The Ultimate Guide:

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Table of content:
PART1: HOW TO SET UP YOUR STARTUP TECH SALES
PROCESS IN 3 WEEKS

Introduction: Don’t wait 3-6 months before you can talk with your
buyers
Hunting and Fishing Metaphors
Chapter 1: Building your value hypothesis
Chapter 2: Research your market
Estimate your market size
What are the current trends and opportunities on the market?
What is the language that the market uses?
Chapter 3: Research your competitors
Steps to identify your competitors
What are the types of competitors?
Chapter 4: Prepare your outbound sales campaign
But what is the ICP and how do you create one?
Build your targeted lists
Create your targeted sales cadence

PART2: HOW TO SET UP YOUR STARTUP TECH SALES

PROCESS IN 3 WEEKS

Chapter 5: Executing your Startup Tech Sales Process

What is a Sales Funnel and what are its stages?
Buyer process and funnel stages
Generate demand for your products and services
Qualify and close more deals

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 Introduction: DON’T WAIT 3-6 MONTHS BEFORE YOU CAN TALK WITH YOUR BUYERS

Introduction

Don’t wait 3-6 months

before you can talk with
your buyers.

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 Introduction: DON’T WAIT 3-6 MONTHS BEFORE YOU CAN TALK WITH YOUR BUYERS

Founders are the first salespeople in a business. They

are tasked with proving their product or service-market
fit. They onboard the first 5-10 customers, effectively
establishing their business on the market. But what is
the problem in today’s vast market?

We are bombarded with information on the top sales

tactics, approaches, and cheat sheets. Videos, blog
posts and podcast episodes are flooding the internet.
On one hand, this is not bad because founders can
learn from multiple sources and build their own sales
process but on the other hand, the lack of flow and
structure can often mislead a business owner and
founders to spend hours and hours in reading about
sales without actually practicing it.

What if we told you that as a founder you could set

up your startup tech sales process in as little as 3
weeks and go get things done in a predictable and
practical manner?

In tech, there’s a significant amount of founders who

come from engineering backgrounds, which is great!
These guys can really challenge the status quo and

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make something big out of merely nothing! But these

guys are human beings just like everyone else. They
like to stay in their comfort zone, focusing on building
a killer product or service and not spending too much
time thinking about marketing & sales.

As a result, a huge number of startups fail to get to

market on time, spending vast amounts of money
without getting a single customer. A “build it and they
will come” mindset as we like to call it. In order to
solve this, we advise founders to think about flipping
the process. Find a customer who’d like to use your
product or service, and then build it in an iterative
process with your first customers!

Hunting and Fishing

Metaphors

In addition to all that, when we talk about sales it is

important to distinguish between the hunter and
fisherman mentality.

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A hunter learns about his or her prey by examining their

day-to-day behaviors, preferences, and based on that
information the hunter then equips his/herself with the
proper tools to go get his prey. It’s similar to a sniper
who takes into account wind velocity, humidity, and
distance before executing a precise single shot.

A fisherman, on the other hand, is significantly more

effective when you go after schools of fish. Throwing a
net and catching a vast variety of fish, which later you
have to filter and select which ones to let back in the
water because they are too small or different from what
you want.

Both approaches are effective in different use-cases.

When we talk about B2B sales, we like to equip startup
founders with the hunter mentality. So How do you set
up your startup tech sales process in 3 weeks? Here’s
a blueprint we like to use.

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Chapter 01

Building your value

hypothesis

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 Chapter 1: BUILDING YOUR VALUE HYPOTHESIS

The first thing a founder needs to be clear on is what

is the value they believe they can add to a customer.

In order to achieve that, the following questions need

to be answered in an honest (no pink glasses) way:

What is the problem you see on the market that

you can solve?

How can you solve this problem or what action

should a customer take to solve that problem?

What are the expected results a customer could

achieve by solving the problem using your solution
or service?

It’s a simple Problem + Action = Result formula

that is often overlooked in the sense of not spending
enough time to clearly articulate each component, in
order to drive intention and deals closed.

Here are some do’s and don’ts you should pay

attention to when building your value hypothesis:

DO keep it short and simple; use 1-2 sentences max

per dash.

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DON’T use hype words or spammy words.

DO be specific. The more niche your messaging, the

better it resonates with prospects.

DO provide some data to support your statement.

People like numbers. They are specific and easy to
understand.

DON’T over-explain. Some people take too long to get

to the point. When you have a clear value hypothesis
it’s easy to build a 20-second pitch.

Here are 2 examples:

Аccording to IDC research, by 2021 20% of major

manufacturers will rely on artificial intelligence and
sensors to gather and analyze vast amounts of
production data. This data will be used to decrease
costs, automate and speed up production by 25%.

By implementing sensors and machine learning

algorithms, we help manufacturers implement
predictive maintenance practices that can decrease
downtime by as much as 30%.

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 Chapter 1: BUILDING YOUR VALUE HYPOTHESIS

Manufacturers nowadays are struggling with outdated

processes. This causes them to lose production time
and revenue due to inefficiencies in maintenance
processes.

By implementing sensors and machine learning

algorithms, we help production plants implement
predictive maintenance practices that can decrease
downtime by as much as 30%.

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Chapter 02

Research
your market

Once you’ve successfully built your value hypothesis,

you should perform market research in order to
effectively estimate the size of your market, set
boundaries, have clear expectations, identify and
prioritize your entry points, as well as common
language to use in your outbound campaigns.

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 Chapter 2: RESEARCH YOUR MARKET

Estimate your
market size
What is your total addressable market
(TAM)?

Here we aim to understand what is the total market

for your product or service. It shows the maximum
amount of revenue you could generate by selling
into a specific market. This metric is best used to
estimate the potential growth of your business.

Formula: # Accounts in a market X Annual Contract

Value (ACV) = TAM

Example: If the total number of accounts on a

market is 10 000 and the ACV is 500 the TAM is 5
Million .

What is the serviceable available market

(SAM)?

As a general rule, the TAM on its own is not an effective

metric due to a number of limitations that a business

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has. It can be anything from geographical and industry

specifics to experience and specialization. In order to
properly account for this, we use SAM to objectively
estimate the portion of the TAM a business could
acquire.

Formula: Target portion of TAM X Annual Contract

Value = SAM
For example: If the TAM is 10 000 accounts but only
3000 are in the specific industry and geography you
serve, then the SAM is 1.5 million.

What is the serviceable obtainable market

(SOM)?

The SOM is the trickiest one, especially when you’re

a new startup with no previous sales track record. In
such cases, what we advise you to do is focus on
gaining 5-10 customers in your first year (if you’re
selling B2B) in order to validate your market and then
calculate SOM.

The Serviceable Obtainable Market Speaks about

your ability to persuade the market to choose you

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instead of your competitors. The SOM is most used

to determine your short-term sales targets.

Formula: Your last year market share X This Year’s

SAM
Example: If your last year’s revenue was 600 000, and
last year’s SAM was 1.5 million your last year’s market
share was 0.4 and if this year’s SAM is 2.5 million then
your SOM would be 1 million.

What are the current

trends and opportunities
on the market?
Now that we have a numeric value that provides a
quantitative picture of your market, you should think
about doing more qualitative research that aims to
understand the current trends in your target market
and opportunities that companies look for.

After over 5 years on the market working with

200+ B2B tech companies, we can say that there’s
nothing better than talking with potential buyers and

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 Chapter 2: RESEARCH YOUR MARKET

understanding their situation, daily priorities, pains,

and solutions they’ve looked for. The next best thing
is reading industry reports from data providers such
as Bloomberg, Forrester, MarketWatch, and many
others.

Another source you could always use is to read through

the websites and social media accounts of companies
that you think could be a good fit for you. What do they
talk about? What do they read and comment on?

What is the language

that the market uses?

Another really useful reason is to read through company

websites, employee LinkedIns and other information so
that you learn about their language. Look for specific
words used to describe the trends you’ve uncovered.

If you don’t feel like you understand your prospects

well, then chances are you will also not be using
the proper domain language to clearly articulate
your value. It’s always a good idea to “mirror” your
prospects whenever possible to build up the case that
you understand them and can really help.

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Chapter 03

Research your
competitors

Once you’re ready researching your market, the next

step is to identify competitors in the market and outline
clear ways you could differentiate your business from
them.

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 Chapter 3: RESEARCH YOUR COMPETITORS

Steps to identify
your competitors
I know it’s counterintuitive, but when you look for
competitors, you first need to dig deep inside. Outline
your core product or service. What keywords do you
use to identify your value proposition to customers?
What words do your customers use to describe your
service?

