As the CEO of KiteDesk, I am fortunate to be able to see firsthand how Sales Development Teams build their outbound prospecting workflows. Since this lead generation practice is literally the tip of the sales funnel spear, it is critically important that organizations ensure that each step in their outbound process is thoroughly analyzed and tested.
The best-in-class prospecting teams we work with are in a constant state of A/B testing call scripts, email templates, workflow tweaks and even in call nuances like tone of voice. These companies are making huge investments in getting highest possible results from their SDR team, but failing to measure, test and capitalize on the options available based on the modern sales prospecting options.[Tweet “Every step in your outbound SDR workflow must be carefully tested!”]
Most of the workflows I see look something like this:
- Day 1 – Email, Call
- Day 2 – Call
- Day 3 – Call, Voicemail
- Day 4 – Email
- Day 5 – NA
- Day 6 – NA
- Day 7 – Email
Look typical to you? But let’s look at what is missing:
- Warm Introductions – Jill Rowley has coined the phrase “your network is your net worth” which has become popular in the Social Selling community. I completely agree with this statement, however, I see very few people that actually convert their network into something of worth. Buyers also agree. In fact, buyers are 5X more likely to engage with a salesperson as a result of a warm introduction vs. a cold outreach. As an SDR, I’d look at a stat like that and make sure that my outbound process started with a warm intro whenever possible.
- Social Media – For those salespeople whose clients are active on social media, recognition must be given to the efforts they put forth in connection to, and engaging with, their prospects. Most Inside Sales Leaders aren’t building outbound workflows that include social, let alone measuring the impact of social media sales efforts, on creating top of the funnel pipeline.
- Content Sharing/Consumption – Expanding on the Social Media theme, modern sales processes include content sharing. Personalizing content sharing has become one of the differentiators that reps can incorporate into their normal outbound cadence. More and more we expect to see SDR managers working to incorporate the one-to-one content sharing workflow step into SDR’s routines. Once this is completed, then measuring the efficacy will be the next step.
- Event invite response – For companies that utilize education as part of their sales process, holding online events is now a commonplace occurrence. However, when gathering data on the effectiveness of an outbound prospecting routine, we have yet to see a company measure invitation response rates. As we enter 2016, we expect to see more companies including educational event invitations as part of, not only their routines but also, their measurements.
So, what if the workflow instead looked like this?
- Day 1 – Warm Intro (Email)
- Day 2 – Social Media Connection
- Day 3 – Content Share via Email
- Day 4 – Phone call / Meeting
- Day 5 – Email Follow-Up
Which do you think would be most effective within your organization? Further, given the nature of busy buyers intersecting with your sales reps, wouldn’t this type of sales workflow make sense from an efficiency standpoint?
There are surely more items that could be added to this list, so we’d love to hear what you are seeing. What type of modern sales outreach steps are you including in your normal process? Are you using video? How about texting? Please share your comments below so we can keep the discussion going and if you would like to see KiteDesk in action … please visit our YouTube Channel!
Photo Credit: Sven Scheuermeier
Sean Burke
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- Traditional vs. Modern SDR Workflow - January 7, 2016