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Than%You%Can%Handle?%(1/2)%Outbound & Inbound taste great together, like peanut butter & chocolate even when you’re overloaded with inbound leadsJust because you have a massiveinbound lead operation don’twrite off outbound prospecting.[Vital] Avoid “InboundDependence” & Reactive TeamsSales people who only get inboundleads become dependent on them.Even Hubspot & Marketo, thecompanies that started theinbound movement, have bigteams of outbound prospectors tospeed up growth, increase marketcoverage, and to teach their salesteams vital skills.When inbound leads slow down(through fewer total leads coming inor if the sales team grows fasterthan the lead volume), they feelhelpless and don’t know what to do.When it makes sense for yourbusiness, adding outbound in as acomplement can make yourbusiness grow faster & your salesteam more capable & resilient.When salespeople have beentrained as prospectors, theydevelop a proactive mindset & skillsneeded to be entrepreneurial, to gomake things happen instead ofwaiting around for something tohappen for them.Easier To DoubleAfter you've figured out themessaging & steps, prospecting isa place where you can double yourresults by doubling the team.Increase Deal Sizes By 3-10xThe average outbound deal shouldbe 3-10x larger because you canspecifically target biggeropportunities and avoid small ones.Increase Market CoverageSay you have 10,000 companies inyour target market. How long will ittake before they all call you? Withoutbound, you can ensure filling inany gaps left by inbound.

Than%You%Can%Handle?%(2/2)%Do companies really do 80% of their buying research before contactingyou? Not for outbound!Less CompetitionThere’s a leadgen stat that getsthrown around a lot in the b2bspace that goes something like“80% of the buying cycle’s alreadydone by the time they reach out toyou.” Usually to emphasize howimportant inbound marketing is, orsocial media use, etc.That’s true – but only for inboundleads, not outbound-generatedopportunities. So while it’sfantastic when someone calls you,they are also calling 5 of yourcompetitors at the same time.Sometimes with outboundprospecting you’ll run across anactive project, but more oftenyou’re going in to help the prospectcreate a vision and plan for solvingtheir pain.More often than not, it will be muchless competitive than if they start aproject by researching the top 20options in the space.You’ll still lose 70-80% of the time,but the lost deals will show “Lost No Decision” rather than “Lost –Competitor” much more often thanyour inbound deals.Small Team, Big GravyYou don’t have to invest a ton andhire a huge team, even a smallnumber of outbound reps cancontribute another 10% to sales.And even a 10% increase inrecurring/Saas sales per year timehas a huge impact on your profit &valuation over time because ofcompounding growth.

utside%Help%Starting from scratch, alone, can feel dauntingThey had experimented with thePredictable Revenue outboundsystem (aka Cold Calling 2.0)internally the summer before theyraised money, but didn’t have muchsuccess.At the end of 2013 Tapstream was ahot startup to watch in the mobileanalytics space. They had grown theirmobile user acquisition platform to2,000 users in under 2 years and hadjust raised a seed investment round inorder to grow sales.While they were growing, many oftheir new users were coming fromsmall independent app developersand they needed a way to reach out totop app developers.Their Outbound Problems1) They didn’t have a dedicatedteam member that could assumethe prospecting role full time.2) They struggled to consistentlyfind accurate data on the peoplethey wanted to reach.3) They needed to increase lowemail response rates by simplifyingtheir email messaging.They Found Experts OutsideWhile Tapstream wanted to build aprospecting team inhouse, it wasn’tmaking sense at that time. Theyfound Carburetor (carb.io), whodoes outsourced PredictableRevenue prospecting.[Disclosure – Carburetor’s aservice of Predictable Revenue.]With Carburetor, Tapstreamgenerated 84 appointments in thefirst 4 months, and after 7 haddoubled the number of keycustomers.Fast-growth companies shouldusually plan on building internalprospecting teams, but it can beeasier to get there - launch, scale,or benchmark - with outside help.