Once you have these keywords identified, the next

thing would be to go online and search for these
words, to see what comes up. You can also use
online tools to look for competitors. Tools such as
Product Hunt, Clutch.co, Crunchbase, and others.

These first two steps should give you a wide range

of companies similar to your product or service. For
multiple reasons, like geography, for example, not all
companies you find are your direct competitors.

Let’s say your company offers outsourced software

development services to businesses in Western
Europe. Does that mean that similar companies that

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target the US market are your direct competitors? -

No, as their focus is directed somewhere else.

That is why you need to identify companies that are

focusing on your market. The best way to do that is
to research their website, portfolio of customers and
where they are located, LinkedIn, and other social
media, as well as ads they post, to identify where they
are focused now.

This should result in a more narrowly focused list of

competitors, which you can then track and monitor.
Read what their customers say about them, analyze
their marketing strategy, how they brand themselves
and price their value proposition.

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What are the types

of competitors?
Another important topic to use when diversifying your
competitors is whether they are direct competitors
based on your product/service or whether they are
competitors based on budget. That is, sometimes
companies have different products or services, but
they approach the same budget holder and solve
problems in different ways, or even solve different
problems entirely.That budget holder may have a
certain amount allocated for purchasing solutions
during the financial year. When you are in such a
situation, you are actually forced to compete for the
same budget, which means you need to build the
case and focus on solving the top 3 priorities/pains
of your buyers, because otherwise you might end up
with more of a “nice to have” than a “must have” and
be pushed back to next year’s budget.

And last but not least, when we talk about competitors,

it is worth mentioning the topic of “fellow companies”.
Working with software service companies over
the years, we’ve heard these two words, “fellow
company” one too many times. It basically speaks

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about businesses which can be considered your

competitors as well as your partners/vendors.

Here’s an example: If you are a software service

company that builds solutions for a fintech startup,
you have 10 developers, but your client needs the
job done within 3 months, and this will require 15
developers to work full time for that period in order to
be able to fit it into the timeline. What you do is partner
with a “fellow” software development company to
extend your capacity with five more developers for the
duration of the project.

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Chapter 04

Prepare your
outbound sales
campaign

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OKAY! We’re done researching the market and

researching our competitors. All that is left before
we actually start talking with customers is to
prepare our target lists (who we want to talk with)
and cadences (what we want to say to them). But
we forgot about our IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE.

I realize the above paragraph may be a bit dramatic

and confusing, but I thought it was worth trying to
illustrate a common mistake that salespeople make,
which is forgetting about or at least not detailing their
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).

But what is the ICP and

how do you create one?

You can think of it as the types of businesses you

will spend money, effort, and time attracting as your
customers. When you think about it this way the ICP
is basically your target group. It allows you to focus

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your resources on those that are most likely to buy

your services, and as salespeople, the more focused
we are, the better results we can bring.

What are the components of an ICP?

The ICP is much more than just a few criteria such

as geography, industry and title. It is a way to put
yourself in the shoes of your buyer and outline their
full experience at work. Here are a couple of questions
you need to answer when creating your detailed ICP.

First you need to clarify the types of people in your ICP:

Who’s the economic buyer? - Here you need

to identify the person or department that will
ultimately pay the bill for working with you.

Who’s the user? - Here you need to outline the

person who will be using your service or product
and will experience the benefits of it. Often, the
buyer and the user are completely different people
or departments.

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Who’s the champion? - That is the person who

will fight for you in internal negotiations to get you
a contract with their company.It may also be a
buyer or user, but it is often a completely separate
figure on the board.

Once you have your types (buyer, user, champion),

you need to ask yourself the following questions for
each type:

What are their goals and objectives at work?

Those could be business goals like increasing
revenue, strategic goals like expanding into new
markets or operational ones like decreasing costs
and others.

How does each type hear about your business?

Could be personal network, referrals, inbound
marketing, outbound sales, and others.

What is their path to purchase? Here you need

to think about what could stimulate them to buy
from you and what specific steps they need to

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take to do so. For example: they may decide to

work with you due to your niche expertise. In order
for them to purchase your product or service,
they will need to have an initial conversation with
you. Then you will name a couple of businesses
you’ve already helped that they can speak with,
send them example use cases, etc.

Now that you understand why and how a

customer would purchase your product, you
must consider the opposite scenario. What could
hold them back from purchasing it? This can be
anything from your lack of experience in the said
industry to inadequate communication skills or a
lack of budget, time, or priority.

Finally, their profile: geography, title, size, revenue,

typical work focuses, and how does their day-to-
day look like?

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Once you have the above questions answered, you’re

not done. We usually advise founders to double down
on the account and persona level of the following
topics on the company level:

Firmographics/Demographics (Who they are) -

industry, size, annual revenue (should already be
available from previous questions)

Psychographics (How they think) - culture, growth

orientation, technology adoption profile

Behavioral (How they act) - engagement and

buying process

Environmental (Their situation) - tech landscape,

location

And on the persona level (make sure you do it for the

buyer, user, and champion).

Customer Profile: Title, Company, Name

Demographics (Who they are) - age, income,

work experience

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Psychographics (How they think) - education,

decision making process, Likes & Dislikes

Behavioral (How they act) - Media consumption,

Habits & skills, Research process

Environmental (Their situation) - Tech landscape,

buying power, influence on others

You can read more about the ICP here: How to

identify the Ideal Customer Profile for B2B?

Аnd here are a couple of templates you could use:

Link

Build your
targeted lists
If you’ve done your homework right, the next step
would be to go online and start looking for the
prospects that fit your ICP and compile the lists you
will use in your campaign. These lists must contain, at
a minimum, the following information:

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First Name
Last Name
Title, Email
LinkedIn Profile
Company Website,
Company LinkedIn,
Phone (if applicable)

These are a few basic things I know, but if you want to

be even more specific, I suggest creating a couple of
other columns for your spreadsheet like this:

Person you both know and you could use to

name drop

Partner or other company they could know and

you’ve worked with

Interests (something they’ve liked or commented)

Content they’ve authored

Events they’ve attended

There are numerous tools you could use to automate

that process. Let us know if you like to hear about
our top picks!

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Create your targeted

sales cadence
A sales cadence is a sequence of activities that
a salesperson follows to move leads through the
pipeline. A more detailed definition of sales cadence
is “a specific workflow that reps use to contact new
leads and get them into the sales pipeline. This could
include touch points in different channels such as
phone, email, SMS, or social. The goal of a sales
cadence is to build a solid connection with a lead and
set them up for a future sale.

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Sales Approach

When we talk about building a sales cadence, there

are typically two types: the relevance-based approach
and the personalized approach.

Relevance. It is typically described as a must-have

in all outbound sales communication. It is all about
making your emails, LinkedIn messages, phone
scripts, and SMS relevant to your prospects.

As we like to say, sales is a conversation about how

a problem can be solved. And in order to be relevant
to our prospects, we need to put ourselves in their
shoes, talk about their problems, how they can solve
them, and what results they can expect when they
do.

Personalization. When we talk about relevance, it is

the go-to approach for any salesperson who knows
what he or she is doing. In order to one-up everyone
else, the personalized option emerged. It is all about
showing our prospects that we’ve dedicated time
and effort to them to learn about them as individuals.

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Many salespeople do not use that approach because

it often takes a lot of time, and if not done right, it
can eat up a lot of time without generating much of a
result.

With that being said, we are not against a personalized

approach and it is important to not think about
whether your approach should be a relevance-based
one or a personalized one. It’s about blending the two
together in such a way that will make your prospects
like you and want to talk with you because you paid
attention to them (personalization) and showed them
that you understand their problem and can provide
opportunities to solve it (relevance).

Channels

As a general rule, in any sales cadence, we advise

our customers to use at least 2 channels, making
their approach diversified. The most commonly used
channels in an outbound organization are email, social
media (LinkedIn primarily), phone, and SMS.

Each channel has its own characteristics and best

practices. At least some of them will be covered in
the following sections.

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Using Email as a sales channel. Usually, when we

talk about email, we have two main components. The
subject line and the body of the email.

The subject line is the only way you can grab the
attention of your prospects, triggering them to open
and read your email.

Some DOs and DON’Ts about your subject

line:

DON’T talk about yourself and your product,

instead use keywords that speak to your prospect
about a problem or opportunity they are missing
on

Keep it short and to the point DON’T use more

than 4-6 words

DO Try and incorporate some variable like using

your prospects First Name, Location, Company
or Industry

DON’T use spammy words like help, free, or any

emojis

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DO think about using some kind of a number. It

can be an hour, like Meeting on Friday at 13:00 or
data that is relevant like 46% of salespeople quit
too early.

Some DOs and DON’Ts about your email

body:

DON’T talk about your company or product

first. Instead use keywords and talk about their
problems and how you’re positioned to solve
them.

