How to Build

Pipeline in 2017:
Sales Development

From
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Contents

3 Sales Development 34 Lead Research

4 What is Sales Development? 36 Trigger Events

6 Cold Calling vs. Sales Development 37 LinkedIn Saved Searches

41 Identify - Best Practice Advice

10 Selling to Today’s Buyer

42 The Expert’s View - Ian Moyse

13 Learn

49 Connect
14 Who Are My Buyer Personas?
50 How to Make Sure Your Outreach
18 Introductory Meeting Vs Qualified Content Hits Home
Opportunity
54 Touchpoint sequences
21 BANT is Dead. PACT is King.
55 Leave the Right Voicemail Message
23 What is PACT?
56 Send Emails That Generate Responses
25 Learn - Best Practice Advice
57 Social Selling

27 The Expert’s View – Trish Bertuzzi

59 Creating a Conversation

31 Identify
61 Connect - Best Practice Advice

32 Which Companies Should You Target?


Sales Development
Building Pipeline in 2017
Building a sales pipeline. It’s easy, right?
Buy a load of data and call through it, send out hundreds
of blanket emails, put some money towards a pay-per-
click campaign, basically throw a lot of stuff at the wall
and see what sticks.
Wrong. That was very much the past. 2006 called, and it
wants its strategy back.
Our guess is that you’re probably doing some inbound
marketing, creating content, and if you’re not, it’s probably
on your agenda.
Don’t get us wrong, inbound marketing is great and it
works. That’s why we do it at Punch!
It’s completely changed the lead generation landscape
over the last ten years because it does all the things that
we think are so important.
It’s buyer focused, looks to help potential customers
rather than give them the hard sell, and recognises that
with the wealth of options available to them, customers
don’t want to know what products you sell, but rather,
what problems you solve.
3
But on its own, is it enough?
All the best partnerships work when the differing qualities
of each partner come together to deliver better results than
either could have achieved on their own. Think Lennon and
McCartney, Shearer and Sheringham, Ant and Dec…. okay,
maybe not the last one, but you get the point. Each has its
advantages.
• Inbound is great for creating awareness, and
attracting the type of clients that keep your
business ticking over
• Outbound is brilliant for moving prospects further
down the sales funnel to closure, and reaching
out to those really big clients that can make your
quarter or year
So whatever your prospecting and lead generation strategy,
it should involve some sort of focus on generating leads
through using the phone, email and social media in a way
that will build an effective pipeline for the next ten years and
beyond.
And by that we’re talking about sales development.
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What is Sales Development?

So What is Sales Development?

A sales pipeline full to bursting with hot leads and
opportunities, sounds good doesn’t it?
It’s what every business wants. So much so that many
senior stakeholders in some of the largest companies in
the world now pay as much attention to their pipeline
forecasts as their revenue forecasts.
In the past, salespeople built that pipeline using
unsolicited techniques, like cold calling, cold emails and
print media or other forms of advertising.
The sales development team are the first point of human
contact with prospective customers, but it’s important to
understand that these people aren’t the same busy sales
reps that go on to close the deal.
Instead, they’re the people who handle the initial contact
with the prospect, qualify the opportunity and pass it to a
different sales rep who specialises in closing.

But today, sales development is a vital role – and it can

have a drastic impact on the success of your business. A
productive pipeline brings more qualified leads, leading to
more customers and revenue growth, and that’s the name
of the game.

What is Sales Development?
How Sales Development Builds Pipeline
The sales development role has three main functions:
1. Conducting outbound prospecting to build
your pipeline with those big targets that
are less likely to come from inbound activity.
2. Qualifying and assessing the potential of your
inbound leads.
3. Putting a human face to the company to
establish trust and rapport with your potential
buyers and move them down the sales funnel.
5
Many experts predicted that the rise of digital technology
and online marketing would bring about the end of
the traditional interaction between a salesperson and a
prospective customer.
But ultimately, even with all the available technology and
market intelligence at your fingertips, and even with an
amazing product or service, the buying decision today
often comes down to a simple question....
“Who do I trust to deliver what I need?”
Your sales development team are the people who can
create that trust between you and your future buyers.

Cold Calling v. Sales Development
Why Should You Change?
You’re about to leave the office for the day and the phone
rings. Is it potential new business, a customer looking for
help, or is it your mother? You’d better answer it.
Then the tell-tale pause as the caller looks through their
script. They pronounce your name incorrectly, get your
job title wrong, and ask if you want a better supplier for
a piece of equipment you no longer use. You’re then
badgered to take a meeting that would be a waste of your
time.
After a few minutes of trying to end the conversation
politely, you put the phone down, annoyed, and
determined never to speak to that company again.
Sound familiar? Unfortunately, this still happens all the
time, even though only 1% of cold calls end with an
appointment or opportunity being arranged and 90% of
decision makers will refuse to even take a cold call.[1]
6
So is there any point continuing to make calls to generate
leads and win new business?
The answer is – absolutely!
We’ve all heard the ‘cold calling is dead’ phrase bandied
about, but really, they’re only half right. The calling
element is alive and well, but the modern salesperson
should be making calls to people who will be warm to the
approach.
That’s a subtle but very important change to the way in
which outbound marketing calls are made. And it makes
a huge difference to the success rate of calls. So using the
phone is still so important – but only if it offers value to
the person you’re calling.
[1]
Linkedin Sales Solutions
 7

Cold Calling v. Sales Development

Counting the Calls vs Making the Calls Count

You can dress it up how you like, but basically,
telemarketing is a numbers game. Callers make dozens of
calls hoping to land one or two people willing to listen to
them who can be moved down the sales pipeline.
They work from a script, and can be overly pushy - this
is usually due to the targets they have been set by their
managers.
Not needing many skills other than the ability to use a
phone, they aren’t looking to build a relationship with their
prospects; it’s just a box-ticking exercise.
They don’t work from a set script, and have a high level of
knowledge about their products and services. They also
know all about and identify with their buyer’s situation,
whilst conveying and communicating the company
values, building trust and a relationship.
An effective sales development approach is an informed
and intelligent conversation, giving the sales developer
the chance to demonstrate expertise and win trust, and
therefore ensuring a better conversion rate.

