For those who are not entirely marketing professionals, but are running marketing campaigns to promote your business or service, this article is a must-read. The article discusses the most common outreach mistakes you can avoid while trying to reach your sales target.
First, take a quick overview of outreach sales. If you didn’t already know, cold-calling is passé. Outreach is the technique you should be using to target cold leads or past customers who are no longer doing business with you.
It entails reaching out to them with profound messages at the appropriate time. With a compelling outreach message, you can expect 90% responses with five weeks. So, avoid the following mistakes and let the numbers do the talking.
Reaching Out Without Research
Outreach messages are all about personalization. It isn’t easy to achieve without research into your target audience. You need to make sure that you research your targeted customers based on demographic, geography, income level, or any other segmentation technique. Blindly reaching out will not result in any impact.
Try Not to Be Vague
Sending out generic e-mails with subject lines that are not compelling can be catastrophic to your marketing efforts. You need to intrigue your customers to increase their level of engagement. You will have to relate to their problem and provide a solution to it. Be specific about what you can offer.
Tone Matters
Most of us associate tone with voice. E-mails can have a sound too. For example, if you are marketing real estate and are targeting executive-level employees in specific companies, your tone should be more formal. For the same product, the tone can be more casual if the target audience is a couple who run their own business.
Don’t Be Pushy
One report found that many sales reps spend up to 13 weeks on one prospect, while top sales reps spend only up to 8 weeks. You should know when to give up. Being pushy or consistently following up will not yield results. Don’t use phrases like “last chance” or “final attempt” as they will only annoy the customer.
Pitching To Just About Everyone
This is the biggest blunder you can make. You assume that the more extensive your reach, the more likely you will make a sale. That’s not true. When trying to reach a broad audience, you cannot personalize the message, and therefore, it will lose its impact. You will miss reaching even those few who would have otherwise been interested. There is a reason segmentation works in outreach sales. So, please make use of it.
Being Superficial
Customers can spot a phony from a mile away. Therefore, when talking about building relationships, it means real ones. Relate to their problems, show empathy. Customers who find themselves connecting to you are more likely to become repeat customers.
Not Using CTA’s In Your Closing
You have done everything from empathy to personalization. Now you are making your closing statement. Your message cannot fizz out by the time it closes. It should be as impactful as your entire message. Also, prompt the customer to take action with statements like, “This is what comes next” or “Here’s what I will do.”
Outreach sales combined with market segmentation can result in an impactful marketing campaign. By avoiding these mistakes, you can meet your sales target with ease.