84%Example:%How%GuideSpark%Tripled%To% 10M%With%Outbound%(1/2)%In 2013 at GuideSpark they took aless-traveled path focusingexclusively on outbound, phonebased sales.No free trials. No freemium.Almost zero inbound leads. Nocustomer advocacy program. NoSEO, no SEM. Passable website.Non-existent Public Relations.Limited investment money.Despite bucking the generallyaccepted ‘norms’ for SaaS startupsthey grew fast – tripling revenue.CEO Keith Kitani’s Tips1. Hire a Great VP Sales: We’llover this in the next Triple chapter,Part 4, on building scalable salesteams 2. Hire Fast. Hire Right: Growingoutbound sales does require you todouble your people to double sales,so you need to find the righthunters – competitive salespeoplewith ambition.3. Bring The Noise: They createdan open sales floor without highcubes or offices. It can be noisy, butthey wanted their people to learnfaster and push each other fasterby hearing each other every singleday. It helps ramp people fast.4. Break The Rules: They hadsalespeople who did their ownprospecting, breaking a cardinalPredictable Revenue rule – andfigured out how to make it work,because it was a company priority,not a side practice.5. Use Metrics & Keep ItTransparent: Easily visible &understood metrics speak forthemselves. Everyone knowswhat’s expected and who’sdelivering. Novices know who toemulate, and veterans know whocan help them develop evenfurther.

85%Example:%How%GuideSpark%Tripled%To% 10M%With%Outbound%(2/2)%6. Test Iterate: In yourexploratory ( 1-2M revenue)stages you’re still figuring thingsout. Stay nimble and flexible. Trydifferent messages until you findone that works and then hammerit. GuideSpark tried manymessages during their first year ofoutbound, finding several thatworked, & kept sharing across theteam what worked & didn’t.Why Outbound Worked So WellFor GuideSpark7. Avoid Travel Except WhenCritical: GuideSpark found theycould close six-figure deals overthe phone. While nothing beatsface-to-face for buildingrelationships, it is expensive intime and money so make sure youtravel wisely. Focus: Instead of chasing manydifferent leadgen ideas,GuideSpark was laser-focused onone approach – and got very goodat it. Fast Speed-To-Learning: Withoutbound sales, you learn RIGHTAWAY if your messaging isresonating with prospects - likegetting email responses (or not) orphone hang ups (or not)., and canchange tactics that day or tripledown on what’s working. Cash Efficient. Eachsalesperson was paid onperformance – low performance minimal expense. They were ableto get very far without outsideinvestment. Identifiable Prospects: Theircustomers span every size andindustry, but the buyer in eachcompany spans only a few differenttitles. So they could know who tocall in a huge sea of prospects.What’s Next For GuideSparkFor Act II, GuideSpark’s nowinvesting in marketing to build onwhat they know works. Theybelieve in marketing and want togenerate lots of inbound leads, theyjust found that starting with anoutbound model was more efficient,measurable and “immediate” ingetting off the ground, and hasprepared them to be much, muchsmarter about their marketing whenthey do begin spending money onit.

s%Growth%(1/3)%Are your sales dependent on a single rainmaker?WhatCounts, a 20 millionbusiness, specializes in helpingmarketers (esp. in media / retail /e-commerce / travel & financialservices) send personalizedmessages to increase engagementrates.After depending on their CEO/founder for years for almost alltheir leads, in mid-2012 theydecided to follow the PredictableRevenue framework. To drivegrowth, they began building anoutbound Cold Calling 2.0prospecting approach,spearheaded by sales director JJImbeaux.Within months, growth sped up:* “Sales Qualified Leads” grew from37 in 2012 to 109 in 2013 ( 294%)* “Sales Qualified Leads” havebeen increasing by 30-70%quarter-over-quarter sincebeginning.* Outbound is now sourcing 43% ofthe revenue from new customersales.More importantly, they finally havecontrol over their growth. JJ says“we can mathematically predictwhat a new sales hire will do at abasic level, and map out their next6 months.”What’s Expected of aProspecting Rep at WhatCounts* Read Predictable Revenue withinfirst two weeks at company* 1000 outbound emails per month* 52 Initial appointments per month* 24 Discovery Calls with AEs withinterested prospects* 6 Sales Qualified Leads / month* Average outbound deal size of 27,000 Annual Recurring Revenue* If the deal size is under 4500 peryear, they pass it to their SmallBusiness sales team.

