I run a small custom software company in Michigan.
I want to get better at outbound sales beyond just cold emailing or messaging people through LinkedIn.
We’re about to start publishing case studies and doing some outreach, so I want to take some time to study outbound sales and improve my skills.
Any recommended courses, books, or frameworks for B2B outbound sales, consultative selling, or building effective outreach pipelines?
Thanks!
I’d focus on zeroing in on a niche (even if it’s an artificial niche). Develop case studies for how you’ve helped people in your specific niche. Then find people in that niche and offer them those same niche services.
Do not try to be everything to everyone. No one wants to work with a software agency that “does anything”. (Well it’s possible but then you’re competing with thousands of other consultancies).
If you develop into a niche well, you’ll have less competition, you’ll be able to target the right people more easily, and youll be able to write messaging that speaks to people in that niche.
Everything gets easier when you narrow in on a small slice of a market. The problem set becomes smaller and easier to solve.
Once you see some traction, start to expand your niche.
Example 1: The other day I was trying to fix a sprinkler. My results were mid, then I saw a truck at my neighbors house with a phone number.
1. I was not in the market for sprinkler repair until that day. 2. I was too busy to make a market comparison, seeing that my neighbor did it was enough.
Example 2: I was thinking about refining my mortgage this year. My current servicer called me one day with an offer. It was a competitive but not t optimal deal, but the lady on the phone signaled to me she understood my values and would get it done.
That’s what you are looking for with outbound, people who are in need, willing to part with cash, but probably not shopping for the thing.
This is why cold calling works and why volume is so important. You aren’t trying to persuade people who aren’t interested, but trying to find those who are.
The biggest fear of people with money is not spending money, but that what they pay for won’t work out.
But you're actually doing something even more common: running a consulting business, and there's plenty of content on that for just that reason, so I would go find content on how to scale a consulting business, e.g. this seems like the start of a thread to pull on https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consultin...
www.salesviewer.com
They are analyzing your website data and telling you very much about the visitor. (I guess they are also doing some fancy AI stuff in the background, like connecing/syncing with linkedIn for known static-IPs etc.)
Give it a try!
- Make two (nested) lists - the people you know in real life- and the people they might know. Now, can any of these people be your potential buyers? if they are in first list, good, just talk to them, if they are in second list, ask for an introduction from your connection in first list.
- Advertise where your potential buyers might notice.
Because to solve someone's problems, they have to tell you their problems.
Or to put it another way, the thing you do is to solve the actual problems other people have. That's what you need to sell. You aren't selling the fact that you know how to use a hammer. You are selling the idea that you can build the right hammer for the job.
So sales is not "out reach." It is "what do you need?" and you will probably do better by optimizing for getting to that conversation, not through optimizing for low effort on your part.
Linked-in is best used for networking not push notification. Networking is about trust. Maybe you can't help with someone's problem but you know someone who can.
Finally, you can't sell desperately. Good luck.
2 - Understand what is the problem you're solving and how companies can benefit from it
3 - Understand how companies actually do procurement
4 - Outbound sales are the ones that sucks the most. A rejection is just a rejection, don't take it personally (one part of having actual sales people is being a more impersonal process - they care about the sales but a rejection is taken less personally)
1) "inbound marketing"
2) The lean startup / MVP
Also running a small consultancy firm like OP and coming from a technical background, building an effective sales motion is the hardest challenge.