Sales Training Series #20

Insights from recent trainings

Welcome back to another Sales Training series!

These posts give you access to some of the key insights I give clients during our trainings.

Note: I intentionally keep the descriptions vague for privacy reasons.

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What we’re covering in this post:

- Step by step breakdown, feedback, and analysis of an SDR’s cold email thread with a prospect (includes new email templates)

- The “Sandwich Method” for using Social Proof.. I came up with this name in the middle of our training. We had a good laugh.

- An example of how to meet the buyer where they’re at in order to pace & lead them

- Dealing with a very confused inbound lead

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I recently helped an SDR with his cold email sequences.

Context

- sells a SaaS that scales from single user all the way up to enterprise

- SDR reaching out to [decision makers] via email and phone in order to book a meeting with a “product specialist” (AE)

- Struggling with a new territory (was a top performer in previous territory)

Initial email

This is as close to the original email as I can make it while maintaining privacy.

“Hi John, I noticed you’re using a newsletter in order to promote XYZ.

Other [job titles] leaders we speak to are focused on increasing revenue and building close relationships with their buyers.

It can be hard to generate revenue through a newsletter.

We’ve helped [similar companies] build closer relationships to their buyers through [our unique functionality]

They were able to achieve [outcomes] and saw an ROI of XYZ.

We can offer you a free trial.

Worth exploring?

Sincerely,

Mark”

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Current stats on that email is:

~50% open rate

5~6% reply rate

So far so good right?

Not so fast..

~0.12% booked demo rate

I believe the abysmal booked demo rate is caused by factors in his control like:

1) Not setting the right expectations with the first email

2) Losing Frame in the follow up emails

and factors outside of his control like:

3) New territory (but we can’t do anything about that!)

First Email Breakdown

Here’s a breakdown of his first email. *My notes in italics

Hi John, I noticed you’re using a newsletter in order to promote XYZ.

Try to find out which newsletter provider they’re using so the buyer feels that your email is more personalized. i.e “Saw you’re using MailChimp to promote/send your emails”

Other [job title] leaders we speak to are focused on increasing revenue and building close relationships with their buyers

“Increasing revenue” is generic, overdone, and flat. Doesn’t have any “oomph” to it.. unless you quantified it for the prospects specific situation.. which you can’t do since you know nothing about them! Pro tip: Focus on the metrics that impact revenue aka the things you directly impact.

“Building close relationships” is better but that’s not really how the buyer describes what they themselves do or what problems they have, does it?

Your specific decision maker is not saying “we want to build close relationships” .. they are saying things like “we want to convert more leads” or “we want to nurture our relationships with customers/leads so they’ll think of us when they’re ready to buy”

You should use the same language your decision maker uses and speak it back to them otherwise your message won’t land as well.

It can be hard to generate revenue through a newsletter.

Weak. If you’re trying to find a problem then I’d be more direct and simply ask (as demonstrated in the new email templates later in this post)

This also lacks any real specificity. What if you tried “We often hear it can be tough to convert leads through newsletter promotions” ..

This is more descriptive + “We hear” injects some social proof into the sentence + sets up the need for your solution (a supplement/alternative to newsletters)

We’ve helped [similar companies] build closer relationships to their buyers through [our unique functionality]

I’m fine with this except for “build closer relationships to their buyers” .. for the same reasons stated a few notes above

They were able to achieve [outcomes] and saw an ROI of XYZ.

This is fine.

We can offer you a free trial.

If your goal is to get free trials, then this makes sense. But you’re trying to book a Disco/Demo call with your AE.

And what’s going to happen when they turn up to the meeting?

They’ll be focused on getting the free trial and will get cagey if the AE tries to do deep Discovery.

Just not a good experience all around.

Worth exploring?

I don’t like the use of the word “worth” here as it implies ‘low worth’ because you have to ask if there’s worth (i.e value).. try switching to “Would it make sense to explore further?” that way if it doesn’t make sense it doesn’t say anything about “worth”

Sincerely,

Mark

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Overall, this is not a bad email.. it’s just not great either.

He created this email inspired by the concepts from my course so respect to him for trying.

Prospect response (within ~30 min)

“I normally don’t respond to these types of emails but this might be interesting for us. What’s your availability today?”

Breakdown of what’s going on:

- Prospect responded quickly. A little too fast. Many sellers see this as a good sign of urgency from the buyer. “They got back to me fast so they must be interested!” Experienced sellers remain calm, skeptical, and perhaps even cynical i.e “Quick interest can also become Quick disinterest”

Buyers are a fickle bunch indeed.

- Commoditization by the buyer “I don’t normally respond to these types of emails”.. The seller commoditized himself with a typical email the buyer has seen a million times. Status points lost.

- “This might be interesting” if you read this carefully, this isn’t interest. This is Curiosity, at best.

- “What’s your availability today?” sub-communicates the buyer believes the seller isn’t busy and is readily available to show the product on command.. like a clerk. High status sellers aren’t available at a moments notice especially for a random lead.

Typical dynamic of:

Buyer: Dance for me

🤡: How high?

My guess is the buyer responded quickly because they have a specific but burning pain point (likely a technical problem) and wants to see if the product can fix it with a free trial.

But that pain point alone is likely not enough to justify a significant investment into using their software unless that pain point gets contextualized and expanded upon via deep Discovery.

Seller response (within ~30 min)

Hi John, please feel free to choose a time slot that works best for you below. One of our product specialists will guide you through a live demonstration of our platform.

We will also provide you with:

- custom xyz

- trend reports

- case studies

- Pricing and plans

Looking forward to speaking soon.

2nd Email Breakdown

You offered a free trial on the first email, and now you’re talking about live demos, custom xyz’s, trend reports, case studies, pricing and plans?

all communicated through email?

Then they also need to meet with a “product specialist” in order to use a free trial? “Product specialist” is committal and intimidating to someone who might be interested.

and then the cherry on top “Looking forward to speaking soon”

All of this is too much, too soon. The contrast between your first email and second is too much.

You must set the right expectations from the beginning. This is so important.

“please feel free to..”

You know “feel free to” is a power move however it got watered down with the “please”, the overselling, and the rest of the email. It just doesn’t flow together.

And all of this is why the prospect ghosted you. You scared him off.

The guy has a problem in mind that he might want to solve.

That’s why he replied to your email.

Find out what that problem is.

See if you can solve that problem.

If you can solve the problem, and he’s serious about getting it solved, then you can send all the information and hook him up with a free trial (with defined timelines, milestones, and outcomes for the trial period!)

This is how you get the buyer to want to engage in your sales process.

Related reading:

Give a little to get a lot

What happened next?

The buyer ghosted the seller.

Seller attempts to follow up:

*paraphrasing*

🤡: Hey John, did you have a chance to book a meeting in order to learn more about [company] and get your free trial? We’re coming up on [timeframe] and many xyz leaders use [our platform] in order to [get results]. I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss out on this.

*crickets*

Me to the seller: You wouldn’t respond to this either would you?

Seller: No *nervously laughs*

You wouldn’t respond to you? That’s never a good sign.

Always put yourself in your buyers shoes!

So, here’s what I advised the seller to do instead.. starting with the first email:

New cold email