Professional sales development using telephone calling

is a very different animal. With the help of a robust sales
development strategy, technology, and intelligence
gathering, sales developers are able to reach out to their
prospects using personalised messaging via the phone,
email and social channels.
 8

Cold Calling

Uses a scripted Has no idea of the

approach buyer’s needs, pain
points and goals Pushes to create an
Plays a numbers game – opportunity too early,
makes a call, hangs up if there’s scaring off the buyer
no answer, and moves
on to the next call

Offers the buyer no

useful information that may
help them or just provides
Talks about their own generic marketing material
products or services

Gives up on a
prospect after a few
Doesn’t take into account times of not being able
events that may affect the to get hold of them
buyer’s situation
Uses irrelevant and
Doesn’t know anything
outdated qualification
about the prospect other
criteria, like BANT
than their name, job title
and phone number
 9

Sales Development

Looks to help the

Uses an unscripted buyer find solutions to
natural approach their pain points Nurtures the lead and
Uses voicemail, email, develops the relationship,
and social media to connect until the buyer is ready
with the buyer across to engage
multiple channels

Provides content that

Uses qualification will inform and educate the
criteria relevant to the buyer, helping them make
modern buyer and their better choices
situation, like PACT

Uses a researched
persona to better
Is kept aware of understand
compelling events that could the buyer
cause the buyer to need the
product or services Makes at least 8
Has access to relevant attempts to get hold of
information about the every potential buyer
contact, company, and
the industry they
work in

Selling to Today’s Buyer
How Have Things Changed?
Today’s buyer is more informed than ever before. That’s a
fact. A 2014 Accenture study found that 94% of B2B buyers
engage in online research during the buying process.
In the past all the power in the buying process was
with the seller. Potential customers had less access to
information and had to actively reach out to a business to
learn about its products or services.
The AIDA model of a buyer’s journey – Attention, Interest,
Desire, Action, developed in the early 20th century,
became the go-to model for generating sales -
Get the buyers attention; get them interested in a product;
convince them they need the product; and close the deal.
But in 2016, when a Google search for ‘cat videos’ returns
350 million results, you can be pretty sure that any buyer
with a problem they need help with will be able to find
it online before you’re even aware they’re a potential
customer.
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They don’t need convincing of their need to buy a
particular item or service, because they’ll come into your
sales funnel much further down the line. They’re far closer
to being ready to do business if the deal you’re offering is
to their liking and you make them feel valued.
According to HubSpot, today 57% of the
buyer’s journey is complete before they
even speak with one of your sales reps.
That’s because their journey starts with finding solutions
to their problems, rather than wanting to find a particular
product or service.
This modern buyer’s journey is comprised of - Awareness,
Consideration, Decision.
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Selling to Today’s Buyer

What the Modern Buyer Wants

Firstly, the B2B buyer identifies a pain or problem that
they have. They’ll investigate what’s causing it, and rather
than immediately looking for a supplier to help them, the
buyer will do their research and build their awareness as to
what’s on offer.
In the words of Jay Baer, author of best selling marketing
book ‘Youtility’, “sell something, get a customer for a day;
help someone, get a customer for life”

Most will review content and, at their own speed, start to

consider with which companies they can see themselves
doing business.

But what if the prospects on your ‘A-List’ aren’t coming

through your inbound activities?

The fact remains that even if those really big clients need
your services, they’re so well known that they’ll hardly
ever have to reach out to suppliers.

Outbound sales development spreads awareness of

your business and services with personalised, targeted
messaging, and helps and educates prospects along their
buying journey until they’re ready to be passed to a sales
closer.
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Sales Development

The Sales Development process for building pipeline can be broken up

into three stages - LEARN, IDENTIFY, CONNECT

• LEARN • IDENTIFY • CONNECT

- Who your buyer personas and the - Which prospects should be on your - Understand what a touchpoint
ideal clients for your business are A-list and B-list sequence is

- When to set an introductory - What trigger events are and how to - Develop the right messaging
meeting vs. qualified opportunity conduct lead research and content

- Why BANT is no longer relevant and - How to monitor your prospects - How to use a multichannel approach
what you should replace it with using LinkedIn
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1 Learn.
Learn what your business needs to do to succeed and get a
strategy in place that will help you do that.
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Who Are My Buyer Personas?

Why is a Buyer Persona Relevant?

Buyer persona. You may well have heard the term being
thrown around but what exactly are buyer personas and
why should you care about them?
Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of your
ideal clients, based on information from your real-world
clients, market research and data.
A strong persona identifies characteristics such as the
buyer’s income, occupation, gender, level of education
and where they live. It can include their domestic
arrangements, social media habits, leisure pursuits and
personality characteristics. The more detail that can be
incorporated in the persona, the better.
Crucially, the persona tells you how the prospect likes to
go about the buying process.
It details the problems they face, the needs they may have
that you can fulfil, and the way they like to be approached
for a sales conversation.
Knowing about their goals and challenges means you can
deliver content to your prospects that is far more relevant
and engaging.
Give them a name, such as Managing Director Mark
or Sales Director Sally, and attach a picture to them,
something to help make the persona feel real.

And why are they relevant to sales development?

Remember, what separates sales development from
the world of telemarketing and blanket emails is buyer
centricity. If you don’t know who your buyers are, what
their goals and challenges of their job are, and the pain
points they experience on a day-to-day basis, how are
you supposed to deliver that buyer-centric experience to
them?

Who Are My Buyer Personas?
How Do I Create a Buyer Persona?
So who do you speak with to create your buyer personas?
Assess who your best clients are, based on the factors that
matter to your business.
Then look at the people at those companies who made
or influenced the decision to start using your products or
services. Do they all have the same job title? If so, brilliant!
You only have one buyer persona to research!
What’s far more likely is that you will have between 3 and
5 different buyer personas, although if your business is
particularly large and diverse or you offer a wide range of
services or products, you may well have 10 or more.
15
Arrange interviews with at least three of each job title, for
example, interviews with three of the HR directors you
work with, three heads of IT and then with three business
development managers.
Ask questions about their role, and their day-to-day
working life. Ask about their personal background and
how they got to their current position. Ask about their
professional goals and challenges, about where they go to
learn about new information for their job, and about how
they prefer to interact and buy from vendors.
•

Who Are My Buyer Personas?
You should also keep asking – why?
People are good at knowing what they do, but often
haven’t thought about why they do it. Getting your clients
to reveal why they make the choices they make will give
you the really valuable insights you need for a rounded
detailed buyer persona that you can use for all sales and
marketing activity.
Bring your client facing employees into the process and
listen to some of the issues that crop up when they talk to
clients.
Speak to your sales and business development team, and
learn about your prospects hesitations and objections
when they’re considering working with you, and see if
these align with the objections your current clients raised.
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All these conversations bring insight that is incredibly
useful. It takes time and effort to build buyer personas, but
the benefits mean they’re well worth investing in.
If you have a list of your best clients in mind already, stop
and think.Do you know who you should and shouldn’t
be targeting, who the ideal clients for your business really
are?
And if you do, are these based on hunches, intuition and
the highest paid person’s opinion, or are they based on
statistics, data and your current client base?
Use the following questions to define who your best
clients really are, and who should be looking to do more
business with.
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Who Are My Buyer Personas?

Know Your Benchmarks The Most Important Metrics Valuable Extras

What is your clients median spend
with you?
List each client in order of total
spend, and find the middle value.
What is the average life span of a
customer or client?
(Number of months)
Which are your most profitable
accounts?
(Spend per month, over the
average level of spend per
month)
Which clients have been with
your business for your average
client life-span or longer?
Which of these clients provide
good communication and
feedback?
Which of the clients pay in a
timely manner?
Which of the clients do you like
working with?

For which clients is the work

What is the average length of a Which clients began working fulfilling?
sales cycle? with you within the timeframe
of your normal sales cycle or
sooner? Which clients do you deliver a
(Number of months) good ROI for?

Clients To Use For Buyer

Personas (5-10)
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Introductory Meeting Vs Qualified Opportunity

What Type of Opportunities Do You Need?

Part of the reason sales development and sales closing

should be separated into two different roles, is that closers
are busy trying to get deals over the line and often don’t
have the time or inclination to generate new pipeline
when there are more sales-ready leads to pursue.

In The Sales Development Playbook, Trish Bertuzzi

identified that by separating the sales roles into two
distinct functions, you ensure that you have a dedicated
team responsible for filling the top of your sales funnel
with leads, and another team closing and winning
business.

Before you start to engage with any of your prospects over

the phone, email or social media, you need to know what
the purpose of the process is. What type of opportunities
do your sales closers actually need from your sales
developers to make the most of their time?

The opportunities fall into one of two categories,

depending on the market you work in, the prospect’s
situation, and the solution you offer – Trish refers to
these as the Introductory Meeting and the Qualified
Opportunity.

Introductory Meetings
When Should I Set an Introductory Meeting?
The Introductory Meeting is simply what is says on the tin,
an opportunity, either in person or in a more exploratory
phone conversation, for a very busy prospect to learn
more about you and what problems you potentially solve.
Introductory meetings are appropriate when the market
for your products or services is not yet mature, one in
which you offer a solution to a problem your prospects
don’t even know they have yet.
These opportunities are designed to educate your
prospects on the areas that you can help them with,
and turn initial curiosity into interest in what you can
potentially do for them.
19
Traditional qualification criteria like BANT just don’t apply in
these situations -
• Why would a prospect have made a budget
available for a solution they didn’t know they
needed?
• Whose responsibility would the new issue be?
The company may not know themselves.
• How can a prospect already need something, if
they didn’t know there was a better way of doing
things?
• Without them knowing they need your business to
help them, how can they have a timescale in
place?
Introductory meetings can also be set when your sales
closers simply need more meetings to go on.
A salesperson’s empty calendar isn’t going to win you any
business, so in this situation, it’s fine to get them out into the
field raising awareness, building their network and honing
their skills at the same time.
 20

Qualified Opportunities

When Should I Set a Qualified Opportunity?

A qualified opportunity is one where qualification criteria To make sure that your sales closers get the most out
do come into play. of their qualified opportunities, they need to be on the
same page as your sales developers when it comes to
In this situation – qualification criteria.

• The market is already mature, the prospect’s
aware of the nature of your products and services.
• Your prospect should already be aware that they
have a potential problem or pain point.
We’ve found that BANT isn’t appropriate for an
introductory meeting, but does it even work when sniffing
out a qualified opportunity? We’d argue not, but luckily
we’ve found a system that does.

• They should also know a bit about your company

and how you can help them overcome the pain
point.

• They should be willing to learn more.

Your sales person may have to speak to a number

of decision makers and influencers, and be able to
understand each of their needs, and provide them with
value.
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BANT is Dead. PACT is King.

What is BANT?

In the world of sales, BANT has ruled the roost It’s not surprising that the acronym became so popular. It’s
for quite some time. The acronym, first coined by simple to understand, easy to apply to the sales funnel and
technology pioneers IBM back in the 1960s, stands helped to quickly identify if those prospects were worth
for budget, authority, need and timeframe. trying to close. BANT asked sales teams to ask themselves:

It’s a way to qualify the strength of a sales • Does the prospect have a budget?
opportunity and became widely adopted as the
foundation of successful sales techniques. So much • Are we able to speak to the right people to
so that it’s still used in many sales operations today. close?

Let’s look at IBM’s acronym a little more closely. • Have we got what they need?

Budget is simply the ability to buy the goods or • Is this the right time to do business with them?
services on offer.

Authority is defined as dealing with the person or

department that could sign off a deal.

Need matched the goods or services on offer to the

prospect’s business requirements.

Timeframe included when the offer would be

considered, chosen, bought or used.
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BANT is Dead. PACT is King.

Why You Should Banish BANT

But are these questions still relevant to modern sales? We
suggest the crown has slipped. In fact, we’d go so far as to
say that BANT is dead.
Customers’ needs and habits have changed so much in
recent years, so why hasn’t the qualification criteria we
use changed with them?
Where BANT starts to struggle is with typical buyers, not
early adopters. That’s why sales expert Trish Bertuzzi
suggests PACT, and its little sister PACT2, which we agree
are far more relevant to the modern buying process,
and will ensure you get the right information from your
prospects.

IBM developed BANT to suit early adopter customers in

the technology and software market; those who knew
their budget and were willing to pay slightly over the odds
to have a certain product immediately.

But as we all now know, wait a few months in the

technology world and prices start to tumble or more
advanced tech is released.

Early adopters are typically well informed about the

product they’d like to purchase, they know they have the
need and they have the authority to buy, and so BANT
applies perfectly. The sale is a relatively easy process and
the salesperson pretty much simply has to turn up with
the right bit of kit in their car.

What is PACT?
PACT Stands for Pain, Authority, Consequence
and Target Profile.
Pain
To apply PACT, the sales development team needs to firstly
look at whether the prospect has a pain point. Not every
company will think they need your services, so it’s best to
discuss that company’s pain points and problems. Only
when the prospect recognises that they do in fact have a
problem can you move forward.
Authority
We then move on to authority. But it’s not the same kind of
authority that we dismissed in BANT. What you’re looking
to find out is not whether the person has the authority
to sign the deal themselves but whether they have the
authority to get their company to move or progress, and
about understanding the role of each person involved in the
decision making process.
Consequence
The third element of PACT asks that if they chose not to
take up what is being offered to them, what would be the
consequence of that inaction? How serious would it be for
the business not to deal with the issue? People often know
about their pains and problems but refuse to deal with them
as they know it will involve significant change to do so.
23
Consequence is about making them realise it’s better
to make that change, than risk the consequences of
maintaining the status quo. Finding out that there
would be no consequence is also useful. If there’s no
consequence from a prospect deciding not to work with
you or a similar supplier, then it’s probably best for you not
to sell to them, and avoid issues further down the line.
Target Profile
Finally, the Target Profile element makes sure that the
buyer is a confirmed and legitimate fit for the products,
and that there are no potential stumbling blocks or red
flags in doing business with them.
Additionally, if required, PACT2 adds in the element of
Timing, which is relevant if you are seeking to potentially
displace an existing supplier with your goods or services,
or the product or service you’re selling is traditionally
contracted for a number of years.
 24

What is PACT?

Why PACT Works

PACT is far more applicable to today’s and tomorrow’s sales

environment. Your team identifies potential customers for your
products via lead research and buyer personas.

They know that their contact in the prospect’s team is unlikely to

be the person authorising the purchase, but that their contact will
have researched solutions for their pain and will definitely have
some influence over the purchase decision once convinced of the
benefits of taking action and making a purchase.

The sales discussion will highlight the consequences to the buyer

of not making the purchase, and will emphasise that the risks of not
taking action to address their problem outweigh the fears they have
about making an organisational change.

The sales discussion will validate their concerns and reassure them
that they are taking the right action to address their pain and avoid
the negative consequences.

