How do you manage the outbound side of your sales?

How do you manage the outbound side of sales?

 As many of you know I've started a daily video series called Ask Em Anything on LinkedIn and YouTube where I've collated many of the questions I get asked on LinkedIn, emails, texts & during those coffee catch ups where my friends go "can I just borrow your brain for a minute, I was wondering about *insert marketing-related thing here...*"

I've also recently joined Phlywheel - it's a platform where people get together and ask each other marketing questions, bounce ideas off each other, keep each other accountable, generally love all things Tara and feast on all the great content she and her #PhlyAndPhab team are putting out to help members. As a small business owner, it's probably the best £70 I spend a month on my business! We also do random silent karaoke sessions occasionally too... but I digress.

There was a question from one of the members recently which I and half a dozen other people answered. My response garnered quite a few likes and someone suggested that I put it out into the world as a proper article, so because I have exactly 14 minutes until my next meeting I thought "I'll just do it now!”.

It gives you insight into the way I work and maybe a little taster of what goes on in Phlywheel too... so here goes!

In terms of shameless self-promo, the way I get around that is just to work out loud pretty much constantly on social media - telling people what I'm working on, answering people's questions, and generally sharing my latest rant/blogs about whatever I'm thinking about. I feel this making it less self-promotion & more discussion-orientated, as I’m always actively looking for feedback. 

If I'm trying to get people on a demo for a client, I'll go to prospects & say "I'm looking for feedback on our new features, fancy a free demo? I can pay you in undying gratitude & potentially chocolate biscuits..." (easier pre-covid) or "I'm working with a client on marketing this new software and to be honest I really need some help. Do you have time to do a 20-minute demo and tell me how I can make it more fun/improve it in any way? I'd really appreciate your feedback on it." or "Looks like we both know *insert name*, so hope you don't mind me connecting - I really need someone who understands X industry/product/service offering to look at this demo I'm doing for a client and give me some feedback. Could I borrow your brain for 20 minutes? Your insights would be so useful!" 

The Cold Formula

In terms of cold outreach I have a formula which works most of the time: 

• Includes something personal – you saw something on his/her LinkedIn profile/ relevant in the news/at an event

• Say something nice

• Includes a sentence about why we should connect

• Mention the name of a mutual connection if possible

• Doesn’t make an overboard request that requires too much time.

In terms of following up, I always think ...how can I make this person smile, laugh or go "ooh that's interesting" today? so when I'm contacting them I'll always do a "saw this, thought of you" type message. 

As an example, one of my prospective clients mentioned that he loves walking near the river in the evening because he enjoys seeing all the bats flying around... so when I followed up with him recently I started by saying that I'd seen on Reddit that a single bat can eat more than 600 bugs in an hour, which is like a person eating 20 pizzas a night! and that made me think of him, our last conversation and next steps. Now I've started sharing a random "#BatFact" at the end of my emails to him too, which he always responds to. So that works for him...

I also do the "read this blog, thought you'd find it interesting - especially this bit about...." type emails or the "heard X on radio 4 today.... made me think of our last conversation about..." I tend to follow a 30-day 10-touch model which is a mixture of calls, emails and social media posts directed towards people. At the end of that cycle, if it doesn't look like I’m getting much engagement I have The Hippo Email which has been a game-changer for my business actually. 

It's my last-ditch attempt to get in touch with someone if I've been chasing for a while. It goes like this: 

Hi X 

I've tried several times to get in touch, had no answer so I'm guessing 1 of 3 things has happened. 

1) You're not interested but you don't know how to tell me - it's ok, just tell me, we're both adults and I don't want to waste my time or yours! 

2) You're still interested but just been really busy and haven't got round to it - it's ok, I'll call you at *insert time* *insert date* or let me know when works for you? 

3) You're being chased by a giant hippo! These bad boys run at 37mph - do I need to call animal control?! 

George has been having some trouble returning to social situations following the easing of lockdown

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So there we have it. Hopefully I won't have to retire George now (That's what I affectionately nicknamed the Hippo)