DO provide them useful information that they

could be interested in and connects to your value
proposition

DON’T make it too long. Over 60% of emails are

read on a mobile device. What are the chances
of someone reading through a loooooong email,
from a person they don’t know on their small 5”
screen. Keep the body of your email between 80
and 120 words maximum.

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DO Use a formula when building your email. For

example: By doing A and B we help C which
results in D.

DON’T forget your call to action (CTA). It can be

a soft CTA like asking a probing question “does
this in general sound relevant to you?” or “do you
want me to send you a case study?” It can also be
a hard CTA like asking for time “Are you available
for a 15-minute no obligation introductory call on
Monday next week?”

IMPORTANT: In addition to email body and subject

line, serious salespeople also think about when
they should send their emails, by constantly asking
themselves “At what time during the day do most
people read their emails?”

Think about it this way. On average, decision-makers

receive 400 emails per day. You want to send your
emails when people are most likely to see and open
them, rather than when they are number 298 in their
inbox and never get an open.

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Using LinkedIn as a sales channel. LinkedIn is the

social media of the professional world. 766 million
people are on LinkedIn. 50% of internet users with
a college degree or higher use LinkedIn. 90 million
of LinkedIn users are senior-level influencers, and 63
million users are at the decision-making level. 70%
of LinkedIn’s users are not from the US. There are 55
new job applications on LinkedIn.

With all that being said, it’s a no-brainer that you

should use LinkedIn for sales. But how do you do that
effectively?

First, you need to think about your LinkedIn profile

and its components. This is the first thing prospects
see when you reach out to them on LinkedIn.

Make sure you use a professional picture that

instills confidence and trust. A small tip - smile;)

Write in your headline something different from

your title. Use keywords about the problems you
solve and the businesses you help. For example,
“I help founders get their 5-10 customers fast”.
You can also include some trust building factors,

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like certifications or awards like “Forbes 30 under

30”

Your ‘‘about’’ section should speak in a bit

more detail about your prospects’ struggles and
provide 1-2 sentences about how you solve
them. ‘‘Founders nowadays are bombarded
with information and juggle multiple hats, which
prevents them from getting results fast. We take
over their top-of-the funnel sales efforts and make
sure they reach their ideal customers and focus on
closing deals rather than opening them ” What our
customers say about us? “Out2Bound was able
to introduce us to almost anyone in the industry.”
and “They deliver on their promises, and you can
trust their judgment and advice.”

Your featured section: make sure you link any

online media content you’ve been published in,
and if you haven’t done so yet, do it right away!

Write blog posts directly on LinkedIn - try to add

value to your prospects and provide links to these
posts in your communication.

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In your experience section, - make sure you

attach your company deck, detailing about your
company. Why it exists, what problems it solves
and any other relevant information.

Secondly, you need to think about what kind of

actions you can execute on LinkedIn. I’m talking about
following your prospects, liking and commenting on
their comments and posts (only if relevant), but don’t
abuse this! And the main action you can take… drum
roll… send an invitation to connect!

What are some DOs and DON’ts when sending an

invitation to connect?

DO include a message with your invitations

at all times.

DO try to keep it short and relatable. Although

LinkedIn gives you up to 300 characters in your
invitation, try to make it relevant and relatable.
Mention something that is similar between you
and them. A go-to message would be “I see
that you’re in INDUSTRY and so I would love to
connect and exchange ideas”

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DON’T pitch your solution or service. As a

general rule, think of LinkedIn as a place where
professionals can meet and collaborate. Don’t try
to make it a conversation about your product or
service right away.

DON’T use too many variables. There are tons

of automations out there that claim to provide
variables that can enable you to personalize your
message, but at the end of the day, some people
may have their certifications like CFA, MBA, etc. in
their last name variable or ltd., and Inc. etc in their
company name, which will end up looking like.
“Hi Mr. Jones, CFA, I’d like to know more about
Microsoft, INC.” It is just too obvious to notice
you’re automating and not paying attention.

DO make sure you follow up! Most of the time,

even if someone accepts your invitation, you
may not hear from them. We always advise
our customers to reach out with a follow-up
message no later than 24 hours after connecting,
introducing themselves and the typical problems
they solve, and inviting them to share more about
themselves and their company.

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IMPORTANT: Always try to follow up at least 3

times after receiving a connection on LinkedIn and
gradually increase the time between followups.

Using Cold Calling as a prospecting

channel

First things first, when building your outbound sales

process, we must insist on using at least 2 channels
,otherwise you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities.
Using the phone isn’t for anybody who’s unwilling to
break some boundaries. With that being said, it’s not
that anyone can’t make cold calls to people who don’t
know them… anyone can do it! However, first you
need to break some walls in your head. For example:

Often, people are afraid to pick up the phone

because they don’t want others to scream at them
or bother them. The truth is that almost everyone
you talk with on the phone wouldn’t be as harsh
as you imagined it to be! Read that last sentence
one more time.

Next… you need to think about cold calling as

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helping people. Don’t ever pick up the phone

and call someone thinking they know more than
you and that you cannot add value to their life.
The reason you’re calling is that your company
specializes in solving problems that others cannot
solve as quickly, as good, or as cheaply as you
can. You’re an expert — act like it.

Want some tips and tricks when cold calling? Here

you go:

1. Research your prospects before you pick up the

phone.

Look at their company information: any recent

news or announcements, what do they write in
their about us section, what kind of people are
they looking for, do you have any customers that
are also their customers, and what makes them
more competitive?

Look at your prospect - Check their LinkedIn,

Professional background, Mutual connections,
What are their goals and responsibilities, Any
recent activities, opinions or interests, education
and organizations they’re members of?

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2. Write down a 30 seconds or less cold call script

The purpose of the script is not to read it word for

word (you risk sounding like a robot), but rather to
help you stick to your message and communicate
your value clearly and confidently. Your goal is to
get a meeting or commit to another next step
you’ve outlined in your sales process.

3. Plan your cold calling for the best time of day.

Every industry has some specifics, but if you don’t

know when is the best time to call, try Tuesdays
or Thursdays in the late afternoon. Data suggests
that the majority of calls occur between 3 p.m.
and 5 p.m. on Thursdays and Tuesdays.

Make sure you use calling sprints of at least 1-2

hours of cold calling without other activities. Clear
your schedule, mute your notifications, and dial!

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4. Use trigger events

You can consider setting up Google alerts for your

prospects or monitoring them on Sales Navigator.
Look for anything relevant: new funding, mergers
and acquisitions, a new customer or new
employees, do they read your emails?

5. Keep it positive and don’t talk too fast or too slowly.

Whenever you’re making cold calls, people

can feel you smile, and they smile back. So be
energetic, positive and smile!

Try to speak at an ordinary pace, just as if you’re in

a cafe with a friend. Talking too fast or too slowly
can be a surefire recipe for disaster. Prospects
will not follow you, and you’ll lose them in the first
30 seconds!

Studies suggest that only 7% of communication is

spoken words; the others are 38% voice and tone
and 55% body language. Since you’re on a call
and people cannot really see your body language,
the focus comes on your voice and tone.

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6. Ask open-ended questions

Don’t lead your prospects as if you’re trying to

make them agree with your opinion. Instead, ask
questions like “How, Why, What.” The goal here
is to make them speak to you, and if you ask
close-ended questions that they can answer only
with a Yes or No, then you’ll not learn anything
about them or their business and not build any
relationship. What would be your chances of
getting them to dedicate 30-40 minutes of their
time to meet with you?

7. Make sure you talk less than your prospects during

a call.

The books say to keep it 80/20. 80% of the time

they speak, 20% you speak. In reality, the balance
is closer to 60/40, but never higher!

8. Whenever you can’t reach your prospect and you

can leave a voicemail, do it!

This is similar to an email, but with voice! You can

transfer some emotions, build another channel,
and show your prospect that you’re really authentic.

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Keep your VM short and to the point. 20-30

seconds max. Answer the questions “why are you
calling them?”, tell them how you can be relevant
to them, give them metric and social proof, and
ask for a call back!

IMPORTANT: For the past 5 years, I’ve done a lot of cold

calling and tested multiple different approaches and
angels. I’ve found that honesty, directness, and relevancy
can go a long way. Don’t be sketchy, misleading, or afraid
to call! Happy hunting!

Using sms for your tech sales process

That one is tricky and here’s why! First of all, SMS is a

great channel. According to research, millennials have
officially surpassed Gen X as the most represented
generation in the workforce and 68% of millennials
admit “to texting a lot” so why not use SMS as a
channel?

Another reason for using SMS as a channel in your

B2B tech sales process is that according to the 2017
state of sms research 7 billion texts have been sent in
2018 and 90 of them were read within 3 minutes of
receiving.