During the sales development process the team will verify that the
prospect is legitimate and a good fit, and any red flags that appear
can be assessed against the target profile and decisions made
appropriately as to whether the prospect is worth the investment of
time and energy in converting.
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LEARN - Best Practice Advice

• Develop buyer personas, semi-fictional

representations of the decision makers and
influencers at the type of companies you want to
work with.

• Get in touch with your current best clients, and

interview at least 3 of each job title.

• Ask them about their personal background,

professional life, and the goals and challenges
involved in their job.

• Ask your customer facing employees about the

most common objections and concerns raised by
your prospects during the buying process.

• Make your buyer personas readily available to the

entire sales and marketing team, so everyone is on
the same page.

LEARN - Best Practice Advice
• Assess your product/service, the market and your
prospects and work out what type of meetings
your sales closers need.
• Introductory meetings are appropriate when
there’s not much awareness in the market of the
problem that you solve, or if your closers simply
need more meetings.
• Qualified opportunities are appropriate for when
the prospect is aware of a pain point, understands
a bit about your solution and is willing to discuss it
further.
• Qualification criteria, other than that the company
fits your target profile, isn’t necessary to arrange
an introductory meeting.
• BANT is no longer relevant for working out
whether to schedule a qualified opportunity, use
PACT and PACT2 instead.
26
• PACT involves –
o Pain – Do they have a problem that you
are able to solve?
o Authority – Do they have the ability to get
the business to change, even if it’s
influencing, rather than making, the
decision?
o Consequence – What would the
consequences be of not taking action to
address the issue?
o Target Profile – Will it be benefit both you
and the prospect to start working
together, are you a good fit for one
another?
• And PACT2 includes –
o Timing – If the prospect is in a long
term contract with another supplier, is it
up for review or renewal in the near
future?
 27

The Expert’s View – Trish Bertuzzi

Trish Bertuzzi / CEO of Bridge Group Inc.

Trish Bertuzzi is the President and Chief Strategist of the Bridge
Group, where she’s been helping B2B technology companies
improve their inside sales strategy for the last two decades.
Along with numerous other accolades, she’s been listed in the
Top 25 Most Influential in Inside Sales by American Assoc. of
Inside Sales Professionals for the last 7 years running, and literally
wrote the book on Sales Development – The Sales Development
Playbook, available for purchase on Amazon (we highly
recommend!)

Take a Look!

The Expert’s View – Trish Bertuzzi
1. Inside Sales is a fairly well known term and
function in the UK, sales development; not so
much. Are there any differences between the
two, and if so, what are they?
Inside sales has become very much an umbrella term,
people are using it to describe anyone that’s using the
phone, web and social media to either build pipeline
or generate revenue. Sales Development has become
the standard nomenclature now for a particular
function that falls under the Inside Sales umbrella, and
that function is focused on the top of the pipeline,
so people that either set introductory meetings or
qualified opportunities for salespeople. That’s the
overview of sales development.
28
2. What would be the first steps you would
recommend to a business looking to transition
away from the legacy cold approach?
I would recommend that they build out buyer
personas, so really understand the attributes of the
people they’re selling to. What does a day in their
life look like, what challenges do they face, how are
they currently addressing those challenges, what do
they care about, what are they reading, what events
are they going to? Really become immersed in the
buyer themselves as well as the industry they’re in,
and then use that information to develop compelling
messaging to show the buyer that you understand
their business, and that you have a solution that
will allow them to increase their productivity and
performance.

The Expert’s View – Trish Bertuzzi
3. What tips would you give to companies who
feel their sales and marketing functions aren’t
aligned as well as they should be?
If your sales and marketing functions aren’t aligned
the place you have to start is at the beginning. And
at the beginning, it’s really about understanding what
your ideal customer profile looks like. Often we’ll go
to a client and talk to the Chief Revenue Officer and
we’ll say “what’s your sweet spot?” and they’ll give us
an answer. Then we’ll talk to marketing and ask “who
are you targeting?” and they’re targeting someone
entirely different. So starting at the beginning,
making sure that the centre of the bullseye is
consistent, and that both sales and marketing are
going to focus their efforts there, that would be step
one.
29
4. What would you say to people who argue
that these days you only need inbound
marketing?
Actually, I’d say you’d better go out and do some
reading! Inbound marketing is on the wane, and
the problem is that we’ve inundated our buyers
with white noise; too much content, too much
messaging, too much vanilla. So the return
on investment for inbound is dropping fairly
dramatically, and that has created a requirement for
companies to do business differently, and that’s why
account based marketing, or as we refer to them
- ‘account based revenue strategies’, are such an
emerging field.

The Expert’s View – Trish Bertuzzi
5. How do you see social selling integrating
with the sales development process?
Well it’s an integral part, not only from a listening and
learning perspective, but it should also be part of
an outreach strategy. And I’m not talking about just
sending InMails! I’m talking about actually following
your buyers if they’re socially active, engaging
with them, sharing their information, letting them
know that you’re paying attention to them and also
delivering value back, by sharing things that are of
interest to them. So social isn’t a one-way street, it
should be a two-way street, where we listen, learn
and then share.
30
6. What do you see for the future of sales
development and inside sales?
Well, it’s been around forever, it’s just finally come
into its own. I think we’re going to continue to learn
that we need to be conversant in our buyer’s world,
that we have to be knowledgeable enough to have
an intelligent conversation about business and not
just be ‘smile-and-dial’ jockeys, and for those of us
at companies where account based revenue makes
sense, the role of Sales Development is going to
completely change. Because we become part of a
bigger equation, strategy and series of plays, that
engage bigger companies to drive bigger deals.
 31

2 Identify.
Identify who it is you want to be targeting, the needs of the key
influencers at those companies, and information that will help
your approaches.

Which Companies Should You Target?
In identifying which companies to bring into your sales funnel, it’s vital to segment targets into manageable groups.
Segmenting your prospects in this way gives a clear picture of where your investment of time and money is best spent.
A: A-List
A’s are A-listers. And no, we don’t mean Kim and Kanye.
We’re talking about the big players in the market. The
businesses whose order would help your company hit its
quarterly or annual sales targets or even move up to the
next level.
These customers won’t often come through inbound
marketing and as such, should be your focus for outbound
sales development activity.
They’re typically in the Top 200 businesses within their
sector, and with three-year growth of 350% or more.
32
B: B-List
The B-list clients are the ones that keep your business
ticking over on a day-to-day basis. The more of these you
can target the better; ideally there should be thousands of
them.
Most will come your way via your inbound marketing
activity, and can be handled by your inbound sales
developers, those reps that focus on qualifying and
assisting those leads that you’ve received through content
and social media.
Your outbound sales development team can still get
involved in attracting the biggest names on the list. These
businesses are likely reporting high growth or are showing
the potential to do so.
 33

Which Companies Should You Target?

Inbound Companies

There are now plenty of tools at your disposal when it

comes to finding out which companies have been on your
website.

Companies like HubSpot have their own software in place

for tracking the IP address of visitors to your website, and
matching it up with registered IP addresses that they hold
in their database.

Once you have an idea of which companies are visiting

your site, your outbound sales development team can use
the buyer personas you’ve created to work out who the
most likely people to have been visiting are.

