How to create a winning sales outreach strategy

Want to learn how to excel your sales outreach and get new clients? Look no further! We recently had the pleasure of welcoming back Digital Marketing expert Gaurav Sharma. He shared with us his strategies for successfully generating leads and securing new clients. 

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Gaurav is a Dux-Soup user and owner of digital marketing agency Attrock. He’s a well recognised growth hacker with over 10 years experience helping businesses such as Hubspot, SemRush and Shane Barker to grow using content marketing.

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To hear first hand how Gaurav generates leads in 2023, head over to our YouTube channel to watch a recording of the webinar: How to create a winning sales outreach strategy. 

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For a summary of his expert tips, keep reading as we take you through Gaurav’s approach for a winning sales outreach strategy.

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First off, what is sales outreach?

It’s the process of engaging with your target consumers or prospects with the intention of converting them into customers. It involves using tactics like email marketing and cold calling to attract new customers.

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Two types of outreach…

• Outbound (or cold) outreach is when you pitch your solution to the users or consumers who you think will be the perfect prospects. It’s not time consuming and doesn’t take a lot of effort. If you have a strong message sequence, you can reach out tomorrow and get a response next week.

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• Inbound (or warm) outreach is when someone contacts you. They’ve heard about you, maybe seen you on social media, or found you through a search engine and they want to work with you. The drawback of inbound outreach is the time, effort and cost it takes to build a brand.

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Why does sales outreach matter?

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It matters for a few reasons. It can help you to:

• Reach new leads and prospects on multiple platforms
• Promptly and proactively seize sales opportunities
• Find and go after big-ticket, high-value clients
• Build and nurture solid industry relationships

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How do you create a winning sales outreach strategy?

Here’s Gaurav’s 6 step process:

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Step 1. Identify and define your target customers by: 

• Identifying your target customer segments and creating a list for each
• Defining the characteristics of each customer segment e.g. age, gender, geographic location, customer persona and customer profile (e.g. B2B, CEO, HR).
• Using existing customer data to get more details
• Prioritizing your most valuable customers

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To help you create your customer persona, ask yourself these questions:

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Step 2. Build a database of prospects

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Before you start your outreach, prepare a database of prospects.

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Here are some tips:

• Use contact management tools to find and organize lists of contacts. There are multiple tools available that can provide third party databases - ZoomInfo, UpLead and LeadFuze to name a few. Try searching for hyper-local databases that focus on a city or district.
• Embed forms on your website to capture contact information.
• Segment your contact list and categorize them using relevant factors.
• Create detailed profiles of each prospect and their pain points.

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Step 3. Draft a tailored communication strategy

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For each persona, draft a unique and customized communication and outreach strategy. Decide on the initial channel of communication and the number of follow ups you will make after the opening message. 

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When you create the personalized message consider the following:

• What are their challenges and pain points?
• How can you offer a viable solution to these?
• Which solutions do you plan to pitch to them?
• What value and benefits are you offering to them?

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When you create the follow up messages consider:

• Connecting each unique message to the one before. Remember, each message is a part of your story.
• Avoiding a follow up message as a way to check they read the last message. Asking ‘Did you see my last message’ is not going to engage them. 
• Using ChatGPT to create the message sequences.
• Creating 3-4 follow up messages.

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Step 4. Choose the right outreach channels

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Reach out to your prospects on channels where they’re most active.

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The most popular sales outreach channels are:

• Email
• Phone
• LinkedIn
• SMS

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The channel you choose will depend on the prospect you’re trying to reach. For local or hyperlocal prospects use the phone or SMS, if they’re B2B use email or LinkedIn. Step 1 is the foundation to getting this right.

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Step 5. Always follow-up

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Following up is the key to successfully converting prospects into customers.

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Keep the following do's and don’ts in mind:

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- DO have 2-4 follow-up messages/calls. Here’s an example schedule:

• Opening email/message: Day 1
• First follow-up: Day 3
• Second follow-up: Day 5
• Third follow-up: Day 9
• Fourth follow-up: Day 15

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- DO keep some gaps between follow-ups

- DO use headline or subject analyzer tools to keep your messages out of spam filters

- DON’T spam with daily follow-ups

- DON’T keep messaging incessantly

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If you’ve followed steps 1-5, the responses will start to come in!

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Step 6. Record all interactions in your CRM

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Connect your outreach tools with your CRM to organize the data. From here you can access information about your prospects and see your previous interactions have been responded to.

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How to use emails for sales outreach

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Email marketing is most marketer’s top sales outreach channel.

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Here are some tips for doing it right:

• Use tools to scale up and multiply! Choose a reliable and feature-packed email marketing platform. E.g, Mailchimp, Omnisend or Sendinblue. 
• Warm up your inbox. Email warmup services send and receive automatic emails to simulate legitimate conversations. After enough time and repetition, you’ll build trust with your ESP so you can send emails that land in the inboxes of your recipients rather than spam folders.
• Get prospects to sign-up by offering lucrative incentives such as a Cheatsheet or a Checklist. This shows them you know what they need! In the follow up messages pitch your services.
• Place pop-ups and forms for email sign-ups on your site

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Some tips for email:

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- Write a compelling subject line to boost email open rates

• Keep it short but catchy
• Ask a question
• Generate curiosity by giving a teaser
• Offer a solution to a problem
• Avoid spam words like ’discount’ or ‘sale’

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- Personalize your emails and ensure they offer some value

• Refer to them by name
• Tailor messaging according to their persona and position
• Show your knowledge of their company and where you can help

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- Add compelling CTAs both within the content and as CTA button.

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This sales outreach email template by Hubspot is a great example:

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How to do cold calling right

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Cold calling is infamous for being an intrusive outreach technique, but if done right it does drive results!

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Here are some tips:

• Understand and discuss the pain point of the customer.
• Choose a convenient time to call your prospects. If now’s not a good time, ask “when is?”.
• Prepare a script, but don’t read it out like a robot, make it a conversation.
• Clearly set out the next steps.

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Tips to use Text/SMS marketing to convert leads

Did you know that texting leads after an interaction leads to a 112.6% higher engagement rate? The best way to approach this is to:

• Keep your messages short and sweet
• Focus on the pain point in the first message
• In the follow up messages mention the value/solution you’re providing
• Always add a compelling CTA and clear next steps

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How to use social media and Dux-Soup for sales outreach

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Start by choosing the right social media channel for your sales outreach. It’s important to use the one where your target customers are most active. If you’ve done your research, you’ll know which is best for you.

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Use LinkedIn automation tools to streamline the process. Guarav is a self-confessed fan of Dux-Soup which he uses to shorten the sales cycle and drive more sales conversions. 

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With Dux-Soup Turbo, you can find and interact with relevant prospects, boosting your visibility by automatically visiting profiles, sending connection messages and automating campaigns. 

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Gaurav shared his recent results…

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“Dux-Soup automated my LinkedIn sales outreach and helped me reach 3296 leads. 10.19% of which were qualified leads. 

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I acquired 336 new leads in just 40 hours.”

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To help you choose the right sales outreach channel, think about your goal, your prospects preferred channel and the urgency of your communication. 

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To make a start with LinkedIn automation, why not try Dux-Soup’s 14 day free trial, just click on the link below to register (we don’t even need your payment details).

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In summary, to get the best results for your sales outreach use the 6 step process!

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For a winning strategy:

• Start by conducting thorough research into your target customer
• Opt for a multi-channel sales outreach strategy
• Use technology and automation wherever possible
• Create a tailored outreach strategy for each target segment
• Always follow up!

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Want to listen to the Q&A with Gaurav?

There were plenty of questions for Gaurav at the end of the webinar. Go to 32:00mins on the recording to hear his responses.

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Here’s a sample of some of the questions:

• What are the parameters for the most effective email server?
• What are the tools for analyzing messages to minimize the risk of them being seen as spam?
• What CRMs do you recommend?
• In step 5, would you suggest using the same channel for the follow ups or a mix of emails/phone calls/SMS? 
• What reply and close rates do you see from campaigns?

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About Gaurav Sharma

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Gaurav Sharma is the founder and CEO of Attrock, a results-driven digital marketing company. 

He grew his own agency revenue from 5-figures to 7-figures in just two years and generates monthly organic traffic in excess of 300,000. Gaurav is a recognised ‘Growth Hacker’ with over 10 years of experience in boosting sales for SaaS companies. His previous clients include Hubspot, Semrush and Shane Barker to name a few.

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