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However, there are a few things we need to remember

before we incorporate SMS into our strategy.

DON’T use it as a first step in your cadence. It’s usually

better to warm up the prospect with a few emails,
LinkedIn, and why not calls before we send an SMS.
Better yet, use it as a follow-up method.

DO use a tone that fits the relevant stage in your

sales funnel. If you haven’t had an intro call with your
prospect yet, better keep it professional. If you’ve
already built a rapport, then you could use a more
friendly tone.

DON’T overuse SMS! If you’ve texted 1-2 times and

haven’t gotten a response, don’t keep texting people!

DO make sure you’ve gotten their phone number in an

appropriate way before texting them. You can use SMS
if you’ve gotten their phone number from a subscribe
option on your website or from their signature when
they reply to an email you’ve sent.

DO ask quick and simple questions that can be

answered in less than 20-30 seconds of texting.

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Executing your
Startup Tech Sales
Process

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First things first, when executing your sales process,

you need to have a clear understanding of what the
path you are about to embark on is. What are the turns,
bridges, and obstacles you’ll face and what should you
do at each step of the way.

In order to do that, you’ll need to set up your Sales Funnel,

know what each stage is, and what the prerequisites
are to go on the next stage down the funnel.

What is a Sales Funnel and

what are its stages?

Essentially, a sales funnel looks like a... you guessed it...

a funnel. Its purpose is to help you navigate the sales
process and filter your prospects through the different
stages in order to let you narrow down your search for
new customers and focus your attention on those that
have the highest potential to close.

Different companies can have different stages. At

Out2Bound, we’ve seen multiple sales funnels, but
as a general rule, we can look at two main examples
of sales funnels depending on whether or not you’re
selling a B2B Product or a B2B Service.

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When selling a B2B Product, you may

have these stages:

The 3 main parts of the funnel are the top, middle

and bottom. Each of these requires a different skillset,
mindset, and practice.

At the top of the funnel, depending on whether or

not you have outbound sales, inbound marketing, or
both, you may have the following:

Suspects - anyone that fits your ICP and is on

your radar but you’re not actively reaching out to
them

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Prospects - any suspect that you’re currently

actively reaching out to using outbound but
haven’t engaged with in a meeting yet. We’ve put
that stage in our CRM to clearly outline the people
we’re actively pursuing at the current moment of
time.

Needs Discovery - here we put everyone who’s

agreed to meet with us over a quick initial phone/
video call or physical meeting. The goal is to
qualify if the prospect has an opportunity for us
or a problem we could help solve. At this stage,
prospects are either qualified and transferred
for further meetings to discuss a proposal or
disqualified.

In the middle of the funnel, we have the following

stages:

Further discovery meetings may be needed

to learn more about the customer’s use cases or
needs. Still at the Need Discovery stage.

POC/DEMO OR Proposal (depending on whether

you prefer to execute a POC/DEMO before you
sign a customer or after. We advise you to not do

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anything without having an agreement with the

prospective customer). At this stage, we have a
clear understanding of the needs and scope of a
project and are ready to extend an official proposal
to the customer. Once a proposal is sent, we put
a deal on that stage in the CRM.

Accepted offer - we usually use this stage to

clearly outline when a customer has verbally
accepted our offer but has not finalized the
contract and signed it.

In the bottom of the funnel, we have the following

stages:

Closed LOST - At this stage, we move any

prospects that have asked us not to contact them
again, or deals that haven’t been successfully
closed and don’t have the potential to reopen
in the future. Here, we advise you to spend time
analyzing the deal. What were the reasons for
losing it and what could you have done differently
for future opportunities.

Closed WON - At this stage, we put deals that

have been successfully closed and converted
leads into customers. BUT your job is not done!

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Your account manager (responsible for the

execution of your value proposition) is now tasked
with developing long-term relationships with your
customers in order to further extend contact by
selling more of the same product or service (UP-
selling) or offering other services or products as
add-ons to the existing relationship (CROSS-
selling). Repeat business is the sweetest and
easiest way to scale.

Follow up at a later stage/Try again later - here

we put all prospects that have requested follow-
up at a different time OR are not considered
permanently lost.

NB!: Based on our experience at Out2Bound,

we’ve noticed the following conversion rates that
companies usually achieve and are considered
satisfactory, but still can have a lot of room for
improvement:

Suspects-to-Prospects:100% - anyone that is in

your radar should be reached out!

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Prospects-to-NeedsDiscovery: at least 5-10%

depending on your target group agree to 1st meeting

NeedsDiscovery-to-Demo: POC/DEMO OR Proposal

- at least 3 - 5% of the meetings held should convert
into the next stage

Demo-to-Proposal: 25% of demos held should result

in an extend proposal/offer sent

Proposal-to-Closed: at least 1 in 5 offers should

convert into a deal

Some questions you can ask during Sales Reporting

meetings are:

How many people do we need to reach out to

book one initial call/meeting?

How many calls/meetings do we need to book to

have one DEMO/POC?

How many DEMOs/POCs do we need to send

one offer?

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How many offers do we need to send to close

one deal?

As we at Out2Bound like to say - you can only improve

if you measure your performance, or as the great W.
Edwards Deming says, “In God we trust, all others
bring data.”

Buyer process and

funnel stages
As Newton’s third law states, for every action, there
is an equal and opposite reaction. So it is normal to
think that when you have your own sales process,
there is an opposite side of the coin: a buyer process.
Knowing what it is and being able to clearly identify
the stage your buyers are at can make your life as a
salesperson a lot easier! We believe that people don’t
like to be sold stuff, but they like to buy stuff, and the
true art of selling is being able to inspire a purchase.
So without further ado, here’s the buyer process most
prospective buyers follow and their typical behaviors.

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AWARENESS

CONSIDERATION

PREFERENCE

PURCHASE

LOYALTY

ADVOCACY

Awareness. At this stage, your potential buyer

becomes aware of a pain point and the status quo
loosens. He starts asking himself questions like “what
is my current state?” and “what is my desired state?”.
If the answer to both questions is not the same, then
he/she realizes there’s a problem/pain that needs to
be addressed, gets interested in finding a solution,
and begins to discover content online, products, and
brands. As a salesperson, you need to focus on the
problem and the pain points. Use big-picture industry-
specific content. Inform your prospects on trends to

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educate them and help them evaluate buying criteria.

Include webinars, e-books, whitepapers, and case
studies.

Consideration. At this stage, your potential buyer

starts to evaluate specific products and services and
becomes more and more willing to engage with sellers.
As a salesperson, you need to show them what it’s
like to work with you. Use demos, data sheets, trials,
share pricing, or specific case studies with examples
and references.

Preference. At this stage, the potential buyer has a

list of filtered vendors based on comparisons and
begins to look for a final decision. As a salesperson,
you need to focus on building a relationship with your
prospect and becoming a real asset to his or her
company. Make them see reason, different points of
view and provide insights to really stand out from your
competitors.

Purchase. At this stage, the potential buyer becomes

a real buyer. He decides to work with a vendor and
is now considered Closed WON in your sales funnel.
BUT things don’t end here!

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Loyalty. At this stage, your customer is with you for

some time now. He starts to evaluate if the solution
they purchased is really solving their problems. As a
salesperson, you need to maintain the relationship,
ask for feedback and involve your customer in making
your product fit their needs. If your customer is not
happy with your solution, chances are they wont sign
an extension.

Advocacy. At this stage, your customer is happy

with your product and sees how it is actually helping
them. As a salesperson, this is the ideal time to ask
for a referral and think about how they can upgrade
their engagement with you either through up-selling
or cross-selling. For example, you may want to offer
other products or services that your customers can
benefit from.

Generate demand for your

products and services
In order to be successful in closing deals, first you
need to open them. You need to be able to effectively
generate interest in your business value proposition.

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To do that there are 4 main components:

Have a winning sales mindset

Know how to use different channels and have an

outlined prospecting play

Track your sales process and measure

performance to improve

Use a pre-defined sales management practice to

ensure consistency

Job description of a Sales Development

Representative

Depending on the stage of your sales process, you

need to recruit different salespeople with different
sets of skills and responsibilities. In this part, we will
talk about what would be the job description of a
sales development representative, e.g., the demand
generator.

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Here’s an example of a job posting for a sales

developer:

Your primary responsibility as a Sales Development

Representative is to generate new business
opportunities for the company. In this role, you
represent the business as the first point of contact
with our ideal potential customers. The responsibilities
include researching markets, segmenting potential
clients, reaching out to them using outbound methods
(emails, phone, social, sms etc.).

