4 ways to boost your B2B outbound marketing efforts

In my experience as a BDR, I've learned that personalization and making the prospect your primary focus can help you increase your reply rates, meet quota, and do so much more simply by being human and not that salesperson who is only looking to make a sale.

Personalization is everything in B2B outbound marketing and sales

You may be wondering why personalization is so important in B2B outbound marketing. The first thing to note is that you're not just approaching a business, you're approaching a person.

Most prospects receive at least 10 outbound emails per day; the problem is that few if any of them are customized to that person and their needs, and therefore they aren’t interested. Put yourself in their shoes: would you be interested in something that doesn't speak to you? No, right?

Do some research on the prospect or the company you are targeting before making a cold call or sending an email. Linkedin is your best friend in this situation. There is so much valuable information to be gained there such as:

• Their “About Us” section (sometimes has valuable insights)  
• How long have they been with their present company? (If it is more than 10 years then you could try praising them for their time at the company)
• Point out any recent promotion
• Volunteering at a non-profit organization
• Mention any honors and awards
• Recommendations

Capturing their job titles and responsibilities may support the formation of a persona. If you combine that with your persona work and messaging guide, you'll quickly get a sense of how to speak to them.

The increasing importance of personalization is now widely recognized by marketers, with most successful email marketers in 2020 noting personalization as one of the best ways to increase engagement. Remember that as humans, we enjoy hearing about our accomplishments and ourselves.

Here are some quick personalization ideas:

• While surfing LinkedIn, I noticed that you've been with (business name) for X years in 3 different roles. That's fantastic! It shows your dedication.
• PS: Congrats on your new role! Hard work does pay off.
• I realized you are an animal enthusiast, I have a cat of my own named Oreo :)

The list is endless, but I assure you that it will not take you more than 5 minutes to obtain some valuable insights that will significantly increase your chances of getting a positive response.

Focus on the prospect, not your product

SaaS companies are prone to falling into a trap of speaking to the great features and differentiators of their product without realizing that they’ll find much more impact in speaking to what benefits those features offer to their audience.
Engage with your prospect instead of just feeding them a stilted sales pitch; be attentive to their needs and situation. This will help you understand that everyone is different, and so are their needs.

This is particularly important if you are including cold calls in your outbound sequences as they provide you with a great opportunity to just listen to how they respond to your messaging and what they’re hoping to gain from an offering.

Handling negative responses

It's natural to get negative responses as we often say no to things we don't know. Many, especially a company’s decision-makers, will also have a natural aversion to cold outreach as they are inundated with emails and calls. Being human is the greatest method to overcome this obstacle. Understand what the prospect is saying to you and why they’re unhappy with the message you’ve presented. 

Handling objections is a difficult ability to master and takes time to improve upon due to the fact that most senders already have a bias towards their own product and the solutions they offer. To help ease and quicken this process, record frequently raised questions and concerns and draft responses to them to prepare yourself and others for when they come up again. 

For example, if one of your leads is currently working with a competitor, don't trash them because it could reflect poorly on your company. Here’s a way that I would try to overcome it:

Thanks for the reply, {first name}. 

I'm sure you're happy with your current solution. But wouldn't you prefer to test out a different option and discover whether one is better suited to your needs?

You only need to respond yes so that we can schedule a demo and have you try out the trial. Perhaps you can be the new hero at (company name). Haha! 

Can’t wait to hear back from you, 

That is the ideal method to respond to a negative email in a casual and human way without seeming like a salesperson just looking to close another deal. More on dealing with objections can be found in Patrick Dang's 3 Sales Tips For Overcoming Objections in B2B Sales.

Send emails that are straightforward and simple

Remember that in B2B sales, you are reaching out to decision-makers and C-level executives who are extremely busy and dislike wasting time and often ignore your email entirely if they think it’s too long.

That is why you should make it short and sweet, emphasizing what is most important to them and making it easy for them to respond to your email to help increase your response rate. 

Before sending an email ask yourself these questions:

• Have I done all I can to personalize my message?
• Does your main goal stand out when reading the email?
• Is there anything that might be caught in a spam filter? 
• Is it a good time to send it?

Those questions can help you craft the perfect email, and also put yourself in their position. How do you feel when you receive an email from a stranger out of the blue? Would there be enough information to spark your interest? Or is it so long that you wouldn't even want to look at it?

Learnings

When you’re executing outbound sequences, don't approach your calls and emails as a salesperson; be human and have empathy for your prospects. Listen to them, create rapport with your leads, and continually reflect on what benefits they are truly looking for.

Put yourself in their shoes! Just as you don't want to waste time, they don't either, so make it easy for them to come back to you by getting straight to the point in your emails or cold calls and providing a clear call to action or next step for them.