In today’s newsletter, I will share the system that I use to calculate how many prospects I (or my customers) should contact every day. By following this simple system, you can build the first step of your outreach system and gain a better understanding of your daily activity level.

Here’s the system, step-by-step:

Step 1: Define your goal

Start by defining or reviewing your goal. If you are an Account Executive, your goal may be a booking, MRR, or revenue goal. If you’re an SDR, your goal may be an opportunity or meetings booked. In both cases, having a clear understanding of your monthly, quarterly, or yearly goal is critical to being successful in your job.

You’d be surprised how many reps don’t know this number. Don’t be one of them.

In the example below, the goal is 138 discoveries performed per quarter:

In today’s newsletter, I will share three questions that you should answer in your weekly 1:1s as an SDR or an SDR Manager. 1:1 meetings are often unproductive and time-consuming. By answering these questions, you can get 80% of the information you need to orient your work as an SDR.

Let’s dive in:

Question #1: How many prospects did you add to your sequence?

By answering this question, you’ll have a better understanding of the potential conversations you can have with your prospects. Focusing on this metric is preferable to the number of touchpoints, as it provides a better indication of the number of prospects you have reached.

For instance, if you have 100 touchpoints with an average of 5 touchpoints per prospect, you will only reach 20 prospects. However, if you contact 100 prospects (regardless of the number of touchpoints per prospect), you will have a larger outreach and, most likely, more conversations as a result.

Resources to help you:

• Sales Process Calculator
• 4 outbound messages to start conversations

Question #2: How many conversations did you start?

This metric serves as a leading indicator of prospecting success. I have observed that 95% of the SDRs I train initially focus on booking meetings rather than starting conversations. They pitch their products, attempt to entice prospects into a demo, and as a result, most of the prospects ignore them.

Instead, starting a conversation can provide you with a better understanding of the messaging that resonates with your prospects. If you steer the conversation properly, you will ultimately book meetings.

Resources to help you:

• When you can’t book meetings, try this tactic
• How I navigate conversations to book meetings

Question #3: How many meetings did you book?

This question is crucial, but it is only a result of your prospecting system. SDR managers often prioritize this metric while neglecting to track the number of conversations started and the amount of prospects contacted.

Instead, focus on initiating conversations with as many prospects as possible, and this number will automatically increase.

Resources to help you:

• Build your prospecting system (20% off today)
• Calendar link etiquette

Answering these three questions during your 1:1 meetings will give you a better understanding of your prospecting system and help you determine what you need to work on to reach your targets.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

In today’s newsletter, I will share the exact system I use to build a referral strategy. Referrals are incredibly important for generating opportunities in 2023. By following these steps, you can start more conversations by tapping into the network of your existing customers.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Make a list of existing customers

Existing and past customers are incredibly valuable in generating new opportunities. To create a list of these customers, go to your CRM and include the following information:

• Full name
• Company
• Job title
• Status (Active, Inactive)
• Details about the ongoing or past contract

Step 2: Write a “Thank You” script

Now that you have a list of existing and past customers, you can write a loose script using the following framework:

• Thank you: Begin with a quick thank you and mention your ongoing or past contract with the customer. Be specific to indicate that it’s not a generic message.
• Referral ask: Request a referral from the customer by highlighting the problem you solved for them.
• PS: Add a PS addressed to the person who received the referral.

Example:

• Thank you: Mary, recording this short video to thank you for working with me. I really enjoyed training your SDR team, and based on the work I’ve seen from your team, it looks like your reps will start a lot more conversations than before.
• Referral ask: Additionally, if you know of anyone (inside the company or outside) who is trying to solve the problem you solved with our training, would you be able to forward them this email? This would mean a lot to me!
• PS: If Mary sent you this video/email, you can reach out to me at [email protected] or on LinkedIn.

Step 3: Record a video

To record your referral video, use Tolstoy and follow these steps. Check my example below:

In today’s newsletter, I will share four key takeaways from last week’s online masterclass. On July 5th, 17 salespeople joined me for a 90-minute workshop to help them build their cold outreach sequences from scratch.

Here are the four lessons I learned from working with them:

Lesson #1: If you don’t know your prospects’ problems, you won’t get replies

We began the session by reviewing the concept of the Ideal Customer Profile and defining the problems that they typically face. This exercise was interesting because most participants were familiar with their products, but were uncertain about the problems they were intended to solve.

Understanding your prospects’ problems is critical because it demonstrates that you empathize with their situation. This sets you apart from other salespeople who are prospecting them and increases the likelihood of receiving responses.

Lesson #2: Build a sequence skeleton before writing your messages

Most of the SDRs I train tend to spend a disproportionate amount of time building messages and using frameworks, but they often overlook the importance of building a prospecting structure. A structure can help them maintain consistency through follow-ups.

That’s why we have focused on creating a sequence skeleton, just like the one shown below: