17 triggers you can use to be relevant in your outreach
I read a lot about personalizing or being relevant at scale but nobody is telling you how to actually do it.
Since I'm a manager I received more than 200 cold emails and around 10 were personalized.
So not a lot of SDRs are doing it.
To stand out in your prospect inbox, you need to show to your prospects that you've done your research and are relevant.
Also being relevant it's more important than personalizing, using the school your prospects attended doesn't work.
I'm not going to talk about knowing your personas but the triggers you can use to be relevant in your outreach.
In April, I talked about how to write an email. Today's issue is going to help you write your first line. The most important part to pique your prospect's curiosity to open your email and show that you made some research.
Being an SDR it's like being a detective, you are looking for clues you can use in your outreach. But some clues are harder to find than others.
Here're the 17 triggers you can use within your outreach:
Your prospect
The content they engaged with
The content they create
Previous companies
Personal interests
Their interviews
LinkedIn profile
Twitter profile
Hobbies
Their company
Blog
Website
10-K report
Competitors
Social media
Job openings
Annual reports
Quotes from the founders
Customers & Case studies
The insights Sales Nav gives you
There are 2 categories of triggers: the ones easy to find and the rest that you don't want to spend too much time on them.
I came up with those 2 categories because I love being relevant in my outreach.
Sometimes I spent too much time on this and if you can't find it under 5 min, you won't find it within 15 min.
The easiest triggers to find
You can find those triggers in under 3 min and if you can't find one on this one, go to the rest.
Your prospect
The content they create: is the person posting on LinkedIn, Twitter or has been quoted in an article, podcast, or other media? If not, don't spend time on this look for other triggers.
If you find a podcast episode or a video try to find the transcript, it's quicker to look for specific words. Because I've spent time listening to episodes of 45 min and couldn't find anything to use.
Has the prospect worked at a company that you have as a customer? Mention it: “Hey John, noticed your time at COMPANY NAME — they’re a customer of ours...” and mention the use case for COMPANY NAME.
The company
Job openings on LinkedIn: if you are selling to a specific user go look if they are hiring for this role if so, mention: "I saw that you are hiring 3 SDRs in London...". Hiring it's an external trigger saying that the company will need new processes or tools to help them scale their team.
Bonus: in the job description you can also find the info you might need: technographic, territories, etc
Growth of the company or from a specific team on Sales Nav: under 1 min you can find how and say: "I saw that COMPANY NAME grew by 170% in 2y " to focus on company's growth. Or for a specific team "I saw that your sales team grew by 80% in 1y".
The rest
If you can't find anything on the easiest triggers, you need to go to this list and spend 3-5 min max
Your prospect
The content they engaged with: on LinkedIn, you can go to your prospect profile, click on Show all activity. You can see all the likes or comments your prospect left on other people's posts. Sometimes you can find information related to their jobs sometimes you won't find anything interesting.
Personal interests & hobbies: on their posts, tweets, or profiles you might find some of them. I think it's great if you know how to hook them to your value prop. Kyle Coleman shares a lot of examples from his team on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn profile: this one is a goldmine. You can find information: on the about section, the job description, or recommendations. You might find their challenges, their achievements, or what they care about. It's also where you can find their personal interests.
Twitter profile or other profiles: here you can check the content they share or create. I didn't put it in the first category because I use it when I can't find anything on LinkedIn.
The company
Blog, website, or customers & Case studies: on their website you might find info, words, and their customers you can use them in your outreach. If you work with similar customers of them, mention them.
10-K report & Annual reports: if you prospect Enterprise accounts you will find a lot of relevant information here. The priorities for the year, risks and quotes from the executive team. Here you need more than 5 min to find the information.
Competitors: go on G2, or search on Google: "company name alternative" to see who are their competitors. If you work with their competitor mention it. If you don't you can still use the competitors to challenge them on getting ahead of them.
Social media: are they active on LinkedIn, Instagram, etc? Because if employees are not active on LinkedIn or other social media. The company might share interesting posts you can use.
Quotes from the founders or CEO: I really love this one. If you find an interview with them, you can use this with 5 different prospects at the company because it's relevant to this company and can't send that to another company. Btw it's easier to find that if you compare to your prospects, because all not your prospects are active on social media.
The insights Sales Nav gives you: I really love Sales Nav to use it for my outreach. On top of the growth information I mentioned earlier, you can find: the growth in the job openings, new decision-makers, account news, if they accelerated growth, etc.
Thanks for reading.
That's all for this Sunday. Simple tips for SDRs.
Quick Reminder: If you like my emails please do “add to address book” or reply.
See you again next Sunday.
Cheers,
Elric
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