Your Day:

Work with founders & C-level executives to build

and execute sales strategies

Engage executives and C-level prospects in

target accounts via cold calls, LinkedIn, and email
to generate appointments

Work with sales tools, G-suite services, Microsoft

office, LinkedIn, and Chrome extensions

Develop B2B messages for outreach campaigns

via email and LinkedIn

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Reach out to clients’ prospects on the clients’

behalf via email, LinkedIn, and phone

Handling responses: work with objections,

schedule appointments, follow-ups

Managing multiple targets and pipelines

Ensure your database is updated and contains

relevant prospect information

Be a credible resource and develop a trusted

relationship with your prospects

Participate in team meetings, client events, and

ongoing training

Requirements:

Minimum of 6 months of experience in sales or at

a similar client-facing role

Ability to work remotely both independently and

within a team

Responsible, positive, and proactive attitude to work

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Determined to consistently achieve sales goals

Experience in market research, industry reports,
and articles to extract market insight

A person that loves relationship-building and

enjoys problem-solving

A person who approaches sales open-mindedly

Bachelor degree required in Business study/

Management science

A high level of professionalism, integrity, and

discretion in handling confidential information

Strong verbal and written communication skills in

a specific language

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Let’s talk about the Sales Mindset. What

are its components and how do you
develop them daily?

Learn to hear “No” and keep going. When you are

in sales, you are faced with a lot more rejections
than acceptances. Learning to keep moving forward
regardless of that can be the single most important
determining factor in your success.

Often, when we are faced with rejection, we, as human

beings, automatically start searching for reasons
within. Some thoughts like “I didn’t convey our value
proposition well enough.” I was not clear enough. I
did not use the proper language”... can really impact
our motivation. In such situations, the single most
important thing is to take a moment to evaluate what
you could have done differently and just DO IT.

When your motivation is suffering, you will end

up overthinking, which will lower your activity and
ultimately lead to a lack of results. Mastering the
ability to keep going when everything is against you
separates the average from the best. #Persistence

Know your “Why”. Great salespeople are able to

understand the “why” of their product or service. This

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helps them to understand how they can really help their

customers. Think of it as a Unique Selling Point (USP),
which is not just a simple, boring list of features, but
how exactly your customers’ lives get better using your
solution. When a salesperson is clear on what value
their company provides, then the conversation with
potential customers transforms from a conversation
about selling to a conversation about how a problem
can be solved. Great sellers are helpers.

Keep customers’ interests as the top priority. When

you think about it, this is really a no-brainer, but often
in the day-to-day operations, a salesperson can
forget that the single reason a company exists is to
serve its customers. The way we serve our customers
is by keeping them as our top priority. Customers
can feel when they are being sold and regarded as
a paycheck. When that happens, trust is broken and
deals fall apart. Instead, salespeople should focus on
serving their customers and the paycheck will come.

Listen more, talk less. Listening skills are fundamental

to a winning sales mindset. We, as human beings,
love the sound of our voices, hearing our names, and
so on.

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As Dale Carnegie once said, “Be a good listener.

Encourage others to talk about themselves’’. When
you let others talk and you listen with the intent of
understanding, selling becomes a lot easier. The
focus is on asking specific questions that can show
you understand their struggles, and the more you
learn about their unique situation, the better you are
positioned to help.

In conclusion, even if you don’t remember anything

else from this segment, remember this: People do
business with people they know, like, and trust.
The easiest way to build trust and be liked is by
being persistent, focused on solving problems, and
listening with the intent of understanding.

Sales prospecting plays you can

incorporate in your outbound demand
generation

When doing demand generation, there are three main

components. Humans, processes, and technology.
These three need to work together. The human side
we already covered when we talked about sales

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mindset in the previous topic.

We already gave you some DOs and DON’Ts when

preparing your prospecting cadence for each channel.
Now we’d like to give you some example prospecting
plays you can use when building your cadence as per
our advice in “Building your targeted cadence”.

Here are 4 sales plays you can use:

Initial meeting play. Leading with a high-value

added offering. Your goal is to capture interest
and inspire prospects to want to meet with you.
Nowadays, organizations around the world are
encouraging prospective buyers to schedule
DEMO calls, but most are unwilling to do so or
are not ready for a call.

In order to spice things up and make your

approach more compelling, consider offering
something of value upfront. You may want to offer
a custom audit of the prospects’ processes and
create a custom report outlining certain problems
and suggesting ways of tackling them. This report
can be a standard format, but its content should
be specific to each company.

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For example: Most cyber security companies offer

a free security audit to potential customers. Once
that audit is completed, they provide a detailed
report and suggest their services to address
specific security threats that said company is
exposed to. The goal is to schedule a meeting
with prospects and offer a no-obligation audit.

Customized content based on targeted account

play. In such plays, sales teams opt-in to develop
a highly customized specific content piece that
targets one account (company) based on research.
This play usually involves a lot more research from
the salesperson before reaching out. It can lower
the number of accounts targeted per person, but
it could also create a significant advantage when
compared to other providers because you’ve
already put in some groundwork and treated
prospects as if they were your customers already.

For example, if you’re selling inbound marketing

services, you may want to research a company’s
digital presence, its marketing approach, and its
digital strategy. What ads, keywords, and channels
are they using, and what key recommendations

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can they implement? All that bundled in a research

report, you can offer snippets in your emails to
invite customers to a meeting to discuss the
findings from your report.

Industry content play. Here, the main goal is to use

existing or design your own unique and relevant
content that is specific to a certain vertical, sector
or entire industry and targets certain audiences
within them.

Similar to the previous play, here we aim to create

or utilize content that talks about key trends,
opportunities, or threats that our target audience
is experiencing day to-day and provides key
insights in the form of a report. The call to action
here is to schedule a meeting where an expert can
introduce the findings of our report and answer
any additional questions.

For example: If you’re selling industry 4.0 solutions

to the manufacturing space you may want to focus
on a specific sub sector like food manufacturing
and share insights on how software can help
gather production data, aggregate findings and
provide data-driven decision making.

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Use cases play. In such plays, we need to create a

compelling story that doesn’t talk so much about
our products, features, or services but rather tells
a story about an existing customer. What was
their particular situation or problem they were
facing? How did they make a decision to work
with us? What actions did we take? What was the
end result the customer experienced?

The goal of such a prospecting play is to target

other prospects that might be in a similar situation,
see the value of working with us by introducing
a peer who already trusted us, and emulate
an example of a key result they could expect.

For example, if you’re offering developer tools

to fast-track software development time and
decrease the cost of building key features or web
applications, you can take an existing software
development company that is already using your
tool and provide a specific number or percentage
that illustrates how effective and value-adding
your solutions are.

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Tools to use for each channel of your

prospecting.

Email tools. Aside from the standard no-brainer

tool that is the email client (gmail, outlook, etc.), you
should definitely consider using an email automation
software. This will help you not only schedule your
emails to land in your prospects’ inboxes when
you want but also provide valuable insight into
how your outbound email campaign is performing.

You can A/B test specific subject lines and different

email bodies to see which one brings you more
opens, replies, and forwards. So that you can
improve your next campaigns and have a more data-
driven approach when building your next sentences.

Also, you can schedule follow-up steps like “send

email 2 X number of days after email 1 if no response
is received.”

Another cool feature of using email automation

software for outbound prospecting is that you can
track how many times a certain prospect has read
your email and if it is significantly higher than the rest

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of the prospects in your campaign, that is a signal to

give them a call right away.

There are numerous tools on the market that you can

just google, but here are a few examples: Sendinblue,
Reply.io, Prospect.io, Close, and AutoKlose.

In addition to email automation, consider using domain

reputation monitors to ensure that your domain has
the proper settings, your reputation is not harmed,
or you’re marked as a spammer somewhere. For
example, Mail-tester, Glockapps, or MailGenius.

And finally, always use a verification service to make

sure that the emails you’ve got on your list are the right
ones to ensure that you protect your email address.
For example, VerifyEmail, ZeroBounce, DeBounce,
NeverBounce, MillionVerifier, etc.

LinkedIn tools. The world of automation is vast, and

there are a number of tools you can use to automate
your LinkedIn approach as well. However, we must
warn you that overusing automation, especially
on LinkedIn, can drastically impact your sales in a
negative way.

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At Out2Bound, we’re huge fans of automation,

but never at the cost of quality. If you don’t know
how to do something manually, don’t automate it.

For example, most automation tools will let you

send messages and add people in bulk. A person
who doesn’t have a clear ideal customer would
simply select all founders of companies with 10 to
50 employees and send automated, untargeted
messages to these people. What results do you
think such an outbound campaign would have?

Instead, try to use LinkedIn automation to make

your life easier, but do your homework. Make sure
you build targeted saved searches with people
that fit a detailed ideal customer profile. This way,
you can make your approach relevant with key
examples and use cases, which will definitely make
your approach less generic and bring better results.

