Today’s newsletter is a bit different. It’s almost the end of the year and I thought I’d share a quick update I’m really excited about. A few weeks ago, I stumbled on a post from Justin Welsh, where he shared his Intro link.

In today’s newsletter, I’ll share 3 concrete steps you can follow to close a deal today. Salespeople (especially Enterprise salespeople) love to explain how their sales processes are different, how it’s impossible to close a deal without involving all the stakeholders, etc, etc.

No matter what you sell, if you follow the 3 steps I’m about to share with you, you’ll close deals a lot faster. In fact, I closed one myself (I’ll admit, it was a small deal) in one day. Here’s the WhatsApp conversation I had:

In today’s newsletter, I’ll share a simple tool to help reduce the risk of burning out when working as a remote salesperson. 2024 hasn’t been easy, especially for remote salespeople. Around 2/3 of salespeople are expected to miss their sales targets this year, adding a lot of pressure to their lives.

We’ve all been there. You wake up one day, and you instantly start getting anxious. You know you have a ton of things to do, but you have no clue how you’re going to do them when there are so few hours in the day. Even worse, you know that your to-do list is growing bigger every day.

You start your day with this dark cloud over your head. You can’t stop thinking of what have to do, which makes you less present and more anxious. I know about it because I experienced it when we moved to Mexico in September.

This is where a Mind Sweep will help. A Mind Sweep is a simple exercise I discovered when I purchased Notion Mastery, a few years ago.

Here’s how it’s done, step-by-step:

Step 1: Capture your thoughts

Start by writing down all of your thoughts. You don’t need to get them structured, or prioritized. Just list everything you have on your mind. It can be professional or personal. It doesn’t matter, as long as you’re capturing it.

I don’t know about you, but I often get stressed or anxious because I know I need to do something, but I’m afraid I’ll forget to do it. Something simple like paying the electric bill, or following up with a customer. I know I need to do it, but if I don’t write it down, or act on it, I start worrying.

As the day goes by, I feel anxious, but I forget why I’m anxious. I spend more time thinking of why I’m anxious, and I can’t remember why. Then I become angry, stressed, and soon enough, I’m unbearable.

By capturing your thoughts, you go from worrying about what you have to do, to knowing that your thoughts are captured, and you just need to go back to your mind sweep to see what you have to do.

Here’s an example from my Mind Sweep for Sales:

In today’s newsletter, I’ll share a useful prioritization framework if you have to deal with inbound leads. It comes from a 1:1 coaching session we did with a customer who is dealing with an important flow of inbound leads.

It may come as a surprise, but inbound leads aren’t always worth pursuing. This framework will help you understand where to put your effort.

Here’s how, step-by-step:

Step 1: Score your leads

Before contacting a lead, you need to give it a score. A score is related to the behavior of your lead. Everything from website visits, webinar signup, demo request, and so on.

There are countless intent-signals and triggers you can use to score a lead. For example, your marketing team may send you unprioritized leads lists with details about their activity. A lead who signed up for a webinar 3 months ago has a low score. They most likely aren’t in the market for your solution.

On the contrary, a lead who visited your website 10 times in the last week, downloaded more than 3 resources, and has been viewing the pricing page a few times has a high score.

Step 2: Grade your leads

Second dimension of our matrix is the grade of a lead. The grade has to do with the profile of the lead. Look at the firmographic and demographic data about the lead. What company are they working for, what’s their job title, have they recently switched jobs?

All this data will give you a good understanding of the quality of the lead. For example, an intern at a shady company on the other side of the world has a low grade. On the contrary, the CRO of a multi-million dollar tech company has an excellent grade (if you’re selling to this type of people).

You can build an ICP Matrix if you want to have a benchmark to help you grade leads.

Step 3: Prioritize your leads

Meet the Inbound Lead Prioritization Matrix

In today’s newsletter, I’ll share a simple tactic you can use if you want to book meetings at in-person events. Q4 is usually jam-packed with trade shows and events. Marketing teams spend a ton of money to get a booth, yet most sales reps don’t maximize these events for pipeline.

