In today’s newsletter, I will walk you through an important concept for salespeople. I call it “The Netflix Effect”, and it’s a powerful concept to help you start more conversations, and book more meetings.

It’s important because it will change your focus from trying to book meetings, to starting conversations by using a natural trait of humans: curiosity.

Let’s dive in.

The Netflix Effect

What’s the latest Netflix series you’ve been hooked to?

I’ve been religiously binge watching every season of Love is Blind with my wife, and it came down to one simple reason.

The producers of the show made it impossible to stop watching the show by adding a cliffhanger at the end of each episode.

They build tension by showcasing drama, and they cut to the next episode, right before solving the drama. Will Izzy end up with Johnie? Is Milton actually going to propose to Lydia?

There’s only one way to know – keep watching.

Teasing instead of giving

Here’s how I recommend using the “Netflix effect” when you’re prospecting

1. Find a big problem your prospects are faced with every day: What massive problems are these people trying to solve every day?
2. List symptoms of these problems: What concrete symptoms these problems create?
3. Find resources to alleviate the symptoms: Are there resources you can share to solve these problems?
4. Tease the resource into your message: Ask questions about these symptoms, and tease the corresponding resource.

Example: Selling a spend management software

For example, let’s say you’re a rep working at a spend management platform, helping finance teams track their expenses and increase their bottom lines.

Start by following the 4 steps from above:

Find a big problem your prospects are faced with every day: Let’s assume you’re building a prospecting sequence to start conversations with CFOs of B2B tech companies, with a ton of salespeople traveling and spending money to land new customers. A big problem is the considerable amount of expenses generated by the sales team, and the potential for expenses to spiral out of control. It’s a massive headache for a CFO with a tight budget.

List symptoms of these problems: There are tons of symptoms of this massive problem for a CFO. For example, they may do a monthly expense check and see a business class ticket booked by a sales rep, when they are supposed to fly in economy. Another example could be a $1.500+ restaurant bill, when the company limit is $250. You can’t get reimbursed for a restaurant expense like that, and if you work with a lot of salespeople, these T&E expenses can quickly get out of control.

Find resources to alleviate symptoms: Your company should have some free resources to market to your prospect. In our example, an Acceptable Expense Policy template would be incredible valuable to a CFO. They could share this policy and get it signed every quarter by salespeople, as part of their quarterly performance review.

Tease the resource into your message: Here’s an example of a cold message to a CFO:

“Martin, saw you hired over 40 salespeople in 2023 alone.

Curious to know how you’re preventing all these salespeople from spending way too much money on T&E expenses like flights and customer dinners.

If controlling your reps expenses is an issue, I have an Acceptable Expense Policy template you can directly share with your salespeople.

Worth a peek?”

Tying it back to you

If your job involves booking meetings with prospects (it should be if you’re in sales), picking their curiosity is the best way to start conversations. You can do it by listing concrete problems they are trying to solve every day.

Once you’ve done that, list detailed symptoms of these problems, find or build resources to help solve these problems, and include them into your messages.

This approach will help you start many more conversations, by using a trait all humans have – curiosity.

Hope this was helpful.

Cheers,

Thibaut

In today’s issue, I’ll share how you can create a problem calculator to use in your prospecting. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I love using big, massive problems to start conversations with prospects. If you can create a simple problem calculator, you’ll be able to tease it in your prospecting messages, and catch the attention of your prospects.

Here’s how, step-by-step:

Step 1: Find a big, quantifiable prospect problem

The first step is to have clear idea of a problem your prospects are trying to solve. It has to be a massive problem for them to care. It’s also important that you can quantify this problem, otherwise you won’t be able to create your calculator.

For example, a VP of Sales Development will care about outbound pipeline generation. If they have a goal of generating $150M pipeline in 2024, having a $20M pipeline at the beginning of Q2 is a massive problem.

Step 2: Find the metric your solution can impact

When you have found a big problem you can quantify, you need to find the metric your solution can impact. Your metric has to be directly related to the problem you have found in step 1.

For example, my Prospecting Engine has a direct impact on the pipeline generated by a salesperson taking it. The metric I’ll focus on is the pipeline generated.

If you were selling an expense management solution, a good metric could be the bottom line.

Step 3: Build a before/after calculator

Now that you have a clear idea of the metric your solution impacts, you can create your calculator. The easiest way to create your calculator is to create a before/after comparison so you can create a gap.

For example, in this calculator, I have created a comparison between a 100% focus on new logos only, and a 100% focus on expansion.

In today’s issue, I’ll share exactly how I use triggers to get a 46.45% reply rate. Without understanding intent-data and how to use triggers, you won’t book outbound meetings in 2024. However, if you use triggers to create relevant outbound messages, prospects will pay attention to what you have to say, they’ll reply more, and you’ll book more meetings as a result.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Understand intent-data

Before reaching out to your prospects, you need to understand what is intent-data, and how you can use it to make your prospecting more relevant. In short, intent-data is data about a potential buyer’s online behavior that indicates what they could likely do next or buy.

For example, your marketing team will use website visits, clicks on email marketing links, or a business card collected at a tradeshow as intent-data. They then nurture the leads until they request a demo, or pass them directly to you (the salesperson) to try to book a meeting.

This kind of intent data is interesting, but you have no control over it. That’s why I suggest using a second type of intent-data – the one you find on LinkedIn. Post reactions/comments, profile visits, LinkedIn event attendance are all great intent-data you can use.

Step 2: List potential triggers

Now that you know better about intent-data, you can start listing potential triggers you can use to start conversations with your prospects. This is what I call trigger-based prospecting – you focus on finding interesting creators and influencers who attract your ICP, and use the post reactions/comments as triggers.

For example, I love using posts from other creators to find potential prospects to reach out to. That’s why I recommend listing the types of triggers you want to track, so you are sure you know what you’re looking for. Here’s a cheat sheet to help you list your triggers:

In today’s issue, I’ll share the exact process I use to design my Power Hour. A Power Hour is an uninterrupted, focused prospecting block. Without a regular prospecting ritual, you won’t be able to create consistency, which is 80% of your success as a salesperson. But if you follow these steps, you’ll create the right habit to be successful in prospecting.

Here’s how to design your Power Hour:

Step 1: Protect your calendar

Start by identifying the moment when you’re the most productive in your workday. Personally, mornings are when I get most of my work done, and when I’m the most productive.

I’m not a big fan of prospecting (it’s boring and repetitive), but it’s the healthiest habit for my business and my pipeline. That’s why I prospect first thing in the morning, from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM.

When you have identified your most productive time, create a 30 to 60 minute blocker, and repeat it every day, indefinitely. This will help you protect your schedule, and avoid being booked by your manager, colleagues, or anyone distracting your from this ritual.