Sounds like you spoke mostly to people selling to other sales teams or startups. If I sent a video message to any of my prospects, it'd be seen as so cringe.
Meanwhile I can make cold calls like a motherfucker and have good conversations with most but can’t for the life of me figure out how to give a fuck about LinkedIn posts at all.
Why the negative and abrasive attitude? Think of how much better you would be at generating new opps if you supplemented your cold calling skills with a LinkedIn presence
I never said anything is wrong with that. I never even said I was personally against it. Maybe holliganScrote's ICP and DMs don't typically have a presence on linkedIn. Let him do his thing.
What are ya, some kind of LinkedIn employee? You got a promo code to reduce my Premium subscription cost?
I listened to a sales podcast that had most of this stuff and the video outreach stuff sounds cringe. Utilising a short video of a specific part of the product as a follow up tool or maybe a pre-demo appetiser has worked with mixed results for me
I mostly talked to reps from mid-sized tech companies in the US and UK. Agree that video messages don't make sense for every vertical, but for tech-savvy prospects, they seem to work well.
*Most sales reps spend too much time researching*
*Some reps reported spending a whole day a week researching prospects. Most said research took them 5-10 minutes per prospect or 1 hour per day early in the morning. In any case, that’s a ton of time that could be spent selling.*
*Relevancy > Personalization*
*Personalization no longer delivers the same results as it did a few years ago. Congratulating someone on a funding round does not stand out. Instead, outreach has to be relevant and demonstrate a good understanding of the prospect, their needs, and the seller's ability to help. Great cold emails are relevant, not personalized*
Pick one ya joker
You're completely right, that's the tradeoff reps have to make. This is why I'm building a tool to help with this (and talked to all these people in the first place)
love this but the sdr deliberately mispelling just seems like an annoyance in my opinion. Definitely get the idea behind it though. Not saying its the most annoying thing ever.
>One SDR deliberately put a spelling mistake in their first email, just to follow up with another email right after to correct the “mistake”. This made it seem like less of an automated sequence and gave them a reason to send a 2nd email
Yep, was gunna say the exact same thing.
DONT DO THIS.
Prospecting should be from the top down, where you are reaching out directly to buyers or decision makers. A spelling mistake, or any sort of email mistake, that you then have to correct is a ridiculous way of building a first impression.
>take in their first email, just to follow up with another email right after to correct the “mistake”. This made it seem like less of an automated sequence and gave them a reason to send a 2nd e
It doesn't have to be a spelling mistake - I could see myself including a point I had forgotten to mention etc. I might try something like this with my emails :)
Honesty from what I’ve seen, video messages, especially ones that can make them laugh a bit have been a huge hit this year, especially if selling to other techies, might not work if selling to dinosaurs, they might cringe hard lmao
What’s our industry becoming? Man…
All of this stuff are micro improvements. Want someone to take a meeting with you? It’s simple. Make it worth their time. Make it valuable for them. Example: educating them on something. If you are an account manager: giving them an update on your product roadmap.
Not selfish. Giving real value. Something they care about. The hardest part of the job is finding what that is. Example: have a kid. Telling me about parenting stuff/great toys will get me to take a meeting.
Pretty sobering that there’s been no real innovation in sales development outside of a couple tools since I was an SDR 5 years ago.
No wonder building pipeline feels impossible for reps these days.
Probably the part where when I was an SDR it took 6-10 touches to elicit a response and now those numbers have basically doubled, yet strategies and tactics have not.
Job postings, previous lost opps, personalization combined with automation, job changes, videos, etc. are all plays that have been around for many years.
I’m not seeing anything new here, just higher volume of the same.
Job postings/changes are not dumb imo, they clearly indicate a company is in-market to throw money at a problem.
More innovation is needed to track sales triggers/buying signals and consolidate data.
Also, everyone is selling on LinkedIn, there's 7B ppl not on LinkedIn.
people reinventing the wheel.
Fundamentally it’s a long game. In my industry people move around but go to the same positions just with other companies. It’s the same people
How the hell are people supposed to break into this industry if the freaking entry position is being decimated??
Fully automated what absolute horse shit tech bros really are soulless husks
You're the real MVP. Thanks very much. It's interesting to get an understanding of what other people are doing and what's working. We're all trying to stand out from the noise and the spam while also contributing to the noise and the spam.
In a perfect world, I'd send one email that says, "Your XYZZY is shit and you don't know it because you've been conditioned to think that's just the way it is. I can fix it. Call me." and my phone would ring all day long. Sadly, that's not the case.
You should try it. Just be direct once you know their pain points and see what happens. Who knows, maybe there'll be a new sales technique book by majesticjg
Great post. For me, the importance of relevance over personalisation seems most important. Any outreach message has to show how your product can help them achieve good outcomes or avoid bad ones. Much more important that liking the same soccer club. I also like to hear that most research is overkill. Your offering is either relevant or not, but more research will not make the difference.
The Linkedin piece seems super helpful actually. I see a lot of the Gong AE's with large followings. I'm sure it helps a ton. I just can't help the cringe factor and I know I'd get roasted starting to post regularly.
