Once a team has selected and tiered their accounts, they’re ready to create a multi-touch cadence based on those tiers.
With intentionality at the center of everything, this strategy gives teams the ability to focus their activities based on the account priority, and execute with authenticity — giving their prospects that warm fuzzy feeling.
But how do we actually create a multi-touch cadence?
Regardless of the account tier, each cadence will share core attributes, making it easier to differentiate the multiple touchpoints used across accounts. This approach will provide you a level of consistency to have your team work within in developing cadence.
And if you’re looking to train your team with different levels of personalization, this table most accurately reflects the level of priority per account tier:
Tier 1 accounts are the accounts the team has selected as a top accounts to go after in your sales execution, which is why they must be handled with the highest level of personalization and activity.
These are your dream clients, the ones you absolutely want to do business with… They can make your quarter and change the direction of your company.”
-Trish Bertuzzi, The Sales Development Playbook
The Tier 1 prospect progression should be executed one by one, which leads to a high number of active prospects in the cadence. Through insight building tools like Crystal Knows and Owler, or rep-driven social media research, each touchpoint should be hyper-personalized to the account. From email, to phone, to social media and Account Based Marketing (ABM) touch points, the entire cadence is structured and planned around a multi-touch cadence strategy.
And while this model is the best practice for Tier 1, each cadence can be modified to best fit your reps most successful cadence style.
Here’s a sample Tier 1 cadence from one of our SDRs follows an 11×12 cadence. The touchpoint model is a hyper-personalized, multi-touch cadence consisting of 11 touches over 12 business days by phone, email, and social:
The time and effort injected into researching, understanding, and personalizing the account reflects the level of priority this tier.
Now, you may be asking, “How do you hyper-personalize a multi-touch cadence… IRL?”
“When you’re able to get on the phone with a Tier 1 account, you need to be prepared to have a deeper conversation than your standard pitch,” says Salesloft SDR Brad Ansley. Use the research you’ve done on the front-end as a starting point for the conversation. Have they shared a blog post on LinkedIn recently? Are they hiring for a new role? Dig in and ask questions around how their team currently tackling the challenges that your value prop solves.
And with your social touches, remember that the goal is not to go straight in for a meeting. Ask insightful questions first to get a conversation started, and then build on that relationship.
Personalization takes time and dedication, but the payoff for those intentional touchpoints are unsurmountable when it comes to Tier 1 accounts.
A few months ago, one of our SDRs was trying to get the attention of a Tier 1 account, so he decided to go the extra mile to hyper-personalize one of his sales emails to the prospect at hand. After referencing the prospect’s alma mater and making a customized gif of the former player in action,the prospect forwarded the personalized email in amazement, to none other than John Barrows. It was legen…wait for it…dary:
Subject: Remember the (’93) Alamo…
Tough lost today.. but in tough times like this when everyone’s brackets are ruined, remember the last touchdown of the 93′ Alamo Bowl.
What a grab! How can I grab time on your calendar to discuss Sales Development, Football, and Salesloft?
Carpe datum,
Patrick
What took just a little teamwork with our marketing design team, and a little creativity from the rep, hyper-personalization won the day again.
And as we descend the account tiers, the level of personalization prioritization lowers accordingly. Tier 2 accounts are where we begin to mix a hybrid of personalization and semi-automation along a cadence that’s more widespread.
An example of semi-personalized Tier 2 email touchpoint is the 10-80-10 email template approach, where the first and last 10% of the email are personalized and the meat in the middle is an automated, template message. Pro-tip: Try using a compelling company event, like this one:
Subject: Brian, {{company_name}} + Salesloft
Hey Brian,
Congrats to your team on the Series B funding from Emergence Capital. Jason Green has done amazing things for our company, as well.
I saw you were checking out the new Sales Operations ebook from Salesloft. In researching {{company_name}}, I also noticed you are in charge of the sales team over there.
This prompted me to reach out because Salesloft is helping similar teams, like the one at iDashboards, generate a 40% increase in the average Account Executive’s pipeline by enabling email personalization at scale.
How can I get 20 minutes on your calendar to discuss your revenue objectives, and share how Salesloft can help you reach them?
Cheers,
Patrick
PS — Love that you guys volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House on Impact Day. That is very cool.
Finally, Tier 3 accounts are the accounts in a new vertical or industry — not yet proven to be in the ICP. Trish Bertuzzi describes these accounts as ones who, “generally don’t have a passing need for your solution, but then an internal or external shock shakes up their priorities. This could be an acquisition, bad quarter, or change in leadership.”
Because of this, Tier 3 accounts can be automated with catered templates saving time and resources. This is your testing ground for exploration and finding new ways to reach accounts (of any tier) through trial messaging, new templates, and more:
Subject: {{first_name}}, stopping short of the finish line?
{{first_name}},
Are your reps giving up too early?
According to analysis done by Salesforce.com, it takes an average of 6-8 touches to reach a viable sales lead. Most reps only make an average of 2.4 attempts.
Salesloft can provide intelligence around your messaging, define specific follow-up steps and semi-automate the entire process — ensuring your reps find success at touches 6, 7 and 8.
How can I get 10 minutes on your calendar to discuss your outreach strategies at {{company_name}}?
Thanks,
Patrick
While we don’t recommend skipping steps in any cadence, if a rep sees that a lower tiered account hasn’t even opened an email, they may skip the call step and continue to try new online strategies to get a foot in the door.
Let your rookie reps practice, or your vets test to find out what’s getting a better response: a request for 10 minutes of conversation, or a 20 minute consultation? A/B test your messaging, and get creative with finding new ways to connect with accounts.
Automation enables teams to execute on Tier 3 accounts, while giving time to focus a creative and meaningful strategy for for Tier 1 and 2 accounts, and practice new strategies and messaging. By creating templates and automating emails, an organization can test a new market without burning time, and uncover if they should double down on an account, or if there’s simply not a fit.
And by empowering your team to be more personalized and efficient, you’ll become more effective when reaching each tier of accounts through a brand new workflow. This personalized multi-touch cadence model was built to be flexible, and give access to more insights when it comes to executing on every single level of account-based selling.
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Want a more comprehensive look at our multi-touch cadence process? Download our free playbook and start hyper-personalizing your accounts and crushing your sales development goals today.
