Over the last 9 plus years, hundreds of founders have come to me for coaching on their sales and go-to-market challenges. And I’ve done my best to help. In the next few months, in the form of weekly episodes, we’ll be looking at the top startup sales misconceptions folks possess. And how I get them to think instead. Reading this series will make you smarter and more aware than most startup operators, as you’ll already know how to think about go-to-market and sales, and avoid some of the biggest pitfalls. Consider this your cheat sheet in shaving months off your revenue growth journey. Here’s your tenth and final installment. Read on.
“But Paul, we can’t really go after these leads until we know what we’re going to tell them.”
Or, “I’m afraid that we’ll burn this lead. It’s a hugely valuable account for us. I don’t want them to get put off by our message.”
These are comments I get all the time from clients. There’s a great fear. That sending the wrong message to the right contact will burn that lead forever.
And, yet, that fear is unfounded.
Listen, whether it’s for my own outbound, or when building it with clients, I’ve seen a wide array of replies from prospects. Including some of the more negative ones you might ever imagine. One instance still sticks in my mind. A prospect took the time to take a picture of himself flipping me the bird. And, to this day, it makes me laugh.
Now, even with this “gentleman”, if we were to ask him a few months out, “do you remember the brand or company that wrote you that cold email, where you got upset?”
I’d bet you he’d say, “No, not anymore. I wish I did remember them. God, they pissed me off that time.”
And this was a man who was very deliberate in making his sentiment known. A guy who was seemingly very angry at our cold approach.
Everybody you send a message to when it comes to outbound will more than likely not remember what you said to them just a few days later. Yes, this may be hard to believe for most of us. Our egos want our message to matter. To make a mark. To be meaningful to our targets. We want it to establish a positive connection and get us that introductory call booked.
At times, we get there. The message gets the desired reaction. And a sales conversation blossoms from it.
A lot of times, our message gets ignored. Partially read. Or even stared at thoroughly. Re-read several times. And then left unresponded.
That’s just the nature of the beast. Outbound is a numbers game. And getting a 1% interested rate on automated outbound is considered great.
Now, do I understand that fear? Why folks might be terrified, as they type out their cold email to a target that could be worth 6-figures?
Of course I do. There’s a huge amount of perceived pressure there. You might think that any misplaced syllable could doom your chances of garnering that initial meeting. ‘What if the prospect doesn’t get what we offer with our product? What if I’m not able to communicate that I understand their problem I’m here to fix? Goodness, this may be my only shot to get them to pay attention. I need to make the best possible impression here.’ A river of thoughts swirling through your mind, as you sit at your laptop trying to formulate your cold email.
But reality for the recipient looks a lot different. We skim our email or LinkedIn inboxes quickly. What doesn’t grab our attention, we’ll ignore in the snap of a finger. The messages that come from strangers – we’ll usually spend a split second on. Not recognizing the sender’s name, it takes a lot more copy-wise to get us to linger. Even if we happen to spend thirty seconds reading an email. And get turned off by it. What happens most often is that we move on. Swiftly to other items on our to-do list. By the time we get into our cars on the way back from the office, that message that pricked us is a distant memory. Our thoughts are now focused on the kids we’re about to see. On the warm hug we’ll get from our spouse. Or on the meal we’re about to savor on date night with our significant other.
Whatever upset we felt in the middle of our day because a software salesman clumsily pitched us his product over email is now the smallest blip on our radar screen.
I’m here to tell you to get over yourself. Do your best. Learn the best practices. And let it rip.
If you don’t get an interested reply, you will get other at bats. Shots on goal. Opportunities to cut through the noise and garner your prospect’s attention. You can reach out several weeks later, and pretty much be sure they won’t remember the initial email you’d sent. And even if they did – it’s very unlikely they’d be angry at you for it. We’d ensure you compose copy that is both inoffensive and value-laden. Remember: you didn’t commit a crime. You simply reached out to a stranger, because in your heart of hearts, you believe that they’d be better off with your product in their hands.