These could be decision makers but also influencers, so

don’t rule out a particular contact at the company based
on the fact that they’re not senior enough.

A more junior executive may have been tasked by one

of their managers to find potential suppliers, or possibly
scope you out specifically.

Lead Research
Why Should I Research My Leads?
Your buyer personas are now sorted and your sales
development team are ready to reach out to Mark the
Managing Director to get the ball rolling. But what are they
going to talk about?
Researching your leads is a major factor in differentiating
your 21st century sales development function from the
20th century cold approach.
Finding detailed information about the leads you are going
after and giving the call some context, is a must. The more
correct and relevant information the sales development
team has, the more approaches they can make.
Trish Bertuzzi suggests using the Three C’s model to help
with lead research - Company, Contact and Conversation
Starter.
34
This means:
• Researching company information via Google,
websites like Owler, and reviews on recruitment
websites and social media activity.
• Researching the contact you’re targeting via their
LinkedIn profile and a Google search, as well as
looking at their shared LinkedIn connections and
their career experience.
• Finding conversation starting material, like any
interesting announcements about company
success or expansion; what they’ve recently
shared on social media; current talking points in
their industry; or who their customers are and
how well they’re doing.
TOP TIP: Use Owler.com to
get key information on your
prospects, and engage them
with relevant insights.

Lead Research
How Should I Do Lead Research?
All of this information is easily gathered, and should ideally
be handled by a dedicated Lead Researcher, working as
part of your team. Gathering this information takes about 5
- 10 minutes per company and once complete is then best
entered into a CRM system for your sales development
team to access.
It’s better to have a lead researcher do this work rather
than the sales developer.
Firstly, the skillset of someone who can successfully
prospect over the phone, email and social media is likely
to be different from the sort of person who’s good at
online detective work, finding the nuggets of information
that will add value to your prospecting.
35
Secondly, they have enough to do already to make the
outreach successful, including improving the data you
have on the prospect during the conversation.
They need to be focused on the approach and not
spend time on research. The lead research role will have
particular benefits for your business if:
• You have a number of salespeople prospecting
over the phone and email.
• You have a lot of prospects that you want to target
but don’t have enough of a reason to call.
• Your salespeople are having to spend time when
they should be making calls looking for relevant
research points to reference.
• Your team are reaching out to job titles that may
receive a lot of approaches (head of marketing)
and they need some extra information to cut
through the noise.

Trigger Events
What Are Trigger Events?
Generally, the best bits of information that your lead
researchers can provide your sales developers with, are
trigger events.
Essentially trigger events, are anything happening within
an industry, a company or for an individual that signal an
opportunity for you to sell to a prospect.
They allow you to reach out to businesses that you’d like
to sell to, but that you don’t already have a compelling
reason to get in touch.
Trigger events mean your sales developers can reference
a point of interest to the buyer in their phone calls,
voicemails, emails and social conversations.
36
Possible trigger events could include –
• Recent news items on the expected growth of a
market sector
• A merger with another company, or acquisition of
another company
• An injection of new funding
• The expansion of the business into new
premises
• A new senior employee at one of your target
companies
• A promotion for one of your target job titles, or an
expansion of their existing role
• A recent award won by the business as a whole, or
a department within the business
• The release of a new range of products or services
at one of your target companies
• Government legislation; meaning all companies
within a certain sector have to change how they
operate
 37

LinkedIn Saved Searches

Why Should I Be Using Saved Searches?

People change job 12-15 times during their working lives,[2] A standard LinkedIn account allows to have three saved
and job changes are one of the best trigger events you searches, whilst a premium account lets you have up to
can keep track of. seven.

When someone takes a new role at a company, they may Here are three saved searches that we’d recommend you
want to change strategy and operations, and will be more using to keep your sales development team furnished with
willing to put their own stamp on the role, meaning they’d new prospects that we have a compelling reason to be
be more open to working with a new supplier. calling.

[2]
Forrester Research
One great way of monitoring when your prospects
change jobs is by using LinkedIn saved searches.

You can search for prospects who have changed job roles
and filter them by selected criteria. You can then save
that search meaning you don’t have to put any of the
information in again.

The search automatically updates, meaning that when

a new lead matches the criteria you’ve selected, it’s
automatically added to your list.

You opt to receive alerts direct to your inbox on a daily,

weekly or monthly basis, notifying you if any new leads
have been added to your list.
 38

The Advocate Marketing Search

This saved search lets you know when someone who has
previously worked for one of your clients, current or past,
moves into a senior role at a new company.

These prospects may have already had experience of your

business or will have at least heard your name, and know a
bit about you.

This may well provide an opportunity for them to

champion you in their new role, as they will either know
that you provide a good level of service, or will be
comfortable talking to ex-colleagues of theirs, who’ll
confirm that you’re worth working with.

Complete the following fields and save the search:

• Relationship: All degrees of separation

• Title: Your target job titles

• Title: Current or Past – Current

• Company: Your existing and past clients

• Company - Current or Past: Past not current

 39

Location Based Search

The location based saved search means you can monitor

a target area for senior prospects changing companies.
It alerts you when a senior executive who matches the
criteria of your buyer persona changes jobs either locally
to you or in an area that you do a lot of business.

These people fit the target profile of your ideal buyer, and
may be more keen to work with local companies, so use
that information and reference it in your approaches.

Complete the following fields and save the search:

• Relationship: All degrees of separation

• Title: Your target job titles

• Title - Current or Past: Current

• Location: Located in or near

• Country: Your target country

• Postal Code: Your target area

• Within: Your target area radius

 40

The A-List Account Search

If you have a number of specific accounts that you’re

targeting, for example, an enterprise whose business
would make your quarter, then this saved search provides
a great tool for monitoring them.

You’ll be alerted of any management changes at these

companies; as soon as someone new takes on a senior
job role there, you’ll know about it.

A management change may mean a new direction for the

department or a change in strategy, and could trigger a
need for your services.

Complete the following fields and save the search:

• Relationship: All degrees of separation

• Title: Your target job titles

• Title - Current or Past: Current

• Company: Your named accounts

• Company - Current or Past: Current

 41

Identify - Best Practice Advice

• Segment your prospect into an A-list and a B-list
so your outbound sales development team know
where their time is best spent
• Research your leads, so you can make your
approaches more relevant to them
• Gather information about the company, the
contact you’re trying to get in touch with, and any
relevant news or industry information that could
provide more value to your approach
These saved searches can be –
o Advocate - People who have worked with your
company before in their previous employment
o Location – Job changes at companies within your
target area, or an area you do a lot of business in
o A-List – Job changes at named A-list accounts,
companied that you would love to be doing
business with

• Make this a dedicated role, meaning your sales

developers can focus on their task, the actual
prospecting

• Use software like Owler to monitor trigger events,

situations that could make your prospects more
likely to need your services

• Make use of LinkedIn saved searches to keep track

on changes at companies that you’re targeting
 42

The Expert’s View – Ian Moyse

Ian Moyse / Sales Director of Axios.

Ian Moyse is the Sales Director of Axios, one of the UK’s leading
IT service management providers.

