It seems like every day a new piece of research finds that it takes five, no ten, no fifteen touches to make first contact with a prospect. While research firms can endlessly debate whatever that exact number may be, one thing is crystal clear: sales development requires persistence.
But being persistent should not be confused with pestering. Spamming a prospect over and over again is far more likely to drive them away than get them on the phone. To strike the perfect balance, you need to be creative and pleasantly persistent. Fortunately, the right technology can be a huge help in finding the persistent sweet spot. The right cadence structure, the right voicemail, the right follow-up can all help you get on your prospect’s radar in a good way.
Salesloft SDR Abby Reiter is somebody that strikes the balance of pleasant persistence hundreds of times each day. That’s why we thought she’d make a perfect guest for this week’s sales tips. Join Abby as she shares some of her best tools, tips, and tricks for sales development.
Transcript
Hey everyone! Abby here at Salesloft. Today, I wanted to talk to you about how to use technology to be persistent with your prospects. For any sales development rep, it’s hard to get your prospects on the phone the first or second try. It’s all about being persistent in a manner that’s not going to turn them off. A majority of the conversations that you have as a sales development rep require at least two to three, or even ten unsuccessful touches before the first connection is made. It’s tough to strike a balance.
In order to be persistent, I’m using technology in three different ways. As a sales development rep, my most important tool is cadence. It allows me to scale my workflow from one touchpoint to hundreds. With a teed up list of daily activities, it’s easy for me to stay on track. When it comes to cadences and utilizing them to be the best as a sales development rep, it’s easy to get your workflow structured in a way that’s going to be persistent. What I use on a day-to-day basis is Voicemail Drop. For instance, on day seven, step eight of my cadence, I’m going to leave an automatic voicemail that I click to send if I can’t get the prospect on the phone. Then I’ll move on to the next person to call. In my cadence, I have an in-thread reply on day three. That day one personalized email that I’m sending out, if you don’t hear a response on day three, it’ll automatically queue up to send to your prospect’s inbox so you can remain persistent and top of mind. In-thread reply will bump up your previous email that you sent, so whether it was something highlighting the company or you sent a day one video, they’ll see it again in their inbox, on top of, “Hey, wanted to reach back out to yo and make sure you saw my previous email.”
When it comes to leveraging technology to be more persistent with your prospects as a sales development rep, you can utilize phone and email. But what about all the integrations that Salesloft has to offer? I know I just mentioned our Vidyard integration, which makes it super easy to send personalized videos at scale. What I like to do is send over a video of me holding up a whiteboard with the prospect’s name on it. For instance, I would say, “Hey! Abby over here at Salesloft. “Wanted to send you over a personalized video.” “I’m sure as a VP of sales or a sales operations manager, “you receive emails like this everyday. “But what about personalized video?” As you can see here, some of the successes that I’ve heard from prospects today, is that they’re loving the creativity and personalization when it comes to leveraging Vidyard. Some of my videos have even gotten 133 clicks. So, what I’ll go ahead and do the next day is I’ll reach out to that prospect and ask them, “What do you think of the video?” Normally, it’s great positive responses. I do have to give all the credit to Salesloft for allowing me to be personalized and persistent while leveraging technology.
Thanks for watching. I hope y’all learned a few tips about how to be persistent and creative when reaching out to your target accounts.
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