The system I’m about to share is one that a sales rep I coach has been using successfully at Web Summit to book 8 meetings. He even managed to close two deals, while he was at the event.

Step 1: Build your profile in the event app

When you go to an event, there’s usually an app to help the attendees get to the location, understand the schedule, and communicate with other attendees. Most salespeople sleep on the opportunity to use this app to book meetings.

Instead of just using the app to plan your event, take some time to build your profile. It’s usually similar to a LinkedIn profile, with a picture, a headline, a bio, and a a few options to get in touch with you. Get all these elements right. You can apply the concepts in this free guide to help you.

Step 2: Build your list of prospects

Now that your profile is ready, you can start building a list of prospects to contact. Just like any other list, start by updating your Ideal Customer Profile. Find the types of companies you’d like to contact, and find the ATL and the BTL you’d like to start conversations with.

When this is done, you don’t have any excuse to start prospecting. You have a list of people who will be in the same room as you (even if it’s a big one), so you can get to work.

Step 3: Send a short, direct message

This is where most people who use the event app make a mistake. They craft a cookie-cutter message and they send it to everyone. They pitch their company, and ask for a meeting at the event.

Stop that immediately.

Instead, write a short, direct message. Something like: “FirstName, when can I come to see you at your booth?”.

You’d be surprised. The rep I’ve been coaching for that event was able to book 8 meetings. He did his homework, he built his profile in the app, he created a list of prospects, and he sent them this message.

As a result, he was able to get a 30%+ reply rate, he was able to start conversations, and he navigated them to book meetings.

Step 4: Meet at the event

I’ve been to a few trade shows myself, and I wasn’t prepared as I should be. I was wandering around, looking for people to approach, without meetings lined up. I ended up collecting a few business cards here and there, with almost no opportunities generated.

That was back when I was starting my career as a sales rep. Luckily, my coaching customer didn’t do the same.

With all the meetings lined up, he showed up to booths at Web Summit, had a ton of conversations, and he was even able to close two deals, while being at the event.

He didn’t approach people to pitch his product, instead he tried to understand their plans for the rest of the year and for 2025. Conversations flowed naturally, he was able to find problems, quantify them, and craft a solution with his customers.

And this is how you can book meetings at in-person events. Use the event app, build lead lists, send them a short, direct message, and have natural conversations with them at the event. This will help you maximize the opportunities from events, so try it next time you’re at one.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

P.S. If you’re interested in getting coached individually like my customer, I’m opening a few coaching slots. Right now, I’m working on a weekly 1:1 coaching, unlimited WhatsApp async conversations, and custom projects when necessary. I charge €600 per month or €1.500 for 3 months, cancel any time. If that’s interesting to you, you can book a quick chat so we can see if we’re a fit.

In today’s newsletter, I’ll share how you can organize your day as a remote salesperson. When working remotely, self-discipline is critical. If you can’t stay organized, you’ll spend your day procrastinating, and your results will immediately suffer.

Good remote sales jobs are hard to come by, but they still exist. If you want to find or keep a good remote position, you need a system to understand what to focus on to be successful in your professional and personal life.

Here’s mine, step-by-step:

Step 1: List your projects and tasks

Selling remotely isn’t just about running discovery calls and sending Docusigns. There are tons of different projects and tasks you need to execute to make sure you perform. There are also tons of projects and tasks that won’t help you.

The first thing you need to do is to list the projects and the tasks related, so you can have an idea of the ones that are important.