As a general rule, avoid automation tools that rely on

using a chrome extension and keep your laptop on for
work. Rather, look for fully SaaS solutions that work
in the cloud without you needing to use a proprietary
chrome extension or never close your laptop.

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А few examples of tools you can use include Skylead,

Salesflow and Prospect.in.

Cold calling tools. When we talk about outbound

prospecting, the phone is essential because that
is the only channel you can use to build authentic
1-2-1 conversations fast. A few important things
you need to consider when selecting a cold calling
service are:

Can they offer you local numbers to use for target

countries?

Do they provide you with metrics so you can

measure effectiveness?

Do they cover both outbound and inbound calls?

Do they provide voicemail drop, call recording,

forwarding, power-dialing, transcription and/or
other relevant features?

Does it integrate with your CRM?

Ideally when selecting a tool, it should be a cloud-

based telephony service that can offer both web and
mobile experience to its customers.

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Here are a few examples you could use - Skype,

Freshcaller, Twilio, Gong, Aircall, and Close.

SMS tools. OK, SMS is simple and easy to use,

we know. The main problem with it is that some
companies try to use it to message people that
don’t know them yet. As mentioned before, DON’T
do that. Instead, focus on using SMS as a follow-up
channel when you’ve already had some interaction
with a prospect or at least tried all the other channels
a few times before sending an SMS.
Here are a couple of features to look for in you SMS
automation tool:

Mass texting
Message scheduling
Two-way texting
Personalization
Reporting

Some example tools you might look at are SlickText,

EZ Texting, SimpleTexting, Salesmsg and Close.

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Key performance indicators for each

channel / Track what matters in your
Startup tech sales process

“You can only improve what you measure”

- Tom Peters

It’s the 21st century. “I don’t know” is no longer

considered an adequate answer. At Out2Bound,
we’re huge fans of constant data-driven improvement
of the sales processes. So you can imagine, we track
and make sure we capture a lot of data that tells us
whether or not our approach is working and try to
improve based on the information gathered.

Here are a few metrics that are a must-track for

the email channel:

Open rate: Aim for a minimum of 60% open rate.

This can be measured for the whole campaign
and for each individual email, so you know where
exactly you need to improve.

Response rate: Try to have at least a 15-

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20% response rate. Like the previous one, try to

measure both the general response rate at the
campaign level and for each individual email in the
cadence.

Views: How many repeats of a single email were

read/opened? If you have 3-5x more views from
some prospects in your campaign compared to
the rest, give them a call!

Link tracking. If you have links that you share

in your emails, make sure you track who clicks
these links.

In addition to your campaign performance tracking,

you can always measure the efficiency of your
email, by observing the following criteria:

- Subject length (2-6 is optimal)

- Word count. Depending on the target group
this can vary but as an optimal length consider
writing 80-120 word emails.
- Number of questions asked (1-2 in the body
is optimal)
- Spam words - some advanced email tools
track also the use of spammy language that
can help decrease the chances of being
marked as a spammer
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- When are your top open hours and what days

have the highest open rates.

NB! In order to have adequate stats you’ll need to

reach out to at least 200-250 people within two
weeks.

LinkedIn metrics to track the performance of

your outbound campaign:

Invited-to-Calls - should be at least 2% usually

we aim for 3%

Invited-to-Connected - should be at least 30%

otherwise you need to change something in your
invitation message

Invited-to-Responded - should be at least 10% or

you might need to improve your messaging

Connected-to-Calls - should be at least 5%

we usually aim for 7% and above. That metrics
speaks to how well your campaign can achieve a
result (booked meetings)

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Connected-to-Responded - 30% at least

otherwise your follow ups need improvement.

Responded-to-Calls - 20% and above otherwise

you might want to think about a different CTA

Additionally you may want to observe profile statistics

like how many people visited your profile and with
what background they were.

NB!: In order to have adequate stats you’ll need to

have at least 200 people invited.

Call metrics to track during your outbound

campaign

When we talk about tracking cold calls, there are a

number of metrics you can track, but essentially
you need to get an answer to one of the following 3
questions:

Is my calling activity high enough? (How many

cold calls are we doing per day?)

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How many times are we able to reach the prospect

(call connects)?

How many from the calls connected do we convert

into the next step (Demo, Needs analysis meeting
etc.)?

The easiest way to answer these questions is if we

have the following metrics:

Total dials
Unique dials
Answered calls
Reached prospects of total dials made
Number of qualified and convert to the next step

NB!: In order to make adequate tracking try to make

at 50/200 dials per day for two weeks and calculate
conversion rates.

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SMS metrics to track during your outbound

campaign

When using SMS you’ll need to track the following

criteria:

Delivery rate - here we’re measuring the efficiency

of the numbers used.
Formula: ( # of delivered texts / total number of
text sent ) *100

Interaction rate - this would be relevant if you’re

sending some links in your SMS messages
Formula: ( Total clicks / Delivered messages ) *100

Unsubscribe rate - it’s pretty self explanatory

Formula: ( opt-outs during campaign / Total
number of numbers ) *100

Conversion rate - this metric shows the

effectiveness of your texts. For example if someone
agrees to book a meeting after a text you sent.
Formula: ( # of conversions / # of total messages
sent ) *100

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NB! And remember don’t abuse this channel. Use it

cautiously.

Agile Sales process

What is Agile? How does it translate in sales? Why

use it? These are the 3 main questions we will answer
in this part. Let’s dive in.

What is Agile? The Agile methodology is a way to

manage a project by breaking it up into several phases.
It involves constant collaboration with stakeholders
and continuous improvement at every stage. Once
the work begins, teams cycle through a process of
planning, executing, and evaluating.

It is a type of project management process, mainly

used for software development, where demands and
solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of
self-organizing and cross-functional teams and their
customers.

Essentially, it is an alternative approach to

project management that helps teams deliver
value to their customers faster with constant

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improvement and continuous evaluation of the

process and results. Ultimately it helps have a
natural mechanism to respond to change quickly.

There are numerous popular Agile methods, but when

we talk about Agile sales, we try to take the best out
of the Kanban and Scrum agile frameworks.

How does Agile translate in sales? In order to be

effective and successful in sales, you need to have
an iterative approach and adapt to the contact
changes of the market. That is why, similar to agile
software development, we apply practices like sprint
planning or preparation, execution, sprint review, and
retrospective.

Typically at Out2Bound, the sprints are 4-5 business

weeks.

During Week 1, we will execute the preparation

and market research stages. This ensures that
we understand our target market, pain points, and
competitors. Build a list of cold leads to contact
during sprint execution. These cold leads fit our ideal
customer profile and buyer personas. Additionally, we

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select the sales play we would like to use and build

targeted cadences that will be used during sprint
execution.

Once all the preparation is done before we

go into execution, we get a client to sign
off on the list and cadences, making sure
we’re still on track with the client’s goals.

During week 2, we begin with the actual prospecting

by sending emails, LinkedIn messages, and
cold calls on a pre-defined schedule. As already
mentioned, use multiple channels, mixing at
least two. At Out2Bound, we use at least 3
channels, mainly email, LinkedIn, and phone.

Spacing between steps is equally important. We

usually advise customers to use the fibonacci
sequence (112358...) to gradually increase the space
between steps. For example:

Day 1. Step 1. - LinkedIn follow

+1 Day Step 2. - LinkedIn Invite
+2 Days Step 3. - Email
+3 Days Step 4. Phone call
+5 Days Step 5. - Email Or LinkedIn message
+8 Days Step 6. - Phone calls etc.

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During sprints, we like to have weekly standups with

customers. During these 10-15 minute meetings,
we discuss how the campaign is tracking based on
KPIs, what kinds of conversations are being held
with prospects, status checks on meetings held, the
classic done or to be done, and any needed update.

At the end of the execution (usually during week 5),

we hold a sprint review meeting where we discuss the
positives and negatives of the campaign. What should
we continue doing, stop doing, and start doing? For
example, change cadences or target groups. Once
the review is done, we will begin preparation again.

Why use Agile methodologies in sales? WWe live in

a fast-paced world. Companies that are not adaptable
fail. By using a structured outbound process combined
with agile methodologies, we ensure that sales are
measurable and can quickly react to the shifting market.

Instead of blasting thousands of people every day

and praying that we hit something, we at Out2Bound
believe in well-targeted ideal customers with well-
communicated value propositions. Often, in sales, it’s
about balancing quality and quantity in order to produce

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results. Agile allows you to split work into smaller,

easier to complete increments, thus making sure that
you’re reaching out to prospects that can convert with
messaging that is relevant and personalized.

