3 Ways To Increase Cold Sales Prospecting Conversions, with Shawn Finder, Episode #118

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If you’ve listened to my show at all, you’ll know my opinion on cold sales prospecting. You shouldn’t do it. You should always reach out to warm prospects. Occasionally, you have no choice but to email rather than make a phone call. When that happens, there are specific practices you should use to increase the efficacy of your communication.

My guest on this episode of #SellingWithSocial is Shawn Finder, a former semi-pro tennis player and the founder and CEO of Autoklose, an email automation tool. We discuss the best tactics for cold sales prospecting through email. You won’t want to miss our conversation about the best practices for sending cold emails and tips and tricks for making your emails convert.

Ways To Make Connections Before Cold Sales Prospecting

During our conversation, Shawn recommended a few campaign ideas you can try before sending out cold emails. Look up conferences you plan to attend and create Meetups to connect with potential customers during your prospecting process. It’s an effective way to nurture relationships. Research the conference by using trending hashtag lists in order to see who will be attending. That will give you a list of people to reach out to. Once you’ve connected, don’t let the relationship cool down. Use follow up campaigns to keep yourself top of mind with your new prospects.

Another great campaign to use when nurturing prospects is the quote campaign, followed by timed cadences. You send an initial quote email and from there use a program like Autoklose to track open rates and activity. Use your knowledge of that activity to move prospects through campaign sequences that lead the prospect to your services.

Successful Selling Starts With Knowing Your Customer

Before attempting any sales conversation, whether the prospect is warm or cold, it is imperative you know your customer. No matter how you reach out to your prospects, know what you’re selling, who you’re selling to, and why they need your product or service. One of the biggest mistakes salespeople make today is writing up an email and blasting it out to everyone, then praying that a sale comes of it. Dial down to who you are trying to reach and how you can solve their problems and then tell them that.

Another huge mistake that salespeople make is talking about themselves instead of relaying the value of their products and services. This is borne out of either not knowing how you solve your prospect’s problems or not taking the time to find out who your prospect is. Rather than spending the entire first paragraph of an email or first two minutes of a sales pitch explaining who you are and what you do, use that valuable time to explain how you serve.

Don’t Forget Your Calls To Action 

The most compelling and insightful email will not make an impact if you don’t tell the reader to take action. You want to craft compelling calls to action keeping you and your company relevant with your reader. First, the action should not be time-consuming. Since your goal is to contact the decision-maker in a company, usually the CEO or president, you want to remember that they have limited time available to hear about your offer. Make it easy for them to set aside time to speak with you by using a scheduling app or program and giving them a few choices of appointment times.

Other great CTAs that work great are links to pertinent blog posts, ebooks, and case studies that speak to the problems the decision-maker is facing that you can solve for them. Another great CTA is to ask an engaging question that highlights the prospect’s pain points. Be sure that whatever the CTA is, it links to a clickable action that you can track to determine what your engagement rates are. 

Subject Lines Are Valuable Sales Prospecting Real Estate

How do most people check email today? These days, people are more likely to check their emails on their mobile phones than anywhere else. Your subject line should be short, personalized, and compelling. When looking at email on mobile, only five of the words in the subject line show. Be sure those five words speak to your prospect. 

Personalizations such as “Hi [First Name],” or [Business Name] + [Business Name], have the highest open rates. Again, this goes back to understanding your customer and what makes them tick. If you only have five words to reach them, what are the best five words? What will catch their eye and make them think twice before trashing your email? 

Body Text Personalization Is The Key To Conversions

Use your company’s CRM database to keep information about your prospects. This information becomes valuable personalization data for future email campaigns. In our conversation, Shawn shared how using a person’s location and recent sports team wins creates engagement and more conversions. Email automation tools allow you to populate data fields that automatically pull from your CRM into your emails. When you’re cold-emailing, use the data you already have to create a deeper connection from the beginning of the conversation. Also, you can leverage our tips for creating the perfect cold calling scripts.

Craft a clear and concise email with a compelling subject line and a defined call to action. It’s the recipe for cold sales prospecting success. Make your emails short and include as much personalization as is appropriate for the step in the automation process you’re in. Also, consider the length of your sequence. Listen to learn Shawn’s take on the ideal automation and email length.

Outline of This Episode

• [2:27] Professional tennis player to entrepreneur, Shawn Finder shares his path to sales
• [4:51] Effective campaigns to run besides cold prospecting
• [7:12] How to run an effective conference, quote, and webinar follow up campaign. 
• [12:17] What are the biggest mistakes sales reps make when cold prospecting by email? 
• [21:49] What types of CTAs can a sales rep drive towards that are effective? 
• [27:47] Subject line tips and tricks for best open rates.
• [30:56] What is the ideal cold email and sequence length and why?
• [36:57] Utilize your CRM to personalize your sales emails for higher conversions.

Resources Mentioned 

• Shawn’s Company: Autoklose – where he serves as CEO and founder
• Follow Shawn on Twitter: @autoklose
• Follow Shawn on LinkedIn
• Follow Shawnl on Instagram: @sfinds
• B2B Sales Handbook
• 673 Years of Sales Excellence Book
• Shawn’s all-time favorite movie: The Wolf of Wall Street
• Modern Marketing Engine Podcast –  Bernie Borges

Connect with Mario!

• www.vengreso.com
• On Facebook
• On Twitter
• On YouTube
• On LinkedIn

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