He was awarded Sales Director of the year 2015 by the Institute

of Sales & Marketing, is rated #1 Social Influencer on Cloud by
Onalytica in 2015 and 2016 and is listed on a growing number
of sales and social sales expert lists.

He sits on the boards of Eurocloud, Cloud Industry Forum and

FAST.
 43

The Expert’s View – Ian Moyse

1. Why has the sales development role become

so important in the modern sales process?

Sales engagement cycles are often far longer

now and a customer has typically done 50-70%
(depending whose stats you use and believe) of
their research before engaging with a salesperson
in any form. It’s rare now that you speak or meet
with someone looking for your solution or service
type and they have not already gleaned a ton of
information, opinion and contacts prior.

Therefore, engaging with a prospective client at

the right time and making sure you are at that
buying table is essential. This historically was left
in the hands of marketing to market to and nurture
prospects.

In today’s world, a combination of outbound &

inbound marketing needs to be combined with sales
nurturing.

The Expert’s View – Ian Moyse
2. What tips would you give to companies who
feel their sales and marketing functions aren’t
aligned as well as they should be?
It starts with the leadership. The heads of both
departments need to be aligned in their goals and
KPIs as often this is where the conflict stems from.
If you have a marketing department who are judged
on the number of leads generated for example,
then they will focus on doing that. Sales then gets
pressure from marketing to follow up everything, to
allow marketing to tick the relevant KPI boxes.
Will Sales consider these all to be leads though? For
example, a student writing a thesis may download a
whitepaper to help with their research and use
a University email address, this doesn’t mean the
university is now a lead.
44
I often download content not because I have
a particular ‘project’, but because I want to stay
informed. I’m often then treated as a ‘warm lead’
simply by virtue of being a sales director.
Listen to your customers, prospects, the market
and what your sales people are telling you, do not
get stuck in the ‘we’ve always done it that way’
approach.
Put yourself in the shoes of the customer, when
you are approached, perhaps called at home
unexpectedly, do you welcome the call cold, do you
engage, do you even pickup when you see it’s not a
number you recognise, or do you as your prospects
do, filter, block and avoid?
 45

The Expert’s View – Ian Moyse

3. How would you respond to people who

argue that these days you only need inbound
marketing?

Marketing, advertising and traditional campaign

methods are not increasing in success, far from it.

Today’s buyers are far smarter than ever before, they

have more information at their fingertips and can
gain peer influence easily through social networks
and influencer networks.

I always ask my salespeople what they would do if

they were to get no inbound leads and still had to
hit their targets. If you have a sales development
plan to feed your pipeline and view inbound leads as
bonuses, you cannot go far wrong.

Relying on inbound leads alone is a dangerous

game. What happens when the flow of leads slows
down and your sales team has no strategy to get
more?

Leaving the destiny and outcome of sales to

marketing is a risky strategy I would suggest. Sales
leaders need a cohesive strategy to drive sales
ownership of delivery supplemented by marketing
efforts.

The Expert’s View – Ian Moyse
4. What would be the first steps you would
recommend to a business looking to transition
away from the legacy cold approach?
Recognise that sales and marketing now need to use
a wider variety of approaches in parallel to engage
with prospective clients and that some ‘change’ will
be necessary. Often there’s a resistance to change,
people focus purely on the number of calls being
made and on applying old approaches to new
customer engagement methods.
Support the change from a leadership position and
be willing to explore new ideas and approaches.
Nothing dared, nothing gained.
For example, social selling is often feared and
misunderstood and many sweep it aside, dismissing
it as “a marketing thing” or “whimsical and not real
selling”. Social selling does not replace normal sales
methods, it enhances them, it’s another tool in the
toolbox of selling approaches. It also falls firmly
within the realms of sales people and isn’t simply a
marketing owned initiative.
46
Ensure your leadership is trained in and understands
new methods and is supportive of integrating them
into the business. I have seen people in leadership
positions push their sales teams to continue with
legacy approaches in the social world, driving
negative behaviours.
For example, a salesperson gets a contact at a target
company to accept a LinkedIn connection invite and
then their sales leadership push them to reach out
and pitch or call them now! Do this too soon and
the walls will go up again. Social selling requires a
‘softly, softly’ approach and can be used on multiple
social platforms not just Linkedin.
If the business leadership don’t understand or
appreciate new selling methods, then the business
will not be successful in adopting them or attracting
staff who are successful in the buyer-centric world
we now live in.
 47

The Expert’s View – Ian Moyse

5. What is the biggest mistake you see

companies’ inside sales departments
making?

Resting on their laurels, waiting for marketing to
own the creation of leads and prospects and only
relying on traditional methods of call rate KPIs.
Outbound calling is only to get harder. It’s cited that
in 2007, it took an average of 3.68 calls to reach a
prospect and today we’re at 8 attempts.
When you factor in that 92% of buyers delete
emails and voicemails from people they don’t
know, you realise that the game has and will
continue to change.
Recognising that inside sales and sales in general
must change and adapt is important.
Management needs to listen to its inside sales teams
and the challenges they face and find new tools and
methods to differentiate to the customer why they
should speak to us over the droves of calls and cold
outreaches they get, all promising to deliver things
better, faster, cheaper.
Customers are increasingly blasé, having heard it all
before. How do you make your approach different
and valuable enough to get their attention and time?

We all have less time, more intrusions on that time

and are being approached and marketed to by
more companies than ever before, so it’s no
wonder people’s barriers are up.
 48

The Expert’s View – Ian Moyse

6. Where do you see the future of sales

development and inside sales going?

We need to recognise that it’s a skilled profession
and encourage our sales staff to see it as such. By
registering for mailing lists like
www.topsalesworld.com and following key sales
educational accounts on twitter such as
@SalesldMgmtAssn, @socialselling and
@SellingPowerMag.
Also, encourage sales to take part in Associations
such as the Institute of Sales & Marketing (ISMM) and
Association of Professional Sales (APS) and support
your sales people in awards such as the Women in
Sales Awards.
Social selling is an area that helps warm up cold
approaches and listening, sharing and engaging will
start a conversation with the prospects that your
competitors won’t reach. However, it is a long term
approach, not a quick win, and needs to be run in
parallel with other sales and marketing efforts.
You need to educate your sales people on how
to socially sell, how to use tools like Linkedin and
Twitter effectively, what other social tools you can
use to make your selling smarter and the quirks of
engaging using this approach.
I have engaged, met, and won new business using
social selling over the past 3-4 years, where I would
not have done using traditional methods, but this
does NOT replace traditional good fundamental
selling methodology.
I’d recommend reading ‘Social Selling: Techniques to
Influence Buyers and Changemakers’ by my friend
Tim Hughes.
 49

3 Connect.
Connect with your prospects using a sequence of planned
‘touchpoints’ via the phone, email and social media, giving
them relevant content to help with their buying journey.

