The Best Sales Outreach Strategy Guide for 2024

You need a robust sales outreach strategy for your business success. And, if you ask why?
Then note that 80% of B2B sales require businesses to reach potential customers at least five times before closing the deal.

Plus, choosing the right outreach channel is equally crucial. It determines the effectiveness of your efforts. 

Though you can access diverse communication platforms, they may not meet your expectations. Thus, you need to select strategically.

No worries because we are here to help you with our knowledge. Let us begin with understanding some fundamentals. 

What Is Sales Outreach?

The term “Sales Outreach” refers to reaching out to potential customers with the aim of:

• Generating interest
• Creating awareness
• Driving sales

You can reach them via various channels, including:

• Emails
• Phone calls
• Social media messages
• In-person meetings

Sales outreach helps you establish a connection and provide information about your product or service. It's a great way to convince your prospect to take a desired action, such as purchasing or scheduling a demo.

Among all, cold email proves explicitly to be one of the best approaches for custom prospect outreach. It lets you directly initiate contact with potential prospects without beating around the bush. Moreover, 8 out of 10 B2B buyers want brands to contact them by email than other channels. 

Why Choose Cold Emailing As Your Sales Outreach Strategy

One compelling reason to invest in cold emailing is that you can not woo B2B buyers with just an advertisement. These buyers seek:

• In-depth information
• Personalized pitches
• Valid social proof

-before investing in any product. Plus, 59% of B2B marketers suggest using email to satisfy prospects and generate higher revenue. 

So, let us see how cold emailing helps you get your prospect's attention: 

1. Sell a High ACV Product and Generate Revenue Fast

If you sell high Annual Contract Value (ACV) products, relying solely on inbound lead generation won't be the most effective strategy. It's because the B2B sales cycle is usually longer. 

A study revealed a B2B buyer's journey from the initial touchpoint to the actual purchase can span approximately 102 days. This time frame increases if you count the time inbound content takes to attract leads. Considering the competition, contacting potential leads directly with cold emails is better. 

2. Hyper-Customize Messages to Entice Target Leads

Cold email outreach campaigns offer a distinctive avenue for personalizing your email messages. Here’s how:

• It ensures your messages are finely tuned to resonate with your prospects.
• You can address specific pain points, unique needs, and individual interests of contacts in your cold email list. 
• Personalized subject lines can grab your recipients' attention immediately. 

All these are possible as prospect lists for cold outreach are diligently researched in advance. This research empowers your team to create content that speaks directly to the recipients' challenges and aspirations.

3. Easily Implement the Outreach Framework

Before you begin your cold emailing, you follow a standard framework. It involves:

• Defining your ideal customer profile (ICP)
• Building an ICP-approved contact list 
• Segmenting the list based on different categories (industry, pain points, company size, demographics, job title, etc.)
• Customizing your email copy and content topics for each segmented list
• Delivering the cold emails 
• Defining how many outreach attempts contacts in each segment need per their response to the initial email.
• Using LinkedIn cold outreach and warm calls strategically for interested leads who haven't responded 

You can apply a similar framework for different campaigns of your sales outreach strategy. It could be for appointment setting or lead generation campaigns.

4. Scale the Campaign As Needed

Another good thing about cold emails is that you can simultaneously send them to many people. It can range from 100s to 1000s per day. Thus, it makes it easier for you to boost your brand visibility quickly. However, always use reliable cold emailing tools to avoid becoming spam. These tools feature:

• Mailbox rotation: It spreads workload across multiple domains and mailboxes, which helps you avoid being blocklisted. 
• Auto-warmer: It monitors the sender score to boost your reputation. Some good options are MailChimp, Salesforce, and HubSpot. 

5. Accurately Track the Progress With Easy Attribution

Compared to other channels, measuring email's performance is much more straightforward. 

When conducting cold email outreach campaigns, you can gauge success with these simple metrics:

• Deliverability (open rate or email opens)
• Reply rate (quantity of received replies)
• Conversion rate (number of replies turned into sales)

You can regularly measure these metrics to optimize your efforts progressively. It enables you to achieve more with a reduced workload.

6. Sell Your Products to Customers Who Don't Do Online Search

You can expand your market reach by targeting customers who are not actively searching online. These individuals may prefer more one-on-one business meetings. But you still need to get their appointment. 

Cold email outreach helps you introduce your products directly to potential customers. If they show interest, you can book the meeting, increasing your sales opportunities.

