Sales Leader: "We're not sure if outbound will work for us."
Me: "What's going on?"
Sales Leader: "Our team's cold email reply rates are below 1%. And we're booking 1 out of every 37 cold call connects into a qualified meeting. It seems like our personas just don't respond to cold outreach."
Me: "That sounds like a lot of work! Tell me, how did you create the messaging?"
Sales Leader: "Our CMO created the sequences. He has 12 years of experience in this industry and is a total expert on everything HR."
Me: "Interesting. Who are your top two AEs?"
Sales Leader: "Brett and Chris."
Me: "How involved were they in the creation of the sequences?"
Sales Leader: 😳
~~~
This conversation happens multiple times every week on sales calls.
The people who create messaging for outbound sequences are not salespeople or haven't sold to a prospect in years (sometimes decades).
You have to STOP creating outbound messaging in a silo.
No one persona, regardless of experience, should create sequences. This is a collective effort.
⛔️ Outbound messaging: Common mistakes
- The senior most sales, enablement, or marketing leaders create new sequences
- Tops reps are not asked for their feedback
- Reps are forced to use cookie-cutter sequences
- Little to no buy-in ("these sequences suck")
✅ Outbound messaging: What to do instead
- Create a "messaging committee" of 5-7 people (top AEs, SDRs, CSMs, PMMs, leaders, etc.)
- Run new sequencing by your top reps for feedback
- Allow reps to customize the new sequences, add personalization, etc.
- Much better buy-in when reps don't feel like copy/paste robots
~~~
This isn't rocket science. If you work in a silo, you will NOT get great results from your team's outbound efforts.
Messaging is a collective effort. And must be created by people having real conversations with prospects every day.
Agree or disagree?