It’s the home stretch of the year, and sales teams are scrambling. As if Covid didn’t make things hard enough, the economic downturn we’re seeing is making it nearly herculean to close those deals. Inflation is at a 40-year high, supply chains are stuck in bottlenecks from China, labor markets are unstable as companies struggle […]
It’s the home stretch of the year, and sales teams are scrambling. As if Covid didn’t make things hard enough, the economic downturn we’re seeing is making it nearly herculean to close those deals. Inflation is at a 40-year high, supply chains are stuck in bottlenecks from China, labor markets are unstable as companies struggle to hold onto their people—and everyone is making less money. What does that mean for salespeople? You better get agile now, change your mindset, sales strategy, and the questions you ask, if you want a hope of winning that prospect.
Inbound Is Down, But Is Outbound Out?
Vendors who were once riding high on inbound sales are finding the flow into the funnel becoming a trickle, and are returning to outbound sales techniques to replace the missing volume.
But outbound ain’t what it used to be. Some even believe that “outbound is dead”. In a way, it makes sense. Regular outbound, disparagingly referred to as “spray and pray,” isn’t the most cost-effective approach. At a time when companies are doing serious thinking about efficiency, cuts, and strategy, few are in the mood to hear about your latest thing.
Yet the pain is still there. Most likely, five minutes after your fruitless cold call, those same prospects are still in need of a solution to some pressing issue. But did you know that? With the right outbound sales strategy, you would have.
“Educated Outbound”
It’s all about finding the people most likely to buy your product. A huge advantage of inbound is that you have a lot of info about the people in the funnel. Because they have approached you in some way, they are in your “sphere of influence”.
Outbound sales strategies require a lot of hard work to compensate for that. Through data and insight, you can identify pre-funnel prospects who want to be in your sphere of influence – even if they don’t know it yet.
Be True, Not Intrusive
So, how do you get there? Firstly, you must be genuinely interested in the client (be more dolphin and less shark). Take your time to figure out why and how the prospect needs you.
To gain that insight, there are three elements that sales reps need to understand, both for themselves and for their prospect, prior to making a pitch. And remember–you don’t have to go into these calls totally cold. There are incredibly useful tools and technologies out there that optimize your outbound efforts so you’re not flying blind.
Relevance
Do I solve their problem? Ask the prospect about how the downturn has affected them. Find out what their headaches are, and what solutions they’ve been looking at.
There’s a very good chance that the prospect doesn’t even know how to cure what ails them, or even that there is consensus within their company about problems, priorities, and painkillers. You can use that as leverage and become part of the conversation.
Intent
Am I a vendor they would consider to solve the problem? Let’s say that the prospect knows what their challenge is and has looked at a couple of your competitors. That’s still not good enough – maybe they’re just Googling during a lunch break. You need to understand if a customer is even in a position to buy before you invest time in making a sale.
One way of determining this is through “intent signals”. For inbound, intent signals, such as completing a contact form or downloading a white paper, are relatively easy to find. But for outbound, it can get really complicated.
Personalization
Do they see me as the best vendor? If you have established relevance and intent, then it’s time to discover if your solution is a match for the prospect’s needs, and that means informing them.
Knowing how to get the most impactful messaging across is a matter of personalization. Perhaps they are familiar with your product by now, and only require pricing data. Or maybe you’re new, and so need to start from scratch. Whatever the case, it’s important to craft the message to speak precisely to the client.
Budgets Aren’t Shrinking, They’re Just Moving…
…And you need to move right along with them. Gone are the days when you could improvise. The rep with the most knowledge will be the one to win the deal because they understand their prospect better and are able to prove their relevance.
And you will find customers. The downturn doesn’t mean that there is no buying. Instead, it means that companies have their heads down while solving pain points. It’s the job of outbound sales reps to recognize buying intent and get noticed as the best solution.
Of course, what we’ve mentioned above is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve assembled a star panel of outbound experts to dig deep into rethinking your outbound strategy to fit with today’s market climate.
We invite you to join us in our free webinar, “Crushing Q4: Intentional Outbound ” on Wednesday, November 9th at 12pm EST.
Register here
We'll help you understand if Lusha can solve your business needs.