s%Growth%(2/3)%And%about%their%superpower %Superpower: “7 touches over 7days”JJ says this approach greatlyincreased prospects’ responses Day 1 – AM: Short and sweetemail. PM: afternoon – voicemailDay 2 – Anytime: Call, don’t leavea voicemailDay 3 – AM: Call, no voicemailDay 3 – PM: Leave a voicemailDay 4 – Anytime: Send a funnyemail (re: farm animals in Latvia)Day 5 – NothingDay 6 – NothingDay 7 – Send a “break up email”Note: the exact steps of this kind ofseries isn’t as important as havinga plan for consistent followup!WhatCounts’ Keys To OutboundSuccess* The CEO and executives readPredictable Revenue and allbought-in.* Hired inexperienced, hungry,competitive, and coachable repsthat wanted to prove themselvesand beat their own results quarterafter quarter.* Had a team-wide, consistent plan& approach among everyone insales in making PredictableRevenue required reading.* Identified and focused on aspecific Ideal Customer Profile,rather than blindly trying toprospect any company willing totalk.* They found some great apps (seenext page) and figured out howbest to get value from them.* They have a well-defined path forprospectors to grow as Small &Medium Business Closers, thenMid-Market Closers and finallyMajor Accounts ry:%for%friendly%sales%compeBBon%%

s%Growth%(3/3)%Avoid%these%painful%lessons%A Painful Lesson Learned FromA Six-Month DelayWhatCounts lost six months withtheir first two prospecting hires,who had a lot of prospectingexperience, but who were too setin their ways and didn’t work out.Once in awhile there are peoplewho love prospecting, but for mostpeople it should be an interim job todo for a year or two while learning,before moving up or on.Click To View The PredictableRevenue “Hiring Guide”In hindsight, WhatCounts wouldhave hired different people, whohad less prospecting experienceand were more ready to learn,were coachable and eager toprove themselves.JJ’s Advice To You – “It TakesTime”Be careful about hiring people witha lot of prospecting experience andwho haven’t moved up in sales.If you’re starting from scratch, youhave the hiring cycle, training,ramping, sales cycle times.JJ says “Plan for several months,not several weeks to get thisgoing.”It takes 4-6 months to haveconsistent, quality leads comingfrom your outbound team, andanother 6 months to see regularnew deals coming in, depending onyour average sales cycle length.You can speed things up bybeginning with an internaltransfer(s) rather than brand-newhires, & sometimes outsourcing isalso a way to speed things up, suchas with Carb.io or LeadGenius.

89%WhatCounts%Favorite%App:%SalesLor%Data is always a pain in the butt todeal with in lead generation. JJmakes each prospectorresponsible for his or her own list:“Each of our reps build their ownlists. They’re accountable, have anintimate knowledge of theirterritory, and can’t complain thatway about the quality of the list.“WhatCounts originally usedSalesforce.com’s Data.com service(a respectable one) to get all theirdata. But they weren’t happy withthe 30% bounce rate.They tried out SalesLoft’sProspector tool, which allows themto build a targeted list withcontacts’ emails directly fromLinkedIn (which has the most upto-date data), & their email bouncerates dropped to single digits.SalesLoft has became their primaryprospecting contact-gathering tool,with InsideView as acomplementary one used mostly forgetting phone numbers.They can use ‘google like’ searchfilters to find titles by regions or byindustry verticals, building targetedlists for specific campaigns.Then with a click they can pull thedata into Salesforce.com.It’s not a replacement (yet) for otherdata services like InsideView &Data.com, but a valuablecomplement to them.SalesLoft has a lot of happycustomers who love it – it’s a neatapp and simple to start using.Just%click%and%add%%from%LinkedIn%

