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This is part four of the Mayfield series, “Thriving in Tough Times: Expert Insights.” In this series, we will share key takeaways and lessons learned from experts across a variety of fields. Stay tuned for content on reputation management, leveraging marketing, leading in challenging times, sales strategy in times of crisis, pivoting field marketing to digital, and more.
One area of particular focus for many leaders right now is sales, as revenues decline and customers’ budgets tighten. For this week’s installment of Thriving in Tough Times, we heard from Lars Nilsson and Travis Henry from SalesSource, who shared insights on managing the sales funnel, pipeline, and customers in today’s crisis market.
Here were some of their key takeaways:
It’s really important right now for heads of sales/marketing/the executive team to get together and look at the lead forecasting for the next 3-6 month time period. Where were your leads previously coming from? What were the sources previously? What are they now? There has to be a shift to digital and outbound (account based and targeted).
A wide net may not work as well right now – some customer bases are suffering. Re-think your targeted addressable market.
What you say in the first sentence of the first email is what grabs someone’s attention – it better be personalized, have context, and have relevance, or it’s going to see the delete pile pretty quickly.
Any single channel is a failing strategy – you have to pursue a multi-channel approach. No matter the sequence, starting on the first day with a triple tap (email, voicemail, and social message) tends to produce the best day 1 results. With phone, a lot of SDR teams are under-trained and not effective on the phone – plus, connect rates have dropped to 1-5% on average – expect to leave a voicemail and add value in that voicemail which points them back to another channel.
In the early days have SDRs at least focus on buyer personas rather than just geography, even if you don’t verticalize them yet.
Don’t be afraid to try sniper campaigns to target your most coveted accounts at the very top – this involves a VP/C-level executive from within your company reaching out to their counterpart within the prospect company.