Revnew's Expert Guide to Setting Up a Sales Outreach Framework

At Revnew, our seasoned experts follow a strategic outreach framework. Our experts have designed a 3-step framework to effectively reach B2B buyers by analyzing multiple case studies. Here is what the framework requires you to do: 

Step 1. Create an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Segment List

Begin by crafting an ICP for your business:

• Define Key Criteria: Identify demographic, firmographics, psychographic, and behavioral traits of your ideal customer, such as:

• Analyze Existing Data: Utilize past customer data to identify patterns and preferences.
• Refine and Prioritize: Narrow down your criteria based on data analysis, emphasizing high-value attributes. You can use the BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing) framework to qualify top leads in your pipeline.
  
  Here is an example of how an ICP may look: 

• Categorize Leads: Group contacts based on shared characteristics identified in your ICP as different segments. 

Segmenting helps you modify your messages according to the unique preferences of different lead categories. 

Step 2. Customize Messaging for Each Segment

Here are a few tips to follow: 

• Add Targeted Value Proposition: Articulate your product or service's value proposition for each lead segment. It should highlight why your lead should select your offering over competitors.
  Thus, you need to identify:
• Problem Addressed: What issue does your product or service solve for each segment?
• Key Benefit: What main advantage does your product or service provide?
• Supporting Evidence: What proof or facts back up your claim?

For example, your value proposition for a segment of finance professionals who need reliable and efficient payment management software could be:

"Sync your financial world effortlessly. Our payment management software seamlessly integrates with popular platforms, making it a breeze to link your accounts, manage transactions, and gain a comprehensive view of your financial health—all in one place."

• Create Personalized Greetings: Use the lead's name, industry, or company in the email greeting. You can also directly add significant pain points in the subject line. These types of personalized subject lines can increase open rates by 26%. 

Examples: 

• Contact's Name Mention: 
  Subject: "Hello [Lead's Name] – Exclusive Solution Just for You!"
• Company Name Mention:
  Subject: "Unlock Success with [Company Name]: Your Tailored Solutions Await!"
• Direct Pain Point Address:
  Subject: "Solving [Major Pain Point] Woes: Your Game-Changing Solution Awaits!"
• Combined Greeting and Pain Point:
  Subject: "Hi [Lead's Name], Overcoming [Major Pain Point] Made Easy!"
• Tailor Content to Preferences: Customize product recommendations based on what kind of content the lead interacts with the most. You can find this by tracking topic-based ebooks, reports, and insights downloads. 

Step 3. Activate the Campaign 

Gaining the trust of your B2B buyers won’t happen through a linear process. Thus, your cold emailing strategy needs to accompany other channels as well. It is the differentiator that makes Revnew’s framework more impactful. 

Here's how you can follow the same: 

• Send personalized cold emails: Send relevant emails to your segmented list. Send up to 2-3 follow-up emails to get a positive response. You can maximize your outreach efforts with sales automation. Tools like MailChimp help you automate follow-up emails based on lead-brand interactions. 

While reaching leads, start with cold emailing, as people usually check their inboxes first at work. 10:00 AM is the peak time for open rates. Other good times are 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM. 

However, if leads click on your links but do not respond to you, switch the channel.

• Try Warm Calls: The reason for no email response could be anything:
  • Leads may be too busy to write a response
  • They don't prefer email as a form of communication

It will establish a foundation for further conversation. The best time for warm calls is between 4:00 to 5:00 PM.

However, you can also send them voice notes along with calls. There may be instances that the lead you are pursuing is not precisely the decision-maker for purchase. They may redirect you to the right stakeholder. 

In this scenario, you should again cold email the new stakeholder, follow up with them, and gauge their interest in your product. There's a higher chance they'll respond.

• LinkedIn: Like warm phone calls, leverage LinkedIn to connect with your target leads.
  Send personalized InMail invitations to the contact list. It's more effective to send InMails during early weekdays than weekends. However, we recommend using A/B testing to find the right timing.
  
  You can share gated content in direct messages and target contact's feeds. Ensure the content is highly customized to the contact's needs and interests.
  
  Ask them to fill out lead forms in exchange for access to gated content. Thus, you can get their additional contact information and consent to send them your newsletters.
  
  Tips for leading a smooth campaign:
  • Prepare pre-customized follow-up content for different lead behaviors.
  • Create a segment-based email template and automate deliveries aligned with the lead's actions.
  • Use CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools to store the entire data history of each lead. It enables you to share timely data updates between sales and marketing departments.

Conclusion

This comprehensive guide shares invaluable tips for effective outreach and sales engagement. Apply them to elevate your sales game. Harness the power of personalized touch, and watch your business soar. 

You can take your outreach to new heights with Revnew, the premier lead generation agency specializing in outbound strategies like cold email. Explore our bespoke solutions tailored to your needs by contacting us today.