Hello to 71 subscribers who want to see what it's like being a new SDR. Welcome!
What’s happened these last two weeks?
I’ve been sending a video message (using Allego, of course) to every new connection on LinkedIn. The script has been a variation of this:
Hey xxx, thanks for connecting.
The reason I reached out is that other pharma/med device companies like major brands like Baxter, J&J, and Novartis to smaller niche companies come to us for help.
They're frustrated by the lack of insight they get into how successful the marketing content their sellers use is.
They spend lots of time and money on training but are disappointed by the amount of knowledge sellers actually retain.
They're fed up with deals that involve several stakeholders losing steam as they can't keep everyone engaged for long enough, and eventually dropping off the pipeline after several months with a whimper.
Would you be open to an exploratory call?
Let me know either way and have a great day.
Sometimes there’s a little personalization to add at the beginning, but the problems are persona-based and relevant.
Nooks has been a mainstay again. It came into its own on the last day of the month when I booked a meeting with the very last call of the day - the rest of the team was there and everyone stopped to listen in. Really felt like the old days of an office floor, even had the gongs going off when I landed the meeting.
I had some great feedback from an attempt to reignite a lost opp from last year with a handwritten card.
One step closer to a yes, right?!
I changed up my opener format this last week. Before I was using two problems and asking which was more relevant.
Morning xxx - Chris here from Allego. Appreciate I’m a bit of an interruption, but do you have a moment for me to share why I decided to give you a call this morning? I’ll be brief.
Appreciate that. So off the back of some conversations with other sales leaders I’ve had recently, two big problems have been shared more than any others.
The first is that the average deal can involve maybe 6 or more stakeholders and last several months and reps are getting ghosted by seemingly engaged prospects. This is leading to opportunities being lost to competitors who seem to have an inside track.
The second is, more around how sellers struggle to differentiate themselves from the competition and stay front of mind.
It's difficult to get that personal connection virtually. So what's happening is that reps feel it's a challenge to engage with prospects when they're only with them for such a small amount of the full buying cycle.
I don’t want to assume that these are things you’re experiencing xxx, but which of those potentially sounds most relevant to your world?
While this wasn’t going down badly, it just didn’t feel right. There are two valid problems here but it never flowed as well as I wanted it to.
So I changed it up to Jason Bay’s “Priority Drop” method - pick one major problem and outright ask how they’re dealing with it.
Morning xxx - Chris here with Allego. Appreciate I’m a bit of an interruption, but do you have a moment for me to share why I decided to give you a call this morning? I’ll keep it brief.
Appreciate that.
With the average deal involving maybe 6 or more stakeholders and lasting several months, getting consensus from buying committees is proving a challenge. What’s happening is seemingly positive-looking ops are losing steam and dropping off the pipeline.
Because it’s so difficult to get a personal connection in a virtual world, how do you make sure you’re engaging with prospects when you’re only with them for such a small part of the buying cycle?
First connection replied with “OK, that’s an interesting question. I got a couple of minutes so I can answer..” Ended up booking a meeting as he said “I don’t usually take meetings like this but you’ve made a really good account of yourself so you can have 20 mins!”
Performance figures for the two weeks
Emails
245 emails sent, 82 opened (33%), and 7 replies (2.9% of total, 8.5% of opens)
Calls
327 dials - 289 voicemails or no answers - 32 conversations - 3 referrals - 12 interested and callback - 6 meetings booked.
Top tip of the week
Read your emails back to yourself - ALOUD.
This is a great tip we learned from Mike Wander in our Lavender training last week. So simple, but so effective. Read it out loud - if it doesn’t sound like you, change it.
LinkedIn highlights
Scott Ward listed a bunch of top content creators you’re likely not following. Change that!
AJ Alonso had Kate Erwin on the DemandDrive podcast - they talked about how Marketing and Sales need to work together to be better
Kyle Asay gave out his free prompts to put into ChatGPT to create your own persona matrix.
If you’re reading this and would like to become part of my interview series I’ll be starting, just reply to the email or drop me a DM!
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