9 Sales outreach best practices

There’s no denying that sales outreach is tough. After all, only about 9% of sales emails are opened, and response rates are even lower.

What can you do to beat the odds and increase your success? Incorporating these 9 best practices into your process will help set you up for success.

1. Use automation tools to lighten the load

One of the best things any sales team can have on their side is automation. Automation tools can lighten the load in a few different ways:

• Taking care of tedious tasks, like verifying contact information
• Scheduling and reminding you about when to follow up
• Sending the right messages at the right time

Automation helps you speed through the gruntwork, giving you back your time. You can then focus more on nurturing your relationships with potential customers.

Automation doesn’t just benefit you, though. It also helps your prospects. They get better support from you, which can convince them to sign up.

2. Target the right leads with sales outreach

The success of your sales outreach efforts often rests on the quality of your prospects. High-quality leads take less time and effort to convert. It’s little wonder that sales professionals spend nearly 10% of their time researching leads.

To find the right leads, you can use:

• Qualification tools that rank prospects
• Verification tools that confirm contact information
• Tools that extract profiles from social media

With the right tools, you can find more of the people who want to hear about your product.

3. Personalization is king

Sales professionals are always looking for ways to speed up their process. One popular method is to use email scripts, and other standardized messages.

If you’re using automation tools, you might even generate templates you can use over and over.

Here’s the catch, though. Prospects want to receive thoughtful messages, not generic email blasts. In fact, 72% of people say they only engage with personalized messages.

It doesn’t take much to personalize a message. Be sure to add the prospect’s name, as well as their job title and the name of their company. If you can, take the time to adjust your email or message to address the prospect’s specific problem or needs.

4. Test your sales outreach messaging

Another good habit to get into is testing your messages. Sales outreach is tough enough without sending lackluster emails and subject lines.

Once you or your team have drafted a message, tweak the copy to create a couple of variations. Sometimes, this might be a matter of adjusting the subject line. In other cases, you might want to run the message through a tool that can adjust its tone.

Then you’re ready to test these variants out on your audience. Take a sample or segment of your prospect list and randomly send Version A or Version B to recipients. Measure responses, so you can discover which ones are most likely to get people to click and reply.

5. Follow up

Even if you’re sending personalized messages, response rates are often still low.

Now add in the fact that 60% of customers say “no” 4 times or more before they say “yes.” You need to keep following up if you want to close the deal.

Of course, you also don’t want to annoy your prospect. These tips can help you follow up the right way:

• Use a tool to track when a prospect was contacted and how many times they’ve been contacted
• Data analysis can show you when a prospect is “hot” and ready for outreach
• Send the right material: if the prospect is at the top of the funnel, don’t send buy links

6. Align with marketing

When sales and marketing team up, it leads to higher sales. Not only that, but customers often feel they’re getting better service.

Use Marketing Material for Outreach

Many buyers say they don’t get the information they need from sales. If they do get it, they often feel it doesn’t arrive when they need it.

Marketing often has material that’s custom-geared for prospects who aren’t ready to buy yet. Linking up with marketing means you can get the information your prospects want, when they want it.

Companies that design and optimize websites for nonprofits, higher education, and healthcare – like Kanopi – can help ensure your outreach campaigns have the right digital infrastructure.

Qualifying Leads

The marketing team can also be a great resource when you’re prospecting. For example, they may have leads for you from recent newsletter sign-ups.

Use marketing’s data to find more qualified prospects. You can also use it to discover what a prospect’s pain points are, what solutions they’re considering, and so on. That makes it easier to craft personalized messages when you do reach out to a prospect.

7. Use data during sales outreach

Data is more valuable than oil these days. The good news is you have more of it at your fingertips than you think. Make use of it during your sales prospecting and outreach efforts.

• Use client profiles to find “lookalikes” when you’re prospecting on social media
• Use KPIs to discover which messages are resonating with your prospects
• Use analytics to track prospect behavior and create custom messages for them

Using data helps you deliver messages that prospects actually want to receive.

8. Build a relationship

At the core of the sales outreach process is the human component. Your prospects want personalized messages so they know you’re paying attention to them. They also want thoughtful responses that speak to the problems they’re facing.

Instead of focusing on what you need to sell, think instead about the longer term. You want to turn your prospect into a client who sticks with your company. To do that, focus on building a relationship through your outreach efforts. In doing so, you can become a trusted resource for your prospect—and someone they actually want to talk to.

9. Show your value

Finally, when you’re doing sales outreach, be sure to prove your value to the prospect.

How can you show value? First, sell them on the problem they have. Data can help here. Next, show how your product or service solves that problem for them. Show them what you can do and how that will help them succeed.

Level up your sales outreach

We live in a world of infinite sales channels, which means you need to cut through a lot of noise to get your prospects’ attention. These 9 best practices take you beyond getting an email address or creating a pithy subject line. They set the foundation for long-term success and will help you on your way to closing more deals.