The future of outbound is not:
⛔️ Turning SDRs into "influencers" or "thought leaders"
⛔️ AI written cold emails
⛔️ Any single channel being dead (phone, email, or social)
⛔️ AEs relying on marketing & SDRs to hit their number
The future of outbound is:
✅ Making the SDR role less "smile & dial" and more strategic
Sales teams will spend more time teaching SDRs about the personas they're prospecting to. What they care about. What their day-to-day looks like. The business problems their solution solves.
There will always be a need for proactively reaching out to prospects. Let's not pretend that SDRs are going to be thought leaders who generate a ton of inbound interest for their sales org.
✅ AE will be an "extra set of hands" vs. an "extra brain"
AI has nowhere near the ability to do the thinking for the rep. But it's very fast at compiling data points you'd otherwise gather manually.
AE will:
- Gather accurate contact data from multiple data sources
- Gather relevant triggers for you
- Suggest stakeholders to reach out to
- Tee you up with talking points
- Help you prioritize the best accounts
✅ Outbound will always be multi-channel
The hardest part about prospecting through phone & email is all the noise you're competing with. Email volume is at an all-time high. Cold call pick-up rates are at an all-time low.
Relevance & great timing will always be the answer to punching through.
The future of outbound isn't reliant on any one channel in particular. But on the ability of a rep to prioritize accounts most likely to engage, find relevant triggers, and engage with creative messaging.
AI will be a big help in this area.
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Agree or disagree with my takes?
I'm talking all about this and more in my coffee chat with Salesforce on Tues 6/18 @ 1pm ET.
Topic: How to make outbound work for you in 2024.
Register here to join us in the Slack channel: https://sforce.co/June18CC