Qualify and close

more deals

Job description of a Account Executive

When we are talking about an account executive,

typically that would be the person who’s tasked with
accepting leads from marketing and sales development
teams to further qualify, negotiate, and close deals.
An example job add would look something like this:

Overview:

We are looking for a dynamic, high-performing Account

Exec with experience selling technology and/or other
services over the phone, by email, and via web-based
or physical presentations. You will be responsible for

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the continuous closing of new business. The ideal

candidate has a history of bringing on new business
and hitting sales quotas, and loves the challenges that
come with outbound prospecting in a competitive
market.

Responsibilities:

Create detailed business plans to facilitate the

attainment of goals and quotas

Manage qualification, negotiations and closure of

new business

Unearth new sales opportunities through

networking and turn them into long term
partnerships

Present products to prospective clients

Provide professional after-sales support to

enhance the customers’ dedication

Remain in frequent contact with the clients in your

responsibility to understand their needs

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Respond to complaints and resolve issues aiming

to customer contentment and the preservation of
the company’s reputation

Negotiate agreements and keep records of sales

and data

Requirements:

Proven experience as an Account Executive, or in

other sales/customer service role

Knowledge of market research, sales and

negotiating principles

Outstanding knowledge of MS Office; knowledge

of CRM software is a plus

Excellent communication/presentation skills and

ability to build relationships

Organizational and time-management skills

A business acumen

Enthusiastic and passionate

BSc or BA in business administration, sales or

marketing

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How to qualify leads using the BANT

framework

When an account executive (AE) receives a meeting

request from an SDR, it is usually considered a pre-
qualified lead. This person fits a specific buyer persona
and has some interest in meeting with us. It is the job
of the AE to perform the meeting and fully qualify or
disqualify the pre-qualified lead.

In order to achieve that the AE usually needs to have

three main skills and knowledge at this stage:

Product or service knowledge in order to

adequately represent the company

Ability to ask relevant questions and build up value

Listen to understand and present the information

as per the unique situation of the potential buyer

Here’s a framework that is often used for lead

qualification and needs assessment:

It’s called BANT and stands for Budget, Authority, Need

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and Timeline. There are many other frameworks, but

they are usually derived from this one as it seems to
be one of the oldest in sales history.

Budget - These are a set of questions you can ask

to find out if the lead has budgeted for your solution.
Here are some examples:

What do you currently spend on this problem or

need?

Whose budget is this coming out of?

How much would it cost to build the system by

yourself?

How much would it cost if you haven’t fixed this

issue in five years?

How heavily will price factor into the decision?

Have you identified a budget range for this

purchase?

What’s the ROI you’re hoping to see?

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Tip: try not to start with the budget questions.

Put yourself in the other person’s shoes… How
likely are you to talk about money, before you
trust the person on the other side of the phone is a
knowledgeable expert who could potentially help
you.

Authority - here you find out if the person you are

speaking with, has the decision-making power and/or
if there is someone else who should be included in the
conversations to come.

Who will be using the product?

What does the decision making look like at

{Company}?

Is there someone else who will need to sign off to

reach an agreement between our companies?

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Tip: try to identify if the person you are speaking

with is the buyer or the user, or both.

Need - Here is where you find out what their problem

is. They’ve attempted to solve it previously (if at all)
and identified the extent to which it is an acute issue
that they need to solve because no one will ever give
you money for something that they don’t see the value
in and doesn’t solve an actual pain they have.

What are you looking to achieve using {Product

XYZ}?

How is the {department} process structured now?

Why is this important to you?

How much time do you spend on this?

What happens if you don’t address this issue?

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Tip: Sales is a game of relevance. You want to let

your potential customer share his pains and find out
if you can help them to start the qualification with
this.

Timeline: Here is where you find out what their timeline

is. Imagine you know you can help someone. They
are interested in your solution, but based on their
calendar and to-do list, the earliest date they can start
with you is 12 months from now. Is this a lead worth
pursuing now, or should you circle back 2-3 months
before that and continue the conversation?

Are there any upcoming events/deadlines that

you’d like to have a solution in place by?

Are you planning any {keywords here} in the next

1-2 months?

What’s your [keywords] goal for [next quarter, half

of the year]? Will you be able to meet that goal
without some sort of change?

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Working backward from the date you gave me,

we’d need to finalize our agreement by [earlier
date]. Does that sound doable?

Tip: Probably it is a good idea to continue with this

one after you qualify the need.

I know it’s a no-brainer, but I’ve got to say that just

in case. You don’t have to ask all the questions.
Essentially, you need to ask enough to have an answer
for yourself if you should continue spending your time
on a particular lead. A study shows that successful
sales calls have between 9 and 14 questions.

And last but not least, when you’ve gathered the

needed information and have successfully qualified
that there’s an opportunity to work with your lead,
before you move to the next steps, you need to sell
the idea of a brighter future. The goal here is to show
your buyer how exactly you could add value and help
him believe that. Later, you’ll need his/her help to work
as an ambassador of your product or service and sell
internally to other decision makers involved in the idea
of contracting you.

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A few good case practices you can use when selling

a brighter future are:

Make sure you use the same language that your

potential buyer used during the call

Try to give them examples in the form of questions

like “What would your day look like if you were
able to solve {problem} by doing XYZ?”(xyz being
your main value proposition)

Share a success story from an existing customer

on what their achievements were from working
with you. It would be great if you could share
specific numbers of percentages and back them
up.

Tip: Remember people love buying and they hate

being sold stuff!

How to spot window shoppers?

What is a “window shopper”? That’s a person who would

be interested in meeting you to understand more about
your value proposition but often doesn’t really have the

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intention of buying. Such prospects can often be very

hard to identify if we’re not doing our qualification and
needs assessment correctly. They can often lead to
pointless meetings that never amount to anything more.

In order to be successful in differentiating real buyers

from window shoppers, we look at their behavior.
Are they asking relevant and detailed questions, or
are they just looking and listening to our presentation
without giving us definite information and asking
specific questions?

For example:

If a prospect looks at your presentation but doesn’t

try to hypothesize how things would work in their
specific situation.

If they are not asking you probing questions like

“How does x work?” “Would x prevent us from
doing Y?” “How do you handle {problem}?” “Who
else is using your service?” “Are there existing
customers we could talk to about your value
proposition?”

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Additionally, we at Out2Bound usually consider

prospects who don’t ask about the price, as
window shoppers and often disqualify them.

The fact that someone is not going to buy your

product or service at the current moment of time
doesn’t necessarily mean that they wouldn’t be
open to buying it in the future. That is why we
often suggest that if a window shopper fits a part
of your ICP, you put them on a follow-up stage and
reach back in 3 months to see if their situation has
changed and they have entered a buying cycle.

Additionally, you may want to include window

shoppers in a marketing sequence in which you keep
them up to date on market insights, news about your
product or service, and educational material that can
help build purchase intent.

Why are you getting ghosted and how to

avoid it

What does “ghosted” mean? Essentially, it’s when a

prospect completely disappears (stops responding
to email, phone calls, SMS, etc.) after a conversation

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that seemed fruitful and relevant. Instead of telling us

salespeople that they are unable to commit or move
forward for any reason, prospective buyers prefer to
“ghost” us because it’s easier and prevents them from
having to have a tough conversation with someone. To
avoid disappointing a person or having an argument
is actually perfectly normal for human beings.

Ghosting is something that salespeople hate because

it’s rather uninformative. We thought that we had a
great conversation and really qualified that we could
be of service, but suddenly the prospect disappeared.
We don’t know why. We start thinking about what
we could have done wrong... Were we too pushy?
Did we ask too many questions? Or is it something
else? Essentially, it hurts us on both a personal and
professional level because we don’t know whether or not
the prospect is undefined if it’s qualified or disqualified.

Why do prospects ghost us? Well, it can be for

any number of reasons, but in our experience,
we’ve narrowed it down to the following:

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We didn’t qualify well enough: usually it’s a

question of timing, and at the point in time when
we had our conversation with the prospect, he/
she was not in a good time to commit to a next
step, but we were so busy rushing through the
qualification process that we forgot to really
understand our prospects’ timeframe.

We didn’t sell the bright future: As already

mentioned, it’s great to go through the qualification
process thoroughly, but if you forget to really help
your prospects understand how you could help
make their lives better or simply not pay too much
attention to that part, well, you end up with a
prospect who’s uncertain about the value you could
bring and doesn’t really feel like there’s a match.

Someone else came and swept them off their

feet. Yes, that’s possible. Have you ever had a
crush on someone and right when you thought
you did well in a conversation, someone else
comes and talks better than you, has smarter
arguments, and just seems more interesting?
In sales life, we have competitors just as much,
and we need to really be able to differentiate
and stay top of mind with our prospects.

