Sales Outreach Strategies

How Many Times to Call a Lead Before Moving On

“How many attempts should a sales rep make to contact a lead? Our leads come from various sources, including conferences, website visits, webinars, Google AdWords, LinkedIn, etc.”

Different lead sources require different sales outreach strategies.

Example:

IMHO, leads from conferences and webinars would benefit most from a two-week sales outreach strategy. The thinking is you want to contact them while the subject is fresh and on their minds. So a 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14-day strategy is acceptable. After that, drop them into an “every 30-days” bucket. A two-week sales outreach strategy is a standard approach that pays dividends.

Leads from Google Ads I would want to use an aggressive sales outreach strategy because, chances are, if the prospect is looking for a solution, they want it fast.

If they contacted you by clicking on your targeted ad, they did the same on your competitor’s ad. Therefore, you want to get the conversation started as soon as possible. Whereas “conference leads” take a day or two after the event to get imported into the CRM, Google Ads must be called within minutes, not days. Therefore, the “Day 1 (X2), Day 2, Day 3, and Day 5” is an excellent outbound sales strategies for hot inbound leads.

Sales Outreach Strategies – EMAIL

“How often do you call a lead before sending an email?”

Answer: ONE. My sales outreach strategy is always: CALL (Double Tap), VOICEMAIL, EMAIL on the first call, no matter the lead source.

What is a “Double Tap”?

Double tap is when I am making an outbound sales call, and it gets to about the 4th ring, and I can tell the call is about to go to voicemail; I hang up, wait for a second, and then call the number again.

I average a 20% increase in having the prospect pick up when I do this.

Sales Outreach Strategies – DRIP MARKETING

“How many times do you call a lead before you consider them “exhausted” and put them into the marketing “fishbowl” for email campaigns?”

My PERSONAL belief is if on Day one, you call, leave a voicemail, send an email, and on day two, you send an email and a LinkedIn message, and on day three, you call and send a text, and you still do not hear from them – they are either super busy or not worth chasing at the moment.

This is assuming your messaging strategy is not causing the problems. The number of attempts and the tools to make those attempts (phone, email, social, text) are only 20% of the solution. The other 80% are the words you use.

With that said, many companies still prefer at least a two-week outreach.

However, I have found the most success with a 72-hour outreach, followed by an “every 30 days” outreach.

The thinking is, if they haven’t responded in the first 72 hours, I know they have received my attempts (call, voicemail, email, LinkedIn, text), so either the timing isn’t right, or there is no problem at the moment.

So if the prospect matches my ICP, reaching our every 30 days or so, sooner or later, they will experience a “trigger event” and want to talk.

What’s a “Trigger Event”?

A trigger event is when a situation happens on the prospect’s side, and they realize they now have a problem. And when a prospect recognizes they have a problem, they will want to solve it.

Sales Outreach Strategies – VOICEMAIL

“Do you really believe leaving voicemails work?”

Yes, if you know how to leave the right message.

– Michael Pedone