There’s nothing more frustrating than putting a ton of effort into your lead generation strategy, only to get one or two booked meetings…
Or worse, pay an agency a ton of cash to find new customers for you, and their results are crappy.
We have had clients tell us that they had spent over $10 000 on Linkedin ads and never even received one lead.
If this is you and you need more booked sales meetings this quarter, you can either do it yourself by following our fail-proof strategy or hire a company like Salesbread that guarantees 1 qualified sales lead per day or your money back.
If you’re keen to first try to get more booked b2b sales leads yourself, keep reading…
This is the exact strategy we use to get 1 lead per day.
(Note: Once you notice more booked sales calls coming in, you could either build your own sales team or hire a company like Salesbread to scale your outreach efforts.)
Consider this first…
At Salesbread we use a multi-channel outreach approach. We have found that Linkedin outreach and cold email are still some of the best ways to book more meetings with potential customers in the b2b space.
You need to first figure out where your ideal target audience spends most of their time. For example, if your ideal client is on Instagram, rather use that specific social media platform to reach out to them; Or if they are on Twitter, reach out to them there.
The reason why we prefer Linkedin, is because it works the best for our clients who are in the b2b space. So for the purposes of this article, we will discuss how to book more meetings through Linkedin outreach and cold email.
(If you choose to use Linkedin for sales prospecting, it would be wise to invest in some lead-generation tools first, which you can read about here.)
Here’s our fail-proof sales strategy
1.) Build an ultra-refined list of your ideal prospects
Most companies know what their ideal customer profile is. They might want to go after marketing teams who use webinars for educational purposes, for example.
This is a good start, but in order to book more meetings that actually lead to sales, you have to dig deeper.
At Salesbread we obsess about list building. We believe that your prospecting list should be so refined that when you reach out to these prospects, they will say yes to a meeting because they really need what you’re selling.
These lists aren’t just built at random but are rather built on current buying data.
So to put this simply…
Think about WHO has been buying from you within the last 6 months. This data can help you build look-alike lists of prospects.
You need to look for patterns between all your buyers and ask yourself what do your buyers have in common.
For example:
- Which industry are all your buyers in? Tech? Health and wellness?
- Where are your buyers located? In the USA? 30 miles from Florida? Africa?
- Do they use the same CRM tool?
- Have they recently been funded?
- Have they suffered a PR disaster?
- Which job title is purchasing from you? Manager? CEO? (Who is the decision maker?)
- Have they hired new employees recently?
Here is a list for inspiration on where to find “attributes” and “events” for your prospects
- Company size: LinkedIn, Angel.co, Crunchbase
- Company revenue: LinkedIn
- Office location: LinkedIn, Google Maps, Yelp, Foursquare
- The same CEO for 5 years in a row: LinkedIn.
- Technology used: BuiltWith, Datanyze, NerdyData, LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Website is not optimized for mobile (NerdyData)
- More than $30k/month spent on ads: SpyFu.com
- Twitter followers: FollowerWonk
- Monthly visits: Alexa, SEMRush
- Webinar attendees: just join one in the middle and see the number of people showing up
- Podcast downloads: iTunes, iTunescharts.net
- Raised money: Angel.co, Crunchbase
- Acquired: TechCrunch, Angel.co
- Hiring: Indeed.com
- Nominated or won an award: Google Alerts, industry website/directory, company website
- PR disaster: Google alert for keywords (“Company” AND “Disaster”) OR (“Customer” AND “Outraged”)
- Just started a new ad campaign: SpyFu.com
- Just hired a new role: LinkedIn Sales Navigator, company website
- Entered a new market (know they don’t know everything): SpyFu.com, LinkedIn News, TechCrunch, Google Alert (“Enters New Market”)
- Holidays (4th July, Anzac day), Google Calendar
- Seasons – winter/summer: Google Calendar (for cyclical sales events)
- Company anniversary: LinkedIn, Who. is to see when the website domain was 1st acquired
- Featured on product hunt: Product Hunt
- Just got a really bad employee rating: glassdoor.com
Notice that when it comes to building look-alike lists, you don’t have to stick to the usual data providers. Think outside the box and use third-party data providers because this will help you build a refined list.
Watch this video to see how to do it
(This article: How to Build a Sales Prospecting List in Any Industry goes into detail on how to build prospecting lists.)
2.) Filter your list by your 2nd-degree network on Linkedin AND by recently posted
The reason why you should filter your list by your second-degree network first is because you already share a common connection with your prospect.
Stats show that when you reach out to someone who already has a shared commonality, the chances of them engaging with you will be higher.
So we reach out to our second-degree connections first and then filter down to 3rd degree.
Next, you need to filter by “posted on Linkedin in the past 30 days.”
This will ensure that you are reaching out to someone who is active on the platform.
If you notice that your prospect isn’t active on Linkedin, rather add them to a cold email or cold calling campaign.
3.) Research each prospect on your list and write a personalized connection request message
At Salesbread we have two personalization experts who research each prospect on the list and write a specific intro sentence just for that person.
They actually have a look at the prospect’s Linkedin profile, or Google their name and find something specific to mention.
And we do this by using the CCQ method.
This means that we will look for something to compliment the prospect on, mention a commonality, or ask a question.
CCQ creates a “pattern interrupt” which stops readers in their tracks and makes them want to engage with your message. Personalization creates curiosity and makes your message stand out from every other sales message on Linkedin.
