The Mindset of Effective Outbound Sales Prospecting
If there’s anything that my background as a Sales Development Representative (SDR) at successful SV startups has taught me is that no matter how many tips and tricks you read online on finding and connecting with customer prospects, it’s null and void if you don’t have the attitude of purpose. Trying to convince a prospect to accept a discovery call or product demo is the mindset of the job role, but approaching it with an underlying belief and commitment to succeed speaks volumes. I recently discovered that there are actually two types, fixed mindset and growth mindset. A fixed mindset believes certain traits are set in stone with little to no room for personal improvement and growth.
I’m referring to the growth mindset. When applied to sales, you wear the hat of a business owner. Everything you say and do is predicated by the enthusiasm of learning. Growth eventually leads to achievement and success.
An SDR does the grunt work of finding the decision-maker (prospect), knocking tirelessly on the door several times unannounced, and presenting a convincing value proposition on why they believe they would be a good fit. Overall, Inbound SDR’s call on leads (qualified prospects) are automatically generated from Marketing driven activities whereas Outbound Sales Development Representatives must find their own leads through independent research and communication strategies. These are some of the topics I will review for Outbound prospecting.
Why Self Source?
You have a blank page. How do you even begin to create a list of those elusive leads? Start by looking in your back yard. Self-sourcing is the first and easiest step as networking is key to every relationship whether it’s used for job hunting, information gathering/sharing, or celebrating an achievement. I think many people don't see how their current contacts as a valuable resource. I too have been guilty of that mindset when I first started in sales.
Leveraging available resources within your company, Linked In, Twitter, social media, and personal network is actually what most startups began with when they started pitching their business ideas and eventually products.
If you currently self source, how important is it in your day to day role in building the pipeline?
Doing the Groundwork - Researching for Contacts
This is the most time-consuming role of the job but I guarantee if you commit at least one hour a day to building out your Rolodex (lingo for contacts in the pre-cell phone and pre-social media era), EVERY DAY at least for the first few months of ramping up as a new Sales Rep, you will start to reap the rewards down the road. Before this, I had to dig up old business cards, emails, and scribbled notepads. I’m sure many readers know what I’m talking about! Onboarding and coaching take time and energy from your new employer, so the sooner you can populate and manage your list, the faster you will see how it will contribute to your success in building a pipeline.
Your Contacts:
Everyone has a virtual Rolodex. I bet if you were to map out your relationships, you would discover second to fifth connections along the branches. The following is not an exhaustive list but it’s a great start:
Friends
Friends of Friends
Relatives
Neighbors
Contacts from school, social events, or business organizations
Professional: current and previous co-workers or customers
I added these names into an Excel sheet with the name, title, company, email, phone number, location, and type of relationship (prior customer, referral, linked in connection, etc.).
List Building Tools:
Besides Linked In, I’ve used other sales and marketing platforms that were at my disposal at work. They were very helpful especially in creating exported excel lists and finding useful company background information that Linked In didn’t provide. Some of those include Discover Org, Zoom Info (acquired by Discover Org), Hoovers, and Inside View. The list building was a HUGE timesaver especially for mass email blasts that I would sometimes utilize as invitations for marketing events or new product campaign initiatives. Just identify the desired fields to populate a report in Discover Org. Export this list into Salesforce (or your CRM of choice).
I then used Outreach.io as the automated sequence email tool to send 1000 invitations to contacts at my target accounts. Granted you will receive bounced or blocked emails, that’s why it’s good to briefly eyeball your list and weed out any old data. Your list will not be 100% squeaky clean because it’s only as clean as your database export. You can also blast an email campaign without Discover Org if you already have an existing database of leads in Salesforce. You just need to create a report first.
Are you starting to see how owning and building your pipeline can reap rewards in the success of your sales engagement and sales?
I’ll roll up my sleeves on my next post on how to research from scratch your target vertical (if applicable) and contacts by digging into Linked In — Sales Navigator. A qualified lead list matters to a business owner. Keep the growth mindset in check. Stay tuned for part 2!
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