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We didn’t understand their priorities and

they were simply too busy to get back to us.
70% of purchasing decisions are made to solve
a problem. If we don’t do our best to understand
our prospects’ priorities, What keeps them up at
night and thinking about how we could help solve
their main issues at work? Then we will always
be a nice to have rather than a must have. In
business, when you are a nice-to-have deal stall,
prospects ghost you because they have more
pressing matters to attend to. They just don’t
have time for you. Aside from all that, they could
be sick or on vacation, so make sure you check
for that first!

At the end of the day, whatever happens, we strongly

recommend that you focus on moving forward. Don’t
dwell on what could have been, but go out and find
other opportunities to pursue for your business.

What can you do to avoid being ghosted?

Stay relevant: When reaching out to potential

clients, you need to tailor your approach to make sure
you’re talking about them, their problems, and how

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they could solve them. Share relevant information

in the form of blog posts, videos, or case-studies.

Try being more personalized. Follow your

prospects on LinkedIn. Observe what they like and
follow it. When someone leaves a comment on a
blog post, think about how you can incorporate
that topic into an outreach to your prospect.

Put yourself in the other person’s shoes:

Before you send out an email or a LinkedIn
message, read it yourself, think about how you
might make your prospect feel when he/she
reads it, and try to be as human as possible.

Appreciate them: When someone has ghosted

you, instead of making them feel bad about it,
think about how you could demonstrate that
you appreciate them and care about them. Say
something like, “thank you for taking the time to
meet with me and share your business struggles.”
I really think we can be of help. As I haven’t heard
back from you for a couple of weeks, I hope you’re
busy with work and all is well at home. “

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Handling objections in a way that drives

opportunities

When you are in sales, objections are a big part

of your life. In order to be successful in handling
objections, you need to first get your mindset straight.
There’s a saying, “Objections are not rejections.”
They are simply an invitation to talk. Remember
that the next time a prospect tells you “this is not
the best time” or “send me more information”.

Once you’ve established your mindset, you should

concentrate on compiling a list of common objections
and how to handle them.This list should be reviewed
and updated on a weekly or monthly basis.

Before we go to the topic of building a list of objections

and how to handle them, I’d like to share some best
practices from a training I attended a while ago on
objections. They really work!

The 95/5 RULE. 95% of the objections that a

prospect gives you are “Shallow” not the true
reason. For example a few common objections
are “It’s not a good time”, “We don’t have any

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budget”, “I’m running for a meeting”, “Send

me an e-mail”. The actual reason and objection
they are giving you is “I don’t want to talk with a
salesperson/a person I don’t know and just need
to get off the phone in a polite way”

A standard counter when given these objections

is “when is a better time to call?”, “Well, people
usually don’t have a budget as we are in category
creation,” “What should I include in that email?” etc.

These “counters” don’t work because

we are not countering the real objection!

How to know when the objection is not “shallow” -

actually, if the prospect is giving you more details.
Like, “We don’t have any budget. We’ve had to lay-
off 150 people and are cutting corners wherever
possible “ instead of just “We don’t have any budget”.

When countering objections, you must at all times

avoid the child’s EGO STATE. Don’t go directly to
the counter; try to build more accountability and
use an adult EGO STATE.

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Go for the OBJECTION -> PATTERN INTERRUPT

-> ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM -> EMPATHY
-> PROSPECT Pact (Commitment, Agenda,
Outcome, Consent) Example:

Prospect: “We don’t have any budget”

You: Can I level with you ? I’ve been hearing

“We don’t have any budget” a lot. I’m getting
the feeling that’s just a polite way of saying “Go
away you annoying sales rep!” - Did I get that
right?

Prospect: Well, yeah. You got me there.

You: I get it, I say the same when I get cold called
out of the blue. How about this? - you give me
the next 20 seconds to try one last time to show
you who (YOUR COMPANY NAME) is, and why
I thought we MIGHT be a good fit for you and
your team at (THEIR COMPANY NAME). At the
end of these 20 seconds YOU tell ME whether or
not it makes sense to continue the conversation
from there. Does that sound like a good deal to
you?

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Ok. Let’s talk about the list of common objections that

you should know how to handle in any situation. As a
general rule, what you can do to handle any objection
is to empathize and relate with your prospects.

“I’m not interested”. UUsually, we hear that

objection very early in a conversation. It’s an
automatic defensive mechanism that prospects
usually have in order to blow us off quickly.

Use a pattern interrupt like “Can I be frank? Often,

when I hear such a response, it’s for a number
of reasons, from the person being just fed up with
salespeople to having other priorities. Am I reading
that right? “ In this part, you’re empathizing with
them by showing them you understand them.

Now comes the relate part: “How about this?-give me

the next 30 seconds so I can tell you how customer
XYZ, who told me the same “I’m not interested,” is
now happily working with us and seeing ABC result.
After that, if you’re still not interested, we’ll both go
our separate ways with no hard feelings. “

“Send me more information”. UUsually, that

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objection is a polite way of making you leave

them alone. You send them information, and
you never hear back from your prospect.

Instead, first empathize: “Look, I understand that

you’re busy or simply looking to make me leave you
alone. It’s tiring to have people you don’t know ask
for your time while you have priorities to tend to. “

If you’re serious about learning about our product/

service, how about we spend the next 30 seconds
so I can give you a specific example of why I think it’s
relevant to spend 15 minutes with us, and after that
time, if you’re still not willing to talk further, we can call
it a day.”

“I need to speak with my boss first”. While this can be

a legit objection, more often than not, it’s a tactic to stall.

The best thing you can do is not to challenge the

stall but rather say something like, “I understand.”
That’s completely normal. Let me ask you, if your
boss gave you the go-ahead, what would you do?”
We are offering a free trial. While you talk with your
boss, would it help to also see the platform and

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have a more productive conversation internally?

This way, you’re lowering the barrier to entry for

your prospects and engaging them not only in a
conversation but also in really feeling your product. If
you’re offering a service, think about suggesting a free
1 hour audit or something similar to get them involved.

“I don’t see the need for your services/product”.

This one is tricky. Many salespeople will consider this
a clear disqualification, but if the objection comes too
early in the conversation, it might not be so real. That
is why you need to help them see the relevance. Try
saying something like this: “I completely understand
that there might not be a fit. The reason I think we
should at least explore this further is the fact that
“industry” has seen some change lately. That was
the main reason why “similar company to prospect”
decided to sign with us and is now happily reaping the
benefits like XYZ”. If you are facing similar challenges,
wouldn’t you like to at least spend 15 minutes to really
make sure there’s no fit? “

“It’s too expensive”. More often than not, when

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a prospect has an objection to price, it’s really not

the main issue. Usually there’s something deeper
and unsaid. First, make sure that the issue is really
the price. How can you do that?Here’s an example:
Let’s say money was not a problem. Would our
product or service help solve your problem? Is price
the only thing that’s keeping you from signing? “

Then if you’re convinced that the price is the objection,

that’s great, because that indicates that your prospect
is really interested in your product or service. What
you can do best in this situation is to change the
conversation from a discussion about the price to
one about the value they will receive. Give them an
example of the ROI that other customers are having
and try to make an example ROI calculation for your
prospect.

“We already work with a competitor”. TThat’s

a tough one. Every salesperson has received
that objection more often than they would
like to admit. The best approach here is to:

-Empathize: “I get that you’re working with someone

else. You’re probably quite happy with them if you’re

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referring to them in this conversation. Right? “

-Relate: “As a business owner, you probably like

to be sure that you’re getting the most value for
your money. If that’s true for you, would it help
to have a short conversation just so you can
benchmark what you’re currently receiving? In case
it doesn’t make sense to talk further afterwards,
I’ll leave you alone. How does that sound? “

By approaching things in this manner, you will be able

to identify flaws in your competitor’s offering and find
a way to collaborate with your prospect.

Natural resistance to salespeople. Nowadays,

business owners receive anywhere between 50 and 500
sales pitches over multiple channels. That builds tension
and resistance, which makes them hate salespeople
and being sold to. How do we handle such behavior?

Try to make it clear that this is not a meeting about

presenting features but rather a conversation about
how a problem they are having can be solved. Lead
them with information and insights so that they can
learn. This way, even if they don’t decide to move

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forward, they are getting something for the decision

to spend time with you.

Here’s a short example: “I realize that the worst thing

I could be doing right now is asking for time. That’s
why I can really commit to the fact that during our
meeting I’m not going to try to sell you anything. I’ll
just demonstrate some of the reasons why other
businesses, such as yours, are using this product.
After that, you can decide if it’s applicable to you or
not. You be the judge. Sounds fair? “

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