Outbound 101: Your Cold Prospect Funnel

Read time: 3 mins

Try my monthly free masterclass series - where sellers go to learn modern day Outbound skills to hit quota and make lots of commission.

Learn more about The SDR Leader 2.0 - a 4-week bootcamp designed to help SDR Leaders build, grow and scale high performance SDR teams.

I used to think the job of anyone doing Outbound is to do activity and book meetings.

As a rep I’d try to optimize everything to do more of those two things.

As a leader I’d try to optimize everything so my reps could do more.

All it meant was I focused inward and not outward. I was focused on me and my team and not on my prospect.

Everyone talks about human to human selling and they say things like ‘people buy from people’ but then when we do sales activities I find most sellers who preach this do the exact opposite by pushing lazy sales tactics on prospects.

Tactics like mass automated emails. AI prompted outreach. No research before DMing prospects on LinkedIn. You get the picture.

These behaviours are a pandemic in the sales world [have been for decades] but they also come with an incredible opportunity for those who are willing to dedicate time [and patience] to mastering their craft.

In this newsletter I’ll share with you how something I call ‘‘the cold prospect funnel’’ and share how you can leverage it to start more conversations and book more meetings [without doing extra work and loads of actvity].

Let’s dive in.

The Cold Prospect Funnel:

Building outbound pipeline is the art and science of persuading the right prospects to take action and meet with you.

[it’s MORE than just doing activity and booking meetings] 

In order for a prospect to do that they need to;

• Trust you won’t waste their time 

• Believe you can help them 

• Feel a connection with you

This is where 99% of sellers go wrong - they forget each and every prospect is human first and doesn’t just want to be pitched to [yet] or bombarded with useless information.

Fact is…

You need to earn the right - through building trust - to go and pitch. 

That’s where the cold prospect funnel comes in.

EVERY prospect will either go through it [step by step] or not depending on what you say to them and how you say it [your activity].

The Funnel:

Take a minute to consider the 4 stages - your job with Cold Prospects becomes different right?

Its switched from doing activity, starting conversations and booking meetings to moving prospects through each stage leveraging your messaging and activities.

And we all know - the better your activity and messaging the better your results [if you’re targeting the right people].

You see - your job with Outbound is much more than ‘‘just being an SDR’’ or ‘‘low level outbound work’’.

You’re job is to leverage your outbound skill set [targeting, messaging, nurturing etc] to start more conversations, build more trust AND deepen relationships so you can then benefit by booking more meetings [by leading prospects through each stage of the cold prospect funnel].

If you’re really serious about getting great at sales you need to consider the journey your prospect goes through and then help them through that journey.

The more you focus your daily work on that, the more you’ll align with your prospects, meet them where they are at and the better your results will be.

Your Action Points:

Start by asking yourself these questions…

• How do I start more conversations? 

• How do I build more trust with your prospect? 

• How do I build a deeper relationship with your prospects? 

• How do I convert them into a meeting or not? 

Here’s some of my answers to get you started:

How do I start more conversations? 

• Only call cell phone numbers. 

How do I build more trust with your prospect? 

• Do research so they feel like I know them a little bit. 

How do I build a deeper relationship with your prospects? 

• Tell relevant stories based only on their problem. 

How do I convert them into a meeting or not? 

• Give 3 times I’m free tomorrow then pause. 

Start here and you’ll quickly see your day to day decision making improve.

And we all know better decisions leads to better results.

Hope it’s helpful.

See you next week.

Cheers, Chris

PS. After 3 months of work my new product [Outbound Systems] will be launching in June. It’s a 100+ page Pdf with everything a seller needs to build and sustain a consistent flow of high quality Outbound pipeline.

If you’d like to join the waitlist, and learn about the course, click here

Whenever you’re ready, here are 4 more ways I can help you in 2024:

1. SDR Leader Bootcamp 2.0- Go from SDR Manager to SDR Leader & Start Building a High Performance SDR Team [Quarterly cohorts].

2. SDR to AE Skills Bootcamp 2.0 - Learn the exact system I used to help >150 SDRs get promoted to AE. [Quarterly cohorts].

3. The Cold Call OS - Get the exact framework I used to coach >800 sellers how to double their conversion from call>meeting booked in 2024.

4. FREE Outbound Strategy Call - Book a 15 minute FREE call to help turn Outbound into a 7-Figure Revenue Channel [Heads of, Directors, VPs, CRO and SDR Leaders only]