Let me give you an example. We recently moved to Mexico with my wife and my son, and the first few weeks have been super hectic. Between the move, furnishing the house, and starting new businesses, I kept getting behind my work, so I decided to list the projects and tasks that were important to make sure I could keep selling. Here are 3 projects I worked on:

Restart prospecting routine

• Define daily ritual
• Catch up on follow-ups
• Add new daily prospecting blocker

Revamp content strategy

• Review top-performing content
• Build video recording studio
• Add new content planning and building blockers

Launch weekly mentoring offering – Send me “Mentoring” on WhatsApp if you’re interested

• Survey newsletter subscribers
• Prospect existing customers
• Build mentoring packages

Step 2: Do an audit of your day

Now that you know what projects you need to focus on, you can start auditing your day. It’s often the last thing you’ll want to do when you’re busy, but I guarantee it will help you get more clarity and reduce the stress related to your work.

To audit your day, write down everything you’re doing in a given day (you can do more than one day to get a better view of what you’re working on). Do include all the personal tasks that fill your day. If you’re working remotely, your personal and professional life will often blend. For example, here was a typical weekday for me, before reorganizing my day:

• Wake up and take calls, catch up on messages before my son wakes up (15 min max)
• Comment and catch up on my LinkedIn post while preparing breakfast for my son
• Bring my son to his kindergarten
• Clean up the kitchen, take a shower
• Go back to working (it’s already 10AM by the time I get started)
• Go down to grab a coffee
• Work a bit
• Eat lunch
• Try to work and realize I’m too tired
• Take a nap instead

When you do this, you start seeing patterns and realize how much time you’re wasting by switching tasks. In my case, I realized that:

• I was working 2 hours max, because I kept getting interrupted
• I was not present for my son when he was waking up
• I would do sport irregularly
• After 2PM, I’d be so drained by the constant task switching that I wouldn’t be able to get back to work

I was basically letting my work permeate into my personal life, making both less enjoyable.

Step 3: Reorganize your day

With this audit, I had a clear vision of what was wrong. I understood why I felt like there wasn’t enough hours in my day. That’s when I made a few changes that have drastically improved my efficiency and the pleasure I took from working from home.

Here’s how my day looks like now:

In today’s newsletter, I’ll share how I use LinkedIn and WhatsApp to book more meetings, and to book them quicker. LinkedIn and WhatsApp are quickly becoming my favorite duo, as I have found a way to combine these two channels to turn replies into meetings.

Here’s how, step-by-step:

Step 1: Start conversations on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the best channel to find triggers and prospects. They leave their digital footprint everywhere.

Post likes. Profile views. Event attendance. You can use all these interactions as triggers to start conversations.

For example, when a prospect likes a post about multi-channel outreach, you can use it as an excuse to start a conversation.

Something like: “Mary, saw you also liked Morgan’s post about his Captain Boomerang Play. Ever thought of using this play on WhatsApp?”

If you need inspiration, here’s a list of 26 cold outreach message templates.

Step 2: Move conversations on WhatsApp

Most people won’t reply to your outreach. And it’s absolutely fine.

But some will.

LinkedIn is a busy place. Your prospects keep getting pitch slapped. Your conversations on LinkedIn often end up nowhere.

This is where moving the conversation on WhatsApp makes sense.

Use a variation of this message: “Mary, thanks for your reply. Opposed to sharing your WhatsApp so I can show you how I use this channel to book more meetings? I found voice notes to be easier to consume.”

Step 3: Drop a voice note

Some people won’t be fine to share their WhatsApp with you. Again, it’s fine.

But some will.

When they share their WhatsApp number, don’t send them a lengthy text message. Instead, use the voice note feature in WhatsApp. You will find it at the bottom right of your screen. It’s a small microphone icon.

You’ll get a lot more replies with voice notes over text messages. When you use this feature, you humanize your communication.

It also increases the chances of your message getting heard, and getting replies. Most prospects are super busy, and answering by typing a text message is a major blocker for most people.

And this is how I use LinkedIn and WhatsApp in combination to book meetings. LinkedIn is the prospecting channel, and WhatsApp the conversation channel. If you want to try it, drop me a voice note on WhatsApp.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thibaut

In today’s newsletter, I’ll share why I think automation killed conversations. If you’re using automation to book outbound meetings, and you’re barely getting replies, this will help.

