all realized we like to make money, not lose it.

ilovemondays

Executive

Senior Account Executive

lovin' it.

Lucy710

Politicker

Channel Account Manager

I think for senior reps and strategic reps, we should be able to (and I do) write my own emails, but I SOMETIMES find it helpful if there is an example template. That way I don’t spend my time trying to come up with new adjectives but it still sounds like me. I like templates but I also like tweaking them! Part of sales is being able to (partially) sell via email!

PhlipOut

Politicker

Account Executive

The AE. 100% or maybe sales enablement can setup some "templates" if you have a million use cases and products, but AEs must be able to personalise them.

We have some that are built by I think Marketing and they are not good "sales" cadences at all.

ilovemondays

Executive

Senior Account Executive

Indeed we all do.

Womeninsales

Good Citizen

SAE (Senior Account Executive)

I write my own. Just like I prospect myself. We own our own destiny, right?

ilovemondays

Executive

Senior Account Executive

Well said.

MCP

Valued Contributor

Sales Director

Not to be contrarian to @funcoupons but I don’t think it’s a good idea for reps to write their own if they’re not good at copywriting which I think is a major skills gap. Additionally, to create alignment between sales & marketing, which is critical for growth, the messaging needs to be consistent which is difficult if everyone is doing their own thing.

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

If someone isn’t great at writing copy they should be assisted by a manager who is and learn how to do it. Messages and “scripts” will always sound unnatural if you don’t find a way to put it into your own words.

Information and facts need to be the same across all channels of course but the way they’re delivered shouldn’t be the same. Prospects know when they’re just being sent a script or automatic cadences. Allowing salespeople to put their own spin on it allows for much stronger rapport to be built because the prospect can clearly see they’re talking to a human being.

Paid

Valued Contributor

Inside Sales Account Executive

Appreciate you offering a counterpoint. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this potential compromise - providing mostly templated sales copy that sales is then free to personalize. In theory, providing that consistency and ensuring brand standards while also allowing latitude for individual AEs to express themselves?

MCP

Valued Contributor

Sales Director

I have always said that templates are just that, templates that you can alter to work from. The framework should be the same but then inject a little you into it as well as relevance & personalization.
I think @funcoupons and I are are ultimately saying the same things, I just think AE’s / SDR’s need some structure, guidance & coaching.

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

I agree! We’re on the same page.

ilovemondays

Executive

Senior Account Executive

You're inverting the order of factors and in this case, it really matters.

Every copy that goes outbound unsolicited needs to be 100% the reps's own voice. Any brand experience received from that is a direct consequence of the brand's hiring, training and culture standard.

You are trying to put the cart in front of the Ox by controlling the template.

A template maybe part of a playbook insofar as it speeds up work all the while exemplifying a value proposition/potential problem for which a benefit is available to counter/business outcome.

A brand standard can only be enacted in prospecting if the people are aligned to the brand, but the brand cannot tell the people how to behave, it can only teach values and thus the right behaviour will emerge.

It is the same thing with anything in life, from etiquette to sales training: I can't tell a person how to sit, or to sit straight up, or to sit in another manner. All I can do is show them what kind of impression they give with each behavior and the belief system that is causing them to incur in such behaviour.

The rest is up to them. Example: if a sales rep does not believe in asking qualification questions and is 'always closing' for instance, my job is to fire them, not to insist they ask the right questions. That alone will communicate the values of our team to the other reps.

At the end of the day, people buy you, thus any brand worth their salt will know WITHOUT A SHADOW OF DOUBT, that the reps are what make it top of mind, and that scripting their digital presence hinders the brand, not enhance it.

Reformed.Rep

Good Citizen

Product Manager

The only way to send generic content to a group is to have a *highly* curated list, and do that work on the front end.

Once you start writing copy for others, it's going to be least-common-denominator emails; not one has ever resonated with me. The only people I reply to are sending personalized and researched emails, or emails so bad it seems like they need some help.

If you're sending a template that then needs personalization - why not spend the time coaching them to write the email? Teaching a rep to fish, and all that jazz.

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

For O/B its me, for I/B its made by the Marketing but I many manual cadence so I customize a lot before I send them out

NoSuperhero

Politicker

BDR LEAD

For now my VP of Sales, I just started 3 weeks ago at the new gig!

thesecretsauce

Politicker

Business Development

Me. I don’t trust anybody

ryan_howard

Politicker

Director, Business Development

Me and me only

JustGonnaSendIt

Politicker

Burn Towns, Get Money

Marketing and Product Management put together these super complex emails and battle cards... Most reps here just send off the OFT marketing provides and then complain back that it's not getting them anywhere.

Having been a BDR in a past life... I break down these pieces of collateral into my own messaging and send that out to the world.

TL;DR - I do.

countingmyinterest

Politicker

Account Executive

Ugh, our org is so brutal. Sales Ops has to green light every single sequence and it's a nightmare.

DefaultSalesDude

Executive

Director

I work closely with my BDR and typically research what messaging is working and then set the narrative and cadence. Marketing always comes up with different things however they are too close to the product IMO and always emphasize features/functions. My approach is more business outcomes and problems prospects are willing to invest in to solve, rather than a "really neat tool." Features are for expanding the business case rather than the reason for them to buy and should only be used once they are already seeing how you can solve the problem.

MackAttack

Executive

Sr. Account Executive

Definitely writing it myself. While my marketing team does create content for the sales team to utilize (some good, some not so good), I almost never use it. If that worked marketing would be making sales... and we all know that doesn't happen. As a top attainer, I attribute more than half of my success to email content. You know your prospect better than marketing, so utilizing something that blankets essentially every customer is just lazy (IMO)

saashunter2.0

Executive

Mid-Market Account Executive

Marketing content manager and me

dwightyouignorantsale

Politicker

Account Executive

I do 🙋🏼‍♀️ I’m currently writing them for our SDR team as well.

Beans

Big Shot

Enterprise Account Executive

Absolutely myself.

MonthEndSpecial

Valued Contributor

Enterprise Account Executive

I write my own.

Iizmu

Big Shot

Account Executive

Speaking of writing your own emails and sequences, anyone want to help me with mine? Looking for any templates I can build off of.

10XQLA

Politicker

Medical Sales Assassin

Always myself....

GDO

Politicker

BDM

Isn’t that like a huge part of our job?

RunDownTheStairs

Opinionated

-1

Enterprise Account Executive

Do you want people to close deals for you too while you're at it?

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Who writes your sales emails/sequences/cadences

48 comments

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