How to Make Sure Your
Outreach Content Hits Home
Hopefully, you’ve picked up some fresh ideas
on how you should be engaging with your
buyers in the future, but just in case it’s not
sinking in, all you have to remember is….
“It’s not about you…. it’s about them!!”
50
LinkedIn Marketing surveyed over 6000 B2B buyers,
salespeople and marketers from 7 different countries,
and asked what the most important factors were for a
buyer’s willingness to engage with a supplier. The 4 most
important factors were:
• 26% - Understands my company’s business
model.
• 25% - Is a subject matter expert/thought leader.
• 25% - Provides valuable consultation, education or
tools.
• 25% - Knows my company’s products/services.
Notice a pattern?
All of the top responses indicate that insight,
understanding and knowledge are the things buyers find
most valuable. This is both in the sense of a supplier
knowing about them, their business and their industry,
and also the supplier being able to educate and inform the
buyer, to help them make better choices.
One of the best ways that you can demonstrate expertise
and knowledge is by using relevant content to enhance
your approaches to prospects. We’ll show you how.

How to Make Sure Your
Outreach Content Hits Home
What Is Content?
If you’re not sure what we mean by content, don’t worry!
We’ll do our best to explain it in two neat paragraphs.
From John Deere’s customer magazine ‘The Furrow’,
first published in 1895 to provide advice and information
to farmers; to the modern day and Buzzfeed’s ’11 Cats
Who Look Exactly Like Famous Celebrities’, content is
any material that is entertaining, educational and/or
informative and designed to attract an audience, with the
intention of driving profitable customer action.
Today, when most people speak about content, they’re
referring to online resources. By those we mean blog
posts, infographics, ‘how-to’s, slideshares, webinars,
numbered lists, e-newsletters, checklists, interviews, case
studies, videos, testimonials, templates, white papers,
surveys, and informative and entertaining e-guides on the
future of prospecting.
51
By providing your prospects with content when you reach
out to them, you’re able to show that you –
• Understand their needs and challenges
• Have a wealth of knowledge on the subject
• Are focused on helping their business and not just
trying to sell to them
You can create and use your own content or curate
content from other sources that you think is relevant and
offers something to your buyers. Ideally we’d recommend
that you combine both approaches.
Your own content can establish you and your brand as
a trusted source of information for your prospects, and
by bringing curated content into the mix, you avoid any
accusations of it all being about you, and can really offer
your prospects something of value, regardless of the
source.

How to Make Sure Your
Outreach Content Hits Home
What Content Should I Share?
When sharing content with your potential buyers, it’s got
to be personalised to them. You’ve done all that work
building your buyer personas, so you should have a good
idea of their problems and can show your expertise by
providing solutions. It needs to convince them to trust you
and to want to learn more and develop a conversation
with you.
The communication between you and your potential
buyers should be interactive and two-way, and modern
salespeople don’t simply push products or services; they
seek to educate and help their audience, to encourage
and develop their interest and then hopefully turn them
into customers.
52
We’d recommend creating a content inventory, to give
you an idea of all the content available to you, and what’s
relevant. Look at material you’ve produced such as blogs,
case studies, white papers and eBooks that your company
has developed.
Look at which pieces of content align with your prospects’
challenges and goals, and in particular, content that is
designed for the buyer persona that you are approaching.
If the buyer has pain points and questions that aren’t
currently answered by content that you have, it’s a good
opportunity to see what content you should create in the
future.
You can develop more specific content for various
personas and identify if there are some sectors where the
available content needs to be created or improved.
 53

How to Make Sure Your

Outreach Content Hits Home
Use Pocket for Content

A tool like ‘Pocket’ can help you store and organise

both your own content and other content from non-
competing sources that will offer value to your buyers.

You can tag the content appropriately, for example, align

it to each stage in the buying journey – awareness level
content, consideration level content, and decision level
content, to make sure you have appropriate information
for your buyers no matter where they are in the buying
cycle.

You could also tag it according to your buyer personas

particular goal or challenge.

For example, tag content helping prospects to fill up their

sales pipeline as ‘generating more leads’, or content that
will help clients improve the type and quality of their leads
as ‘improving your leads’.

Using this technique, you’ll always have accessible,

valubale content that will help your buyer personas with
their professional challenges and goals, whatever they
may be.

Touchpoint Sequences
What's a Touchpoint Sequence?
Many of the A-List approaches that you’ll make will be to
buyers who might not be aware of you.
When reaching out to these types of buyers, it may seem
like it takes a lot of approaches to initiate a relationship,
and if we’re honest it does.
But you should bear in mind, whilst only
8% of salespeople make more than 4 calls
to a prospect, 80% of opportunities are
created between the 5th and 12th time of
speaking to a prospect.
Despite the fact that vast majority of leads are generated
after at least four attempts to get through to a potential
buyer, most salespeople give up long before then. So
the most important thing if you want to hook those really
big fish, is to be persistent with a message of value that’s
interesting to your buyer.
A major part of sales development is using touchpoints
54
across a number of channels to interact and engage with
your potential buyers.
A touchpoint is a particular occasion that you’ve tried
to get in touch with a prospect. A channel is the way in
which you can interact with a potential buyer.
Let’s say you’re trying to get in touch with HR Director
Helen. On Monday, you leave a voicemail for her and
send her an email. That would be the first touchpoint in
your sequence, attempted across two different channels.
On Wednesday, you may leave a further voicemail,
and like one of her LinkedIn posts. That’s the second
touchpoint. And so on.
Combining your efforts in a touchpoint sequence across
multiple channels gives you a better chance to make a
connection.
Social selling; prospecting and reaching out to your
buyers on social media, is increasingly important.
 55

Leave the Right Voicemail Message

The Perfect Voicemail

When it comes to best practice advice for leaving a
voicemail, it’s important to have a strong call to action.
Don’t refer to previous unsuccessful attempts to contact
the prospect, and don’t start with your name and position.
Start instead with a reference to a challenge the prospect
may be facing or refer to a piece of content that you’re
going to email over that you think will be valuable to them.
If you get a call back then that’s great, but that isn’t the be
all and end all.
When it comes to the voicemail itself, make sure your
sales developer sounds like a human being! They should
come across and cheerful, natural, confident and helpful.
Make sure that they refer to the prospect more than they
refer to your business. Have them reference the research
you’ve already done, and then personalise the experience,
adapting the content and tone to best fit the prospect.

The voicemail, along with the other touchpoints in your

sequence, all help build up the perception of value you
can offer to the prospect.

Keep your voicemail messages short and sweet.

Voicemails that drift on and on are quickly deleted, you
have 3 seconds to catch their attention, so make sure you
stand out.

Reference one of the three Cs that will catch their

attention and only leave your name and number at the
end of the call. Leaving at the start could mean they just
delete the message, as the prospect doesn’t know who it’s
from.

