Beat the Summer Slump: 7 Prospecting Tips to Book More Demos
New playbook
Read time: 3 min
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Listen to the episode here: YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
Summer's here, and you know what that means for prospecting...
Remember we talked about this?
(In this newsletter: How to prep Q3 to smash quota: SDR Game Plan with AI)
The summer season and August can be a real pain.
Lots of people are on vacation, and we get loads of Out Of Office (OOO) messages and fewer responses.
That can get you down, but let's not sweat over stuff we can't control, like those auto-replies and slow responses.
Instead, let's look at what we can do.
After prospecting for 5 years.
I've learned a thing or two about how to handle these tough summer months.
Today, I want to share these nuggets of wisdom with you.
Here are 7 practical tips to book more demos during the summer slump.
7 Prospecting Tips to Book More Demos during the Summer slump
1 - Low-hanging fruits
Go back to opportunities from last months that didn't quite work out, or the prospects who asked for a follow-up in Q3.
Contact customers when they change jobs
20% of people change their jobs every year, so it means you can find, quickly, champions for your product.
Those people are more open to having a conversation about your product because they have already used it in the past.
How?
Go on Sales Nav → Lead Filters → Company section, click on Past Company → Add companies that are current customers → Exclude the same companies on Current companies (to exclude your prospects who have been promoted) → Look for the title of the people you are prospecting
Want more details? I’ve written a full playbook: on booking meetings with previous customers
Closed lost opps
This one is one of my favorites. Easy to rebook a demo.
Go on your CRM, and create lists of opportunities that didn’t close for timing reasons, budget or other reasons.
No-shows
Sometimes you will get some prospect who will no-show.
With them, your goal is to get a yes or a no.
Add them to your no-show sequence.
Be direct with your message:
{{first_name}}, have you given up on {{Fixing the problem your solution solves}}? Not a problem at all if you want to put this on ice for a bit.
Follow up: timing objection or previous replies
Check your inbox to find prospects who told you to reach out in July or Q3.
I’m using Labels on Gmail to keep track of those emails + I set reminders with Gmail, to make sure I don’t miss them.
Don’t know what to say in a follow-up?
Check out this newsletter: Follow-ups: 3 easy ways to increase your reply rate
2 - Rank your accounts
Now that you don’t have low-hanging fruits, let’s talk about 3 other triggers you can use.
Companies who are still hiring: you can check PeerSignal.org or use Sales Nav. Now with the current market, if a company is still hiring it means they have a good financial situation.
New executives: People who just got a new job are more open to new ideas.
Prospects following your company: These are people who followed your company's LinkedIn page. You already know that they are familiar with your company.
3 - Stop thinking that no one is going to reply.
You might feel like no one will reply in summer.
But remember, if you don't reach out, someone else will - and that could be your competitor.
4 - Send emails to get OOO messages
Right now, sending emails might be the best thing you can do because prospects will set up OOO messages.
2 types of emails you can send:
Relevant: then get the OOO messages, and in September (or earlier), when they are back, send the email with a different subject line if they didn’t reply.
We are not here to spam people because they are OOO because people still read emails and we need to think about what’s best for them not us.
5 - How to use OOO messages
Even though people might not reply immediately, you can still gain from Out Of Office (OOO) messages.
1 - Contact info
You will get the direct dials of your prospects. Your tools won't find all the data.
2 - Account Mapping
In those replies, you can get the email and names of their colleagues, direct reports, or their bosses.
That’s great to know how they are structured.
Make sure to go on LinkedIn to find their title and understand their persona before reaching out.
3 - Leverage the info from the OOO messages
Sometimes prospects say something about their PTO.
Example: taking some time off to see my family in New York.
In your next touch (email, call, or LinkedIn message) you can include, hope you had a great time with your family in New York.
6 - Adjust your daily goals
At the beginning of Q3, I shared this newsletter How to prep Q3 to smash quota: SDR Game Plan with AI
Don't forget to revisit your Q3 goals and adjust if necessary.
If you're behind, it might be time to switch things up.
7 - Frontload the season (Bonus for the next holiday season or summer slump)
Try to get ahead by doing extra work before the season starts.
For example, right now, you could ramp up your activities to get ready for August.
That’s it for today. Hope you enjoyed those 7 tips.
Let's crush this summer slump together!
That's all for this Sunday.
Quick Reminder: If you like my emails please do “add to address book” or reply.
See you next week.
Happy prospecting ✌️
Elric
As soon as you're ready, I can help you in 2 different ways:
Check the previous SDR Game newsletter I sent, here's the link.
Check my podcast, where I interview top-performing SDRs, you can watch the episodes on Spotify, and YouTube.