{"id":4669,"date":"2019-04-23T23:04:36","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T06:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3.14.248.234\/?p=4669"},"modified":"2020-05-08T03:28:10","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T10:28:10","slug":"outbound-b2b-sales-pipeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/outbound-b2b-sales-pipeline\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating an outbound B2B sales pipeline"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><b>The Easiest way to create a B2B outbound sales pipeline<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve helped 14 B2B companies start an outbound sales funnel from scratch in a wide range of industries from hotels to airlines and nightclubs. I\u2019ve only used cold email because I find it the most effective and scalable. What I outline below is the simplest way I know of doing this anyone can replicate, even non-techy salespeople. This process enabled all startups to close 1-50k deals and several of them raised 500k+ in funding.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>Metrics to shoot for<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">70 &#8211; 80% open email open rate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">30% reply rate<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the targeting and copywriting are somewhat good 10-15% of companies will take a meeting with you<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The process has 3 leverage points, <\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The targeting of the companies\/people,<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your email template copywriting <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How you deal with replies. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few Assumptions to make it easy; (i can expand another time with more rare cases)<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We will target an industry\/ companies that are well represented on Linkedin.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>Step1: Preparation<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><b>Defining who you have currently sold to <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First<\/span><b>, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I always start with an exercise to find out what types of companies a startup has sold to. What the characteristics of the target companies are, (number of employees, revenue, geographical location). If you have sold nothing this will also work, but all of it will be assumptions.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Second, we want to define the job titles of the employees at are target companies. The best is data we have on our current customers. Fill out all the names of the everyone involved in closing every deal in the sheet below. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a next step we will give the job titles to VA\u2019s to find our leads<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here is the excel to fill in with examples.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1feqde4q9_F-BG_i1CMUghq56tyYgtEjCpf5vi2nn4vg\/edit#gid=0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><b>https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1feqde4q9_F-BG_i1CMUghq56tyYgtEjCpf5vi2nn4vg\/edit#gid=0<\/b><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>Step 2: Interviewing current customers<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Taking 45 minutes to interview one of your B2B customers is one of the highest leverage activities you can do.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Record the conversation, you can use it to train your first sales to hire. One new sales rep said listening to customer interviews was the best part of his onboarding experience because he could hear customers explain the value they got from the product in their words.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If there are any issues you can solve them and keep your customers longer<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Write down all their answers, use what they say in your copywriting for email templates<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask them for referrals, seriously do this, I\u2019ve had customers give me 2-8 warm leads to contact<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are questions that work for me<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1AYlzFdZopA-xQ97XXlmRW5Nci7FL2kAzgtWU0y8naNU\/edit\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1AYlzFdZopA-xQ97XXlmRW5Nci7FL2kAzgtWU0y8naNU\/edit<\/a><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>Step 3: Defining the companies we want to target<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ideally, I would get every company in a target group \u00a0For example if you target hotels Booking.com and Tripadvisor give you most of your target group. The easiest scraper I found for big websites like these (and LinkedIn!) is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/data-miner.io\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/data-miner.io\/<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> .. Sign up for it <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The end result should be an excel with a column of company names, and ideally a column of links to their LinkedIn company<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lots of ways to do this, if you want me to expand on this comment below. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b><br \/>\n<\/b><b>Step 4: Finding leads and email addresses\u00a0<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I use Upwork and virtual assistants for this, the UX of the platform is terrible but there are many many good VA\u2019s, i always communicate with the VA\u2019s over skype. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I pay freelancers $.20 per email address or $0.30 per lead filled out in excel (first name, last name, company, job title). You can probably go cheaper but it&#8217;s dirt cheap anyway. Manual finding by a human is more accurate than any of the services\/tools I\u2019ve tried.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here is a step by step to hiring and selecting VA\u2019s on up work:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1oq8GVztBYVn4w5WmhEoHm7xBeS0QfaGq8F1Ux1jJ5C0\/edit\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1oq8GVztBYVn4w5WmhEoHm7xBeS0QfaGq8F1Ux1jJ5C0\/edit<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do not mention you are looking for email addresses associated with LinkedIn accounts, I have gotten my account suspended for this. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Give the VA\u2019s your google sheet with companies, the list of job titles you want, negotiate .30$ per leads. And wait for a stream of leads to come it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><strong>Step 5: Copywriting our sequence<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The interviews (above) are the best source of inspiration and content<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Secondly, I do persona research, I look at 100-300 LinkedIn profiles of my target group, for example, Revenue Managers at 4 or 5-star hotels. I write down what I notice, a common language they use, KPIs they mention, etc. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The minimum viable email campaign is a 3-step email sequence. <\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Email 1 &#8211; Explaining the value of your company, <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next, Email 2 &#8211; A customer success story \u00a0industry insight, <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Final, Email 3 &#8211; A \u201cbreakup\u201d email.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here is an example of one from my early days, this got meetings with 25 of the 100 biggest airlines in the world on the first attempt. (i write much better copy now) <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1Og-j6IYwbqOprtAAncbCTuRAt1Z32jo-xoKT6WP3PoU\/edit\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1Og-j6IYwbqOprtAAncbCTuRAt1Z32jo-xoKT6WP3PoU\/edit<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><strong>Step 6: Email sending<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Setup<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mail-tester.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mail-tester<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to check if all your domain settings are correct.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use Gmail \/ Google apps.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a sending tool, I like <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/quickmail.io\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quickmail.io<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, there are dozens out there.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Check a youtube video on how to set it up.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Getting to 80% open rate is doable but hard, lots can go wrong, here are rules I live by<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Send 50 initial emails per day as a maximum, more can decrease your email deliverability<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Never include pictures\/attachments<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No links to outside sources, your value should be clear from the text only.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>Step 7: Deal with the replies &amp; book sales meetings<\/b><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dealing with replies is an art and lots to explain about this .. let me know in the comments if you want to know more.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Easiest way to create a B2B outbound sales pipeline I\u2019ve helped 14 B2B companies start an outbound sales funnel from scratch in a wide range of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ub_ctt_via":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[539,326,112,114],"tags":[277,313],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/B2B-Ecommerce-Marketing.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Houston","author_link":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/author\/houston\/"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}