Here are some examples:
Compliment
“Michaela, loved your new article about Chat GPT and how it can help sales professionals. Is Linkedin a good place to connect?”
Commonalities
“Hey Jack, I see that you also know Marc from Grow and Convert. I met him ages ago at a conference in Florida. Would love to connect with you and pick your brain on XYZ”
Questions
“Beau, I noticed that you’re in the IT space. I’m wondering how your company deals with (pain point)? For reference, my company (solves pain point) by XYZ. Would love to connect and share some ideas.”
Do these kinds of messages work? Yes, they do. On average we see a positive reply rate of 39% on Linkedin.
If you need some inspiration, please check out this article: 60 LinkedIn Connection Request Message Templates. We share some ideas your team can use and adapt for your outreach.
Side Note: Should you sell in your outreach messages?
Sales pitches don’t work on Linkedin (unless you have a no-brainer value proposition). We don’t sell in our messages but rather encourage our clients to do so in a booked sales call.
The point of our messages is to start conversations that lead to a sales call, and the quickest way to make a new prospect run for the hills is by sending a sleazy sales pitch.
Follow-up every 3 days between 3 and 6 times
We have noticed that some sales reps follow up either too much or too little. If you are using an automation tool for follow-ups, try setting it up where you follow up every 3 days until the prospect replies.
In your follow-ups add more personalization, and thank the prospect for connecting. This is where you want to mention why you’re reaching out to them for context. Remember to speak about the prospect 90% of the time and only 10% of the time about yourself.
Note: If a prospect doesn’t reply to your Linkedin message, you could send them a follow-up email or an SMS instead.
Here are some follow-up examples
1. (first name) good to connect, By the way, congrats on your new role at (company name.)
2. Good to connect (first name). By the way, what are your favorite hiking spots these days? Saw you’re in charge of account management, do you also handle clip reports (to keep clients updated?) Or am I way off?
3. {first_name}, good to connect. By the way, happy to give you an intro to anyone in my network now that we’re connected. I’ve been doing some research on (XYZ) (We provide (What your company does.)Since we’re newly connected, I’d like to share this post with you: (Share a link that’s helpful from your website.) P.S. It explains (XYZ)
4. Hi {first_name}, If you could help {company_name} with (XYZ) would that be worth a short conversation? I’m asking because of XYZ. Worth a short conversation?
5. Thanks for connecting (first name). I’d love to connect outside of Linkedin too. Very curious to hear about where you get most of your (XYZ). What does your calendar look like over the next week or two to connect? PS: For background, my company does (XYZ).
6. Hi (first name) Thanks for connecting. We just opened our (discuss in short what your company does) I’d like to share some details about this opportunity with you. What’s your best email? (your name)
And finally – The best way to book more sales meetings? Just ask for a booked sales call
If you follow the above sales process, the chances of having a prospect agree to a booked meeting will be pretty high.
Why? Because….
A.) You built a super-refined prospecting list
B.) You wrote personalized sales messages that aren’t sleazy.
We always ask for a booked sales call in our messages. But it’s important to make it as easy as possible for your prospects to respond.
So don’t ask for an hour call, or for them to watch a 2 hour webinar.
Low-commitment CTAs work the best.
Here are some examples:
- Would you be willing to hop on a quick call next week?
- How’s your calendar looking next week?
- Can I lease with your P.A and book a quick call?
- Are you available for a chat?
- I’d love to share more on why you may need [PRODUCT] and how it can help [BENEFIT]. How’s {{=day}} next week looking for a 15-minute call?
- Are you free for a call this Friday to discuss [MAIN BENEFIT]?
- Are you available for a quick call in the next few days to see if [MY PRODUCT] aligns with your goals?
- When are you free to connect this week? You can use this link to book directly on my calendar.
- Can we target {{=bday+2}} afternoon to discuss [BENEFIT/PROBLEM]?
- What’s the best way to schedule 5 minutes to talk?
- Would you have some time next {{=day}} to discuss?
Some other things to consider for outbound sales
The above is how we use Linkedin to book more meetings for our clients. If you haven’t tried Linkedin just yet, you might want to give it a go. In the last 24 months, we generated close to 7000 sales-qualified leads for our clients.
You can read some of our case studies and success stories here.
But if Linkedin isn’t your platform of choice just yet, read some of our other articles on crafting the perfect sales email campaign.
Also, consider the following if you would like more sales calls:
- Be social and not salesy. If you can develop a relationship with your prospects before a booked meeting, then that’s great.
- Keep your messages short and to the point.
- Add your prospects to an email list and send them helpful content, in this way, they will be constantly reminded of your brand.
- Be very clear about why you want to set up a meeting. It can be awkward if you hop on a call, and the prospect had no idea it was actually a sales call.
- Don’t use the same email template or Linkedin message for every single prospect – This comes across as spammy and people will ignore you.
- You could even ask current customers for referrals – They might know companies who might also benefit from your services.
Booking for sales meetings doesn’t have to be mission impossible…
If you follow the above sales process we can guarantee more booked meetings in your sales funnel – and not just any booked meeting, but meetings with qualified buyers.
We would love to know if the above resonates with you and if you don’t have the time or salespeople to implement this strategy, let’s hop on a free 15-minute strategy call.
We would love to help you book more meetings for pricing less than hiring a full-time SDR.