?%(1/2)%Outsourcing anything – including prospecting – can be tricky, here are tipson getting it rightWhile the idea of outsourcingprospecting (or anything) can beenticing, it’s also tricky.Here’s a case study about a fastgrowing, hot Silicon Valleycompany we can’t name. Let’s callthem ACME.Why? Companies commonlyabdicate their prospecting ratherthan delegate it to an outside firm.About “ACME”And even more important - half thetime projects fail because theoutsourcing company isn’t pickyenough about the customers theytake on (including many who aren’ta great fit), and the other half failbecause the “buyer” has unrealisticexpectations or doesn’t know whatto do with the leads they get.ACME’s ideal customers arecompanies being newly created,because it was much easier to sellthem on their HR/Finance servicethan to replace competitors whowere entrenched in establishedcompanies.ACME found & hired outsourcedprospecting company LeadGenius,and found they could use them intwo main ways:a) To build & filter the lists oftargets, identifying new companiesas they were being formed in theirtarget markets, using data frompublic corporation filings,Crunchbase, and AngelList (doneby workers overseas) and b) To make first contact, sendingprospecting emails and gettingresponses in coordinatedcampaigns to set up product demos(done by workers in the USA).LeadGenius reaches out to 300new people each week, gets 100 toreply and 30 eventually signing upfor a demo. Then ACME’s teamtakes over to qualify & close sales.

?%(2/2)%Outsourcing is not a magic pill or silver bullet – it still takes workKeys To ACME’s OutsourcingSuccess 1) Fast (small) first success:ACME started with a focused, tinyscale project that let them evaluateLeadGenius before expanding,and got them some very fastresults ( 24 hours).2) Trust Building: The twocompanies built up somemomentum and trust over the firsttwo months as ACME sawconsistent results with campaignsgoing out, responses coming back,and demos getting set up. Thismade it easy for ACME to decideto invest bigger.3) Never assuming “we’re done”:LeadGenius and ACME continuallyworked together to understand thebest way to use LeadGenius’people and services.ACME stayed actively involved,never abdicating responsibility.4) Leadership commitment:ACME’s head of marketing ownedthe project to ensure it stayed ontrack, even personally helping tomanage both the project as well asthose involved.5) Working together throughbumps: Even when outsourcingworks right away, it’s rarely asmooth ride (what is?), andLeadGenius helped smooth the firstphases by giving ACME somecontrol over swapping out workersand who was on the team.Remember – if you treat outboundprospecting as a cheap/low-levelinvestment, you’ll get cheap results.Whether you build in-house oroutsource, you will hit challenges.But there’s always a solution!

92%A%Cold%Email%That%Got%16%New%B2B%Customers%with Heather R. Morgan of Salesfolk (1/2) How to turn cold emails into conversations & clientsHeather R. Morgan runs a B2Bcold emailing consultancy, andthese are some of her tips.Great Company, Crappy EmailsEarlier this year a B2B company came tome for help with their outbound emails.They offered an incredible service forWhat’s the difference betweenSaaS companies, but weren’t verythe cold email template that no#3) Too “Me Me Me”: Their emailssuccessful with cold email: responseone opens and responds to andtalked way too much about why theythe one that generates leads from rates were below 2%.were awesome, listing theirdozens of new customers?In about a month of working together Icompany’s features instead of puttingcreated a single email template that got it in terms of value for the customer.Is it the subject line, the length,them more than 16 new customers.the way the copy was written, or#4) Too Hipster: They wanted tothe content (and the ideas in thatseem young and modern, but all theircontent)? The answer is aWhy Their Emails Were Bad Beforefancy marketing automationcombination of all of the above.templates made their cold emails#1) Too long: No one wants to read aIf you have a good targeted listmini e-book in an email.seem impersonal and spammy, evenand your response rate is lesswith custom inserts.#2) Tried to make too many points:than 10% with personalizedNo one thinks they’re getting aThey have an amazing product, butemails, then your emails couldhighlightingtoomanyvaluepropspersonal email if it’s too pretty.use some work.confused people.Remember: Keep It Simple.

93%A%Cold%Email%That%Got%16%New%B2B%Customers%with Heather R. Morgan of Salesfolk (2/2) The example templateWhy It Worked:#1) Exciting subject line: The subject line is yourgate-keeper, so 50% of cold email work should bespent crafting and testing different

Predictable Revenue to having executive buy-in, prospector job recs approved, & a signed consulting agreement with Predictable Revenue. #3) Acquia initially hired three excellent dedicated prospectors – two in the US, one in the UK – and their only job was to prospect.