There is a lot of content and opinions around how to prospect. Especially in a post covid world there are a lot of webinars about authentic, virtual prospecting. How many have you watched or listened to in the past few months?
Salesforce’s recent study found 57% of salespeople fail to make quota. HBR also reported 90% of decision makers never respond to cold outreach. The sales challenge is big in 2022.
The question that keeps getting asked is by leaders is:
“Is there sales value in social or is it just a waste of time?”
It is a fair question. No one wants their sales team spending time on activities that don’t lead to new opportunities.
Here are 3 big data points that our customers have experienced by adding social engagement cadences to their existing phone calling and email cadence playbooks.
- 200% increase in first conversations with ideal customers
- 21% increase in revenue in the first 6 months
- 35% increase in qualified pipeline and therefore increase in sales opportunities
Why do social cadences create this type of value to sales activity?
It is about touches and awareness. Social cadences include 3 key activities. We have called this the Triangle of Social Success. When done consistently, these 3 activities, along with existing phone calling and email cadences accelerates sales opportunities and increases wins.
Social cadences integrate with existing digital cadences to increase “touches’ ‘ and help turn an unknown sales professional into a known person. Social engagements provide quicker access to prospects eyesight by seeing the sales person active in their newsfeed and notifications. When a sales professionals engages with prospects content or content prospects themselves engage with, they get seen by the prospect in their notifications.
Plus, social engagement can be a daily activity where phone calls and emails, if done daily, will turn prospects off because of the frequency of interruptive messages. A typical cadence we promote with our customers who use the FunnelAmplified Social Engagement Cadence software is below.
Before you look at the cadence below, consider this for an A/B test. Use the cadence below for option A. Then, create a secondary cadence without cold calling as part of the cadence. Then can provide a clear process to see where your best use of time and activities are for your sales team.
Cold calling tends to be the most time consuming and honestly, motivation killing part of a sales professionals life. If we can demonstrate social cadences without cold calling then it can provide the confidence and data leadership needs to make the right decisions on the best use of time and sales activities for a sales playbook.
Prospecting Cadence with Phone, Email & Social
Day 1– Start with a social engagement then add the prospect to an email and phone sequence that is sent later that day or the next day. Email #1 should provide valuable, insightful content and not ask for anything in return. Consider this a deposit in your credibility account.
Day 3 – Engage with their social content or content they have engaged with.
Day 5 – Engage with their social content or content they have engaged with.
Day 7 – Send Connection Request or Engage again if already connected
Day 10 – Send email #2. Again, send an email with valuable, insightful content and not ask for anything in return. Consider this another deposit in your credibility account. Be sure to also engage with their social content.
Day 12 – make a phone call to introduce yourself and reference the previous 2 emails. Be sure to engage with their social content too. Most often the call is going to be a voice mail. That is ok. This is a great touch to keep you top-of-mind.
Day 15 – Send email #3. Again, provide valuable, insightful content and do not yet ask for anything in return.
Day 17 – Engage with their social content or content they have engaged with.
Day 19 – Engage + send social message recognizing that you keep seeing their posts. You can message that you both seem to see and engage with the same content and people. You can also acknowledge that you have sent them some insightful content that you hope has been beneficial to them.
Day 21 – Send email #4, Once again, send an email with valuable, insightful content and not ask for anything in return. Consider this another deposit in your credibility account. Be sure to also engage with their social content.
Day 22 – Call #2. Based on your existing phone cadences, this is a good time to share insight content and ask about timing for a conversation.
Day 24 – Engage with their social content or content they have engaged with.
Day 26 – Send email #5, This is a good time to invite them to a live event or a webinar recording. If your company doesn’t have webinars or recordings, you can send them richer, valuable content like links to testimonials, case studies or other similar information. Be sure to also engage with their social content.
Day 28 – Engage with their social content or content they have engaged with.
Day 30 – Call or send a social message seeking a friendly conversation to get to know each other more.
This is a 21-touch sequence that utilizes social media to increase and accelerate sales cadences. Adding social engagements as part of your existing cadences increases touches and helps sales professionals more quickly become a known and valuable part of prospect’s network.
The good news is that prospects are more reachable than ever before with social and digital channels. The question remains, is your sales team using them most effectively?
