Ryan Gould — November 27, 2018 — November 27, 2018
With so many brands trying to stand out and make an impact, it’s up to you to show prospects why your business is the one they need the most.
The best way to do that?
Reach out to them and highlight the value you can offer.
The outreach process has been a successful form of marketing for as long as the business world has been around, but it can be disheartening reaching out time and time again only to get no response.
To ensure prospects warm up to you quickly and actively want to invest in your product or service, you need to build a strategy.
Most businesses struggle to make it past the third year. Source.
But we know you don’t have years or even months to start getting customers through your digital doors, so we’ve put together this guide on how you can build a 7-day outreach plan to start making sales in the next week.
Set Goals Before You Start
Before you start hitting up inboxes around the world, it’s important that you know what you want to achieve with your outreach plan – and it’s important that you get specific.
For example, do you want to:
- Schedule 50 demos by the end of the month?
- Land 5 high-level prospects in the next 6 weeks?
Getting numbers, deadlines, and tangible goals in place will help you determine the next steps you need to take, as well as help you figure out whether your plan is actually working.
Day 1 & 2: Dive into the Data and Build a Prospect List
So many companies go for the scattergun approach and send out thousands of emails to prospects they haven’t fully qualified.
This is why most people don’t see success with outreach.
Instead, you want to use accurate data to qualify your prospects and handpick potential customers that really need your product or service.
To do this, you want to spend the first 2 days of your outreach plan creating a prospect list that takes key data into account, like demographics, financial status, and any other information that’s relevant to what you’re selling.
There are a number of ways you can do this, including:
- Searches on LinkedIn
- Checking out relevant local business networks and groups
- Attending meetups that your ideal prospects are likely to be at
- Running a simple Google search
There are also plenty of tools that you can use to get more specific with your searches, whether you’re on the hunt for people in specific job roles, prospects that use specialist software, or companies that are currently hiring. You can then dig deeper to find verified emails and phone numbers to build a more concrete picture of your prospects.
Day 3: Make Initial Contact
Is anybody out there?!
Once you’ve got your prospect list, it’s time to put yourself out there. In the first instance, this involves sending an email.
But you don’t want to send just any old email.
Remember: first impressions count.
This is your opportunity to stand out and start building a connection with your prospects.
To do this, you need to:
- Use a catchy subject line that attracts attention but also highlights what the recipient will find when they click through into your email (here are a few ideas to get you started)
- Personalize your emails, so you’re using the names and details of your prospects. This will make them feel special and not like you’ve just tried to contact anyone and everyone – plus, it’s easier to connect with prospects if you’re sharing your personality
- Demonstrate your value by highlighting what your business is and what problem it solves (you don’t want to dive into a full backstory of your company, but you want to clearly state what it is you do and why you’re emailing)
Day 4 & 5: Nurture Relationships and Offer a Demo
After you’ve made initial contact, it’s time to start nurturing those relationships. People aren’t going to buy your offering straight out the gate, so you can use these two days of your outreach plan to educate your prospects on why they might need your product.
Again, this involves sending an email that:
- Educates your prospects on how your product or service solves a major pain point they have. Here, you might share a case study from a previous customer, or you might link out to a blog post that goes into more detail about a service you offer
- Has a call-to-action (CTA). You’re goal at this stage is to schedule a demo or encourage the prospect to reach out to you for more information. But if you’re not telling recipients what you want them to do next, how will they know to do it?
Day 6: Pick Up the Phone
Now it’s time to really solidify the connection you’ve started to build over the last 5 days. At this point, you might have some prospects reaching out to book demos, but it’s likely you’ll have to put in the leg work yourself.
On an average day, office workers receive around 100 emails, so it’s incredibly easy for yours to get lost in the pile.
So, rather than trying to stand out in their inboxes again, it’s worth picking up the phone and giving your prospects a call. Speaking person to person is a lot more powerful than reading a bunch of words on a screen, and it’s more likely to kick potential customers into action.
Your goal for the call shouldn’t be to make a sale.
Instead, it’s to push for a demo if they haven’t already booked one. Here’s a guide to nailing your conversion rates when it comes to scheduling demos.
Day 7: Follow Up
You’d be amazed at how many companies don’t follow up with their prospects, which is one of the biggest sales mistakes you can make.
The final day of your outreach plan puts you back in front of your prospects one last time. This day is reserved for those who haven’t taken the bait with your demo offer, so it’s kind of your last ditch attempt to reel them in.
An email works fine here. You want to keep it short and sweet with a clear CTA at the end so your prospect is left in no doubt as to what you want from them. Here are some follow-up templates you can use right now.
Get Over Your Fear of Reaching Out
Outreach is an important part of growing your business in the early days. The idea of reaching out to cold prospects is daunting, but if you come at it from a human angle that highlights the value you’re offering, you’ll see much better results than hitting and hoping.
This 7-day outreach plan will help you qualify prospects and warm them up over the period of a week so you can start making sales right away.
What does your outreach plan look like at the moment and how could it be improved?
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