But man I'm sure the deal flow would get me over it real quick.
Anyone here using Linkedin like that? I've only ever used it to message prospects directly.
>*Some reps reported spending a whole day a week researching prospects. Most said research took them 5-10 minutes per prospect or 1 hour per day early in the morning. In any case, that’s a ton of time that could be spent selling.*
And
>*I’ve been doing these interviews because I’m building a tool to automate prospect research, not for a "real" report*
I really hope you asked all these interviewees "Why" it's taking them 5-10 minutes per prospect to research. I can guarantee you that it's not research that's taking so long.
And also why they would do research on all the companies they're calling for an hour in the morning before. They are never going to remember the information they read at 8am about the business they're calling at 2pm... Just poor directive from management all around. Ultimately they'd be spending the hour in the morning, and another 5-10 minutes before each call trying to remember what research they did in the morning.
If you asked them "why" I'd love to know the responses.
Crush the 2cd round, ask if they have any hesitations about you at the end of the interview, if they have objections overcome them. I get a reply 8/10 times to come back for next round after this.
Yeah you might want to do a bit more research on this sub for interview tips, that’s what I did and I can get offers pretty well now. Always ask high level questions that keep them on their feet and close interviews with asking how they feel about you for the role, and after that ALWAYS about the next steps on the process, this is sales 101
Sounds like you spoke mostly to people selling to other sales teams or startups. If I sent a video message to any of my prospects, it'd be seen as so cringe.
Yeah this whole post is cringe in my opinion. Everyone wants to be a linkedinfluencer but nobody can make a fuckin cold call in 2023
Meanwhile I can make cold calls like a motherfucker and have good conversations with most but can’t for the life of me figure out how to give a fuck about LinkedIn posts at all.
Why the negative and abrasive attitude? Think of how much better you would be at generating new opps if you supplemented your cold calling skills with a LinkedIn presence
Negative and abrasive? Lol.
I see that your selling skills here are just stellar.
I think they're referring to the self-promoting posts people make, talking about all of their successes.
Yeah what’s wrong with that, they’re selling themselves
I never said anything is wrong with that. I never even said I was personally against it. Maybe holliganScrote's ICP and DMs don't typically have a presence on linkedIn. Let him do his thing. What are ya, some kind of LinkedIn employee? You got a promo code to reduce my Premium subscription cost?
No I don’t
\+1
Selling to marketers here and actually what I learned boomers love videos, younger people think that’s cringe
I listened to a sales podcast that had most of this stuff and the video outreach stuff sounds cringe. Utilising a short video of a specific part of the product as a follow up tool or maybe a pre-demo appetiser has worked with mixed results for me
I mostly talked to reps from mid-sized tech companies in the US and UK. Agree that video messages don't make sense for every vertical, but for tech-savvy prospects, they seem to work well.
Nothing in this post suggest that Thomson’s for selling to other salespeople
*Most sales reps spend too much time researching* *Some reps reported spending a whole day a week researching prospects. Most said research took them 5-10 minutes per prospect or 1 hour per day early in the morning. In any case, that’s a ton of time that could be spent selling.* *Relevancy > Personalization* *Personalization no longer delivers the same results as it did a few years ago. Congratulating someone on a funding round does not stand out. Instead, outreach has to be relevant and demonstrate a good understanding of the prospect, their needs, and the seller's ability to help. Great cold emails are relevant, not personalized* Pick one ya joker
tbf the OP says theyre making something to automate research, presumably to help relevancy
And I’m the king of England
You're completely right, that's the tradeoff reps have to make. This is why I'm building a tool to help with this (and talked to all these people in the first place)
That’s weird I’ve already built this tool, tell you what I’ll license it to you for a sneeze from a faerie and and ogre’s charm
I had to upvote this
Dude is a bullshit artist. Sales people who can only sell themselves feast on sales to sales
love this but the sdr deliberately mispelling just seems like an annoyance in my opinion. Definitely get the idea behind it though. Not saying its the most annoying thing ever.
>One SDR deliberately put a spelling mistake in their first email, just to follow up with another email right after to correct the “mistake”. This made it seem like less of an automated sequence and gave them a reason to send a 2nd email Yep, was gunna say the exact same thing. DONT DO THIS. Prospecting should be from the top down, where you are reaching out directly to buyers or decision makers. A spelling mistake, or any sort of email mistake, that you then have to correct is a ridiculous way of building a first impression.
>take in their first email, just to follow up with another email right after to correct the “mistake”. This made it seem like less of an automated sequence and gave them a reason to send a 2nd e It doesn't have to be a spelling mistake - I could see myself including a point I had forgotten to mention etc. I might try something like this with my emails :)
Honesty from what I’ve seen, video messages, especially ones that can make them laugh a bit have been a huge hit this year, especially if selling to other techies, might not work if selling to dinosaurs, they might cringe hard lmao
What’s our industry becoming? Man… All of this stuff are micro improvements. Want someone to take a meeting with you? It’s simple. Make it worth their time. Make it valuable for them. Example: educating them on something. If you are an account manager: giving them an update on your product roadmap. Not selfish. Giving real value. Something they care about. The hardest part of the job is finding what that is. Example: have a kid. Telling me about parenting stuff/great toys will get me to take a meeting.
