Modern sales organizations understand you must come correct when engaging with prospects. Sales development is neither binary nor omnichannel. You have to communicate through multiple outlets to maximize effort and optimize engagement.
The 2016 Sales Development Benchmark Report conducted by TOPO, arguably the world’s leading experts on top of the funnel, states 80% of SDRs are engaging their buyers with 3 or more unique touches.
“SDRs that leverage a triple touch have 28% higher MQL-to-SQL rates than SDRs that use just phone and email.”
We all know the basics, phone and email, but what other touches can be leveraged? The same study found that 19% of inbound SDR teams are leveraging chat touches. In addition, they are seeing an increase in the use of text messages and direct mail by SDRs.
Before you start sending postcards to your prospects, let’s talk about inMails. Linkedin is great. But like email, it is all too easy to be spammy. Let’s talk tactics.
Here at Salesloft we have found that the “triple touch” increased responses by 2.5x across our customer base. What’s a “triple touch?” It’s a choreographed strategy of phone, email, and inMail communications to your prospects.
Here is how it works:
Day 1 Touch 1: Phone call with a Voicemail
- Voicemail should be semi-vague and not overly “pitchy”
- Add value and use the opportunity to mention something personal as the reason for your call
- Make the call about them. Give them something without asking for anything in return
- Tell them you are going to send them an email with a piece of “non-salesy” content in it
- Ex. “Hey {{name}}. Was on your linkedin profile and saw you are in charge of building out an SDR team at {company}. We published our internal SDR playbook online outlining how we set up and scaled the team. Thought you might be interested. Will send it over via email in the next few minutes”
Day 1 Touch 2: Hyper-personalized email with the goal of adding value
- This email is the pillar of the entire strategy
- Add value, be intentional, and show empathy
- Give the prospect something without asking for anything in return.
- One example call to action: “hope this helps, let me know if I can be of any additional help. Do you mind if I check back in next week to follow up?”
Day 1 Touch 3: Linkedin inMail
- The third touch is similar to the first
- The goal is to lead the prospect to the email
- Don’t make it a sales pitch
- Mention something about them
- Position yourself as the trusted advisor
- Ex “Hey {{name}}. I see you are in charge of building out an SDR team at {company}. We published our internal SDR playbook online outlining how we set up and scaled the team. I thought you might be interested and just sent it over via email. Check your inbox.”
Now I am not telling you this is the right strategy for all your prospects. It just wouldn’t scale. However, when used on top tier accounts, the “triple touch” converts.
Don’t take my word for it…
At the end of the day, whoever cares the most wins. This is neither a silver bullet nor the only strategy to boost conversations. But, it is a proven method and in modern sales, data is king. Come correct when engaging with your buyer and turn more prospect accounts into customer accounts using the “triple touch” strategy.
