How to Leverage Tech Powered Sales with Justin Michael, #186

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Automation is the path of the future, especially for sales companies. But, knowing how to automate sales outreach the right way is where so many companies are falling short.

My guest on this episode of The Modern Selling Podcast is an avid technologist and sales futurist who has mastered the science of fully automating fast-growing sales.

Make sure to listen to the entire conversation with Justin ‘TQ’ Michael as he walks us through the most proven automation strategies that no one else in the industry is talking about (or even using).

Justin Michael, Co-founder of HYPCCCYCL & Salesborgs, is the automation consultant companies call for highly-targeted RevOps and GTM strategies that work. Having coined the term ‘Technology Quotient’, his ingenious approaches have helped Fortune 100 companies like Salesforce and LinkedIn crack the top funnel with tech stack optimization. His 20+ years of experience revolutionizing sales development itself, has exploded the growth of hundreds of cutting-edge technology startups. 

That’s why I’m so excited to bring his Technology Quotient brilliance to The Modern Selling Podcast and have him share the incredible insights from his new book, Tech Powered Sales.

Listen to this episode to get an inside scoop into what’s really working in automation and what key principles you should be applying right now to put your sales results on autopilot.

Where’s the Gap in Sales Automation Right Now?

What I love about Justin is that he’s a practitioner, not just a theorist. So, the automation strategies he shared in this episode come backed with vetted research and real B2B market testing.

That’s important because one of the biggest challenges that sales organizations are having today is that they buy technology, but they struggle in leveraging and implementing it. 

Or, they blindly rely on tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to make superficial connections that don’t lead to sales meetings or better prospect engagement.

That’s why I always say, “a fool with a tool is still a fool.” Because it’s not always about what high tech system you have for automation, if you’re not maximizing how you use it.

So, I asked Justin what trend he sees emerging in the market and why Tech Powered Sales is such a timely read for sales companies looking to win the automation game. 

“Automation is getting very elaborate. I do a lot of hyper-customizing, but I realized that there weren’t many resources out there available to companies that provided real examples of sequences and cadences that worked. Tech Powered Sales has everything you need to know what to do and how.”

Listen to the full conversation to hear where Justin recommends getting free tech stack resources and what sales companies should be putting in automation sequences to get better results.

How Do You Nail a Cold Outreach Email?

At Vengreso, we have an innovative omnichannel strategy, we call it the PVC Sales Methodology, to how we approach cold outreach and prospecting.

I was curious to hear Justin’s thoughts on our process and what he found that works to drive higher sales engagement.

Justin says, “The problem with automation is that you’re telling your prospect that they’re getting a sequence from a machine, when all you need to do is hyper-personalize… then people will believe that you’re a human and be more willing to take the meeting.”

I think that’s such an important point! Today’s modern buyer expects to receive computer generated responses and emails. So, when we can break through the ‘robotic white noise’ with a message that feels “human”, the results can be incredible.

But, what really surprised me was Justin’s recommendation on the length of a cold email. 

In our sales training and virtual sales programs, we teach students that 111 words or less, for an email, is the optimal length to shoot for. That’s because it takes 40 seconds to read, which is the average time span spent on a digital task. However, Justin found that the sweet spot for his automation systems is under 100 words and no more than three sentences! Now that’s hard. 

Join in the eye-opening conversation to see what other key insights Justin shares that will help sales teams land more meetings even with the coldest audiences. 

How Do You Nail the Right Email Sequence?

Getting through SPAM filters and into your prospects inbox is just one small part of the sales outreach battle. Because driving clicks and booking meetings is a much harder science to master.

Justin shares, “The human brain, the neuroscience, the persuasion, the social proof, the relationship building, and the personalization elements haven’t changed. You need to understand these components to know what to put into automations.”

That’s why we teach sales psychology specifically in our LinkedIn training programs because sales teams need to know and appreciate the science behind why certain tactics work.

I wanted to dive deeper into Justin’s approach to see what sales-generating gems he uses to transform sales emails into powerful sales tools for his clients. 

He’s studied a lot of different sequence and cadence techniques over the years that he has this down to a science.

For cold outreach sequences, Justin uses a highly-targeted email sequence structure that involves five key principles:

1. Hyper-personalize every touchpoint to build real and authentic human relationships.
2. Every communication must be relevant, specific, and relatable to the prospect.
3. Emotional triggers have to be craftily and carefully woven in to spur action.
4. Short, concise text-based messages should be sent in the first few emails. 
5. Compelling visuals must be compressed to under 100 kilobytes and used later in the sequence.

His insights around the use of Venn Diagrams is particularly interesting as well (he gets into the details of what he calls, ‘Venn Selling” about halfway in the episode).

Be sure to listen to the entire conversation to learn how sales teams should be using email templates or LinkedIn message templates and what Justin suggests is the best way to quickly automate sequences.

Plus, if you’re ever looking to connect with Justin on anything AI or sales automation related, then be sure to check out his Salesborgs platform. He shares a host of free tips and strategies there that are designed to trigger hypergrowth.