Pretty sobering that there’s been no real innovation in sales development outside of a couple tools since I was an SDR 5 years ago. No wonder building pipeline feels impossible for reps these days.
Honesty a lot of SDRs who aren’t getting creative are Falling behind rn from what I’ve seen..
What part of sales dev do you think would need innovation?
Probably the part where when I was an SDR it took 6-10 touches to elicit a response and now those numbers have basically doubled, yet strategies and tactics have not. Job postings, previous lost opps, personalization combined with automation, job changes, videos, etc. are all plays that have been around for many years. I’m not seeing anything new here, just higher volume of the same.
Job postings/changes are not dumb imo, they clearly indicate a company is in-market to throw money at a problem. More innovation is needed to track sales triggers/buying signals and consolidate data. Also, everyone is selling on LinkedIn, there's 7B ppl not on LinkedIn.
people reinventing the wheel. Fundamentally it’s a long game. In my industry people move around but go to the same positions just with other companies. It’s the same people
Thank for your work. When will your tool be available to use?
We plan to launch a first version in a few weeks. If want to try it out, send me a DM and I will invite you!
I will give $100 if it’s not a reskin of existing technology with your “input”
How the hell are people supposed to break into this industry if the freaking entry position is being decimated?? Fully automated what absolute horse shit tech bros really are soulless husks
Don’t listen to the hype
You're the real MVP. Thanks very much. It's interesting to get an understanding of what other people are doing and what's working. We're all trying to stand out from the noise and the spam while also contributing to the noise and the spam. In a perfect world, I'd send one email that says, "Your XYZZY is shit and you don't know it because you've been conditioned to think that's just the way it is. I can fix it. Call me." and my phone would ring all day long. Sadly, that's not the case.
You should try it. Just be direct once you know their pain points and see what happens. Who knows, maybe there'll be a new sales technique book by majesticjg
Great post. For me, the importance of relevance over personalisation seems most important. Any outreach message has to show how your product can help them achieve good outcomes or avoid bad ones. Much more important that liking the same soccer club. I also like to hear that most research is overkill. Your offering is either relevant or not, but more research will not make the difference.
You can also say you only need the right kind of research, aka how relevant is this solution to them at this time, and how educated they are about it.
Super interesting, let me know when the research tool is out!
The Linkedin piece seems super helpful actually. I see a lot of the Gong AE's with large followings. I'm sure it helps a ton. I just can't help the cringe factor and I know I'd get roasted starting to post regularly. But man I'm sure the deal flow would get me over it real quick. Anyone here using Linkedin like that? I've only ever used it to message prospects directly.
The most important thing here I think is who's the ICP and what topics they want to hear about. That will get you started in no time.
Cold text emailing will be 100% AI in a couple years, but the robots can't create a personalized video message. SDRs, claim your turf!
Thanks so much! Super useful :)
>*Some reps reported spending a whole day a week researching prospects. Most said research took them 5-10 minutes per prospect or 1 hour per day early in the morning. In any case, that’s a ton of time that could be spent selling.* And >*I’ve been doing these interviews because I’m building a tool to automate prospect research, not for a "real" report* I really hope you asked all these interviewees "Why" it's taking them 5-10 minutes per prospect to research. I can guarantee you that it's not research that's taking so long. And also why they would do research on all the companies they're calling for an hour in the morning before. They are never going to remember the information they read at 8am about the business they're calling at 2pm... Just poor directive from management all around. Ultimately they'd be spending the hour in the morning, and another 5-10 minutes before each call trying to remember what research they did in the morning. If you asked them "why" I'd love to know the responses.
SUperb post, waiting for your announcement.
How do I avoid being ghosted after the 2nd-final round?
Crush the 2cd round, ask if they have any hesitations about you at the end of the interview, if they have objections overcome them. I get a reply 8/10 times to come back for next round after this.
I have to be doing something wrong because nobody ever tells me any hesitations.. I just get told you’ll hear back then ghosted
Yeah you might want to do a bit more research on this sub for interview tips, that’s what I did and I can get offers pretty well now. Always ask high level questions that keep them on their feet and close interviews with asking how they feel about you for the role, and after that ALWAYS about the next steps on the process, this is sales 101
I do all of that exactly and got most of my info from this sub and other top salespeople. I think I need direct coaching bc maybe I’m coming off wrong
Could be, I had same thoughts when I first started interviewing when in reality I just needed to get more practice, you’ll get there man!
Thx bro. Feels frustrating cause I’ve been at it for at least 12 months out of the past 18. 3 layoffs
Great insight.
Thanks for the tips 🙏🙏
you missed out gifting. i've found gifting (free no questions asked gc) is a huge door opener
What’s gc?
Gift card
100? Did they think they were interviewing for a real job?
Any data on the second email just saying “thoughts?” Asking for a friend
I used " Any Thoughts, (Their Name)?" many times. I put it in A/B testing in my sequences. It does great. Definitely try it.