Send Emails That Generate Responses
The Perfect Email
Emails ideally need to be concise and offer value. Make
sure that your email has a subject that is personalised
to the buyer persona. A short subject line that creates
intrigue will make the prospect open it, for example,
“About your LinkedIn….”
End your email with a call to action. Ideally a question, the
call to action on a separate line and focus it on identifying
a challenge or a goal.
For example, if you are asking for the best time to have a
conversation, be precise. “When might you be free for me
to spend 10 minutes speaking to you? asks for a response
and frames the next step. “Can I call you sometime?”
doesn’t.
In our experience, email content works best when it looks
like the letter “F”. That is, two paragraphs with a short
request or call to action at the end. The opening words
need to stop the reader simply clicking delete, but instead
hook them into reading more by being relevant to their
role and making them curious as to what you are offering.
56
Measure and Refine
Don’t ramble on about who you are and where you
are from - they can see that for themselves in the email
signature. Instead, refer to one of their activities and how
you’ve helped a similar firm make that operation more
efficient and successful. Make the call to action short and
clear.
Sales Development teams can now take advantage of
extremely intelligent software to see who is opening their
emails, which parts they pay attention to, which links they
click on, when they open the email, how many times they
open it, and so on.
Don’t base the decisions you make on hunches, use
the available sales intelligence, it’s incredibly powerful
and means you can use you time and resources more
efficiently.

Social Selling
What is Social Selling?
Social media is here to stay. Since the heady days of
MySpace (we barely remember it too), it’s gone from being
a refuge for angsty teenagers to something that many of
us use every day in both our personal and professional
lives.
But what is social selling? Just another buzzword?
Not at all.
Social selling is all about researching and reaching out
to potential customers on social media networks, which
should most definitely form part of your touchpoint
sequences.
Most commonly, approaches are made on LinkedIn and
Twitter but depending on your business it could also be
on Facebook, Instagram or other future social networks
that haven’t even been dreamt of yet.
To the less digitally savvy, it may sound like a fad, but the
thing is…. it works. And here are the stats to prove it.
57
• A study by the Aberdeen Group found that 64% of
teams who used social selling hit their targets, as
opposed to 49% of teams who didn’t utilise any
form of social media as part of their strategy.
• 48% of B2B researchers and influencers are
Millenials,[3] young people who grew up in the
digital age and the era of the internet, and are
comfortable connecting online.
• Not only that, but a 2013 Demand Gen report
found that 72% of B2B buyers use social media to
conduct research before making a purchase.
• It also costs 75% less to generate leads through
social media than any other channel.[4]
[3]
Google Business Trends
[4]
LinkedIn Sales Solutions

Social Selling
The Legacy Approach
As well as it forming part of your touchpoint sequences,
we’d recommend dedicating between 30 minutes and 1
hour at the start of your day to specific social selling.
Here’s a typical daily routine for LinkedIn that you can get
into, to get the most out of your social presence, build an
online personal brand, and reach out to new prospects:
58
1. Find relevant and interesting content to share
amongst your network. Use an RSS reader, like
Feedly, to collate content from your favourite
blogs into one place.
2. Share it to your social networks. Use software like
Buffer to schedule and share posts throughout the
day.
3. Check who’s viewed your profile. If you have a
connection in common, consider asking that
connection for an introduction. If not, craft a
personalised connection request for that person.
4. Respond to those who’ve engaged with your
content – that means likes, shares or comments.
5. Connect with potential buyers who’ve engaged
with your content that you’re not already
connected to.
6. Review contact reminders and job changes in the
box in the top right of the screen.
7. Go to Sales Navigator, check out and engage
with any relevant job changes, news from your
leads and shares by your leads.
 59

Creating a Conversation

The Sales Development Approach

All great solutions start with a conversation. But how has Instead they provide the same information, the same
the sales conversation changed over the years? What are presentation and the same case studies to all prospects
the differences between ‘legacy’ salespeople of the past regardless as to what their individual situation is.
and modern inbound and outbound sales developers?
Sorry to yell, but WHY ARE PEOPLE STILL
There are number of things that legacy salespeople were
guilty of, and that those who still use BANT and other
DOING THIS?!
older sales techniques remain guilty of today.
Let’s finally consign the hard sell of legacy salespeople to
the dustbin of history.
All too often, legacy salespeople will switch into
presentation mode at far too early a stage, like a fast food
Sales developers operate in an entirely different way to
cashier shouting to try and take your order before the kids
legacy salespeople, and ensure that the customer is at the
have even decided which burger they’d like.
heart of the conversation. So what’s different about the
modern sales development approach to a conversation?
As soon as interest is registered they charge into a pitch,
trampling all over the prospect with information that is
often irrelevant and unnecessary.

They are more interested in reeling off the company

history and the multitude of products or services they
offer than they are in listening to the prospects’ needs and
exploring their pain points.

Creating a Conversation
They open with an initial connection with the prospect
rather than just diving into a pitch. This conversation could
take place over the phone, or by email or through social
selling on LinkedIn, Twitter or other social channels.
It has an important part to play in determining what
problems they have, if your solution could be the right
one, and whether the prospect is a good fit according to
company targets.
Your sales developers should be using PACT, to determine
if there’s a fit with the prospect and set up the next steps
of the process.
Above all, they keep the conversation in context, with the
buyer at the centre of any discussion.
The outcome could be that there may never be a fit, or
that there is a fit but the time isn’t right to progress things.
This isn’t failure - such outcomes are just as valid in the
sales development process, and will save both parties
problems further down the road.
60
If the conversation is taking place over email or voicemail
and the PACT criteria has been met and you think it’s
worthwhile taking the conversation further, then arrange a
time to have an Explore call with the prospect.
Follow the Connect stage with an email summarising the
discussion. Personalise the email completely and also
include relevant outreach content that will underline your
understanding of their pain points. Show them that you
can provide solutions to their issues and send the prospect
a diary marker for a further call, where you can start to dig
deep as you bring the opportunity nearer to closure.
If you’re having this initial discussion over the phone, you
should (providing the prospect has the time) be able to
transition the current call into one where you explore the
opportunity in more detail.
Once you know that the prospect is a good fit for you,
you’re a good fit for them, and a business relationship will
benefit you both, you can facilitate a time for your sales
closer to meet in person.
 61

Connect - Best Practice Advice

• Perform a content inventory to see which areas of

your current content address the pain points of
your buyer personas, and identify potential
knowledge gaps

• Plan which content to use for which type of leads,

including –

o Inbound leads who provide you with their

information

o Companies who visit your website, but

you don’t know the name of the individual
visitor

o Companies with a compelling event, that

may cause a need for your services

o Leads who you have a common

connection with, on social media or in the
real world

o Buyers who have had no previous contact

with your business
 62

Connect - Best Practice Advice

• Plan out your touchpoint sequences across the

phone, email and social media, to give you the
best chance of connecting with your prospects

• Keep your voicemails short. Get to the point

quickly and reference something of relevance to
the prospect. Wait til the end of the message to
leave your name and number

• Emails should look like the letter ‘F’. Two short

paragraphs and a one-line call to action. The
subject line should create intrigue, then get to the
point straight away, referencing a pain point or
problem you know the prospect will likely have

• Dedicate some time each day to specific social

selling activity, building your online personal
brand and prospecting through LinkedIn or
another social platform

• Use PACT when you open a dialogue with your

prospects to determine whether they’re a good fit

• Assess the opportunity and if appropriate, arrange

either an introductory meeting or a qualified
opportunity for your sales closers
 That’s it! We’ve brought you up to speed with
modern sales development, and we hope we’ve
given you plenty of food for thought and some
handy techniques to implement.

Good luck, and happy selling!

+44 (0) 1483 77 88 99