Automation is a great way to save time, and scale your outreach, but salespeople often use it in a way that hurts their performance. They create a sequence, add a bunch of templates, hit start, and get no replies.

Here’s what I think about that.

The observation

The first automation tool I used was Yesware.

It was in 2015.

At the time, you could create a sequence, enroll prospects, and your entire prospecting was on autopilot. It was a great time.

But salespeople abused these automation tools. Under the pressure of shareholders interested in multiplying their investments’ valuations, sales teams started sending thousands of outbound messages everyday.

Prospects got tired of being bombarded with crappy cold outreach messages. They got overwhelmed. They stopped paying attention.

Then came additional spam filters from email service providers, daily limits, and now email is barely usable for outbound prospecting.

What to do instead

If the situation I described above is familiar, you’re not alone. Here’s what you can do about it:

Step 1: Automate what you can

Take a step back and put yourself in the shoes of your prospects. Imagine being on the receiving end of a cookie-cutter outbound sequence. What’s your first reflex?

I personally scan all the emails, LinkedIn messages, and texts I receive and I can say within a second if it’s automated or not. 100% of people who send me automated messages end up blocked and in my spam filter, just like Lynette:

In today’s newsletter, I’ll share how I close deals over WhatsApp. I’ve been using it to start conversations with old prospects, negotiate deals, and send offers.

Here are my stats after 3 weeks of using it:

• 14 conversations started
• 10 meetings booked (71.4% meeting rate)
• 6 opportunities created (60% opportunity rate)
• 3 deals closed for a total of $4,925 (50% win rate)

I’m pretty excited about it. It’s a great tool to build rapport, and get direct access to my customers. I send them text messages, voice notes, videos, and documents.

Here’s my exact process:

Step 1: Move the conversation on WhatsApp

Most of my conversations on WhatsApp happen with people who I already know. Old customers, lost opportunities, people in current opportunities, and so on. Instead of communicating with them by emails, I ask if they agree to share their WhatsApp number with me.

Some don’t and it’s fine. Most of them do.

When they do, I drop them a quick voice note to incentivize them to use WhatsApp as a communication channel.

Step 2: Run discovery calls

I have recently stopped running calls on Zoom, Meets, or Teams. Prospects are too distracted. They stay focused for 3 minutes, and then, they get dissipated.

Instead, we agree on a date and time to chat, and I call my prospects on WhatsApp. People are less distracted, they stop switching tabs, and they pay attention to the conversation. Most of them take the call on their phones, so they tend to stand up and walk.

It’s more dynamic.

If we need to do a screen sharing, we use Meets or any other tool, but we stick to WhatsApp to keep each other in the loop.

Step 3: Create an async communication channel

This is where WhatsApp becomes so powerful. Instead of sending long emails, hoping I won’t get ghosted, I drop a voice note or a text message. The format forces me to send short, direct, informal messages.

It’s a great way to bring energy to my deals and keep them moving. If I don’t get a reply, I call the prospect. They can still ignore me, but I have an arsenal of tools I can use to keep the conversation moving.

Step 4: Close the deal

Finally, I use WhatsApp to close the deal. Nowadays, I work on a more transactional type of sales, which means I use payment links instead of contracts. I use Wise, Stripe, or Paypal so I can get paid quickly.

It’s a an excellent way to accelerate deals. For example, I was speaking with a customer yesterday, and I sent a €1,000 Paypal link and got the money on my account in less than 10 minutes.

I understand this may not work for bigger deals, but using WhatsApp is a good pattern interrupt, and something you can’t afford to ignore. My wife closed a €42,000 deal on the last day of Q3, and it all came down to using WhatsApp to get a reply when emails didn’t work.

These are 4 steps I follow to close deals using WhatsApp. If you’re like me (addicted to the feeling of closing deals), then WhatsApp is a great way to reduce your sales cycle length. You’ll get answers faster. You’ll qualify and disqualify quicker.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris