5 simple tactics for SDRs to get more meetings booked

Messages ignored. No response for days. Marked as spam. These actions pinch you when you, as an SDR, try to get a prospect to say ‘YES’ to a meeting. Nudging your prospects in the right direction by implementing certain tactics is an art in itself.

As it is rightly said, “Go the extra mile, and you will stand out from the crowd.” It’s no secret that extra effort always takes you one step closer to your goal. In the world of sales as well, certain strategies can help to turn a ‘no’ into a ‘yes’, allowing you to add a meeting to your monthly quota easily.

1. Impress with personalized outreach

Quality matters over quantity. Of course, the number of meetings booked plays a huge factor too but successfully converting these meetings into opportunities helps in determining the quality of the outreach. And to do that, personalization is key.

Depending on who you’re targeting, you can conduct thorough research on the prospect by finding out more about their company’s current situation, requirements, any news/updates, etc.

Adding this newly found information into your sales sequence will help throw light on your research skills and show that you’re heavily invested in the prospect since you took out time to read more about them to find a definitive solution to their problems. P.S. Pay special attention to your subject lines. They're your virtual first impression and can make all the difference in your prospect's decision to open an email or not. 

Here’s a template that Predictable Revenue uses.

Hi {{firstname}}, 

I came across ___ while researching one of our clients. They came to Predictable Revenue because one of their portfolio companies was growing slower than expected. 

We worked closely with our client to develop an outbound campaign that generated a consistent, predictable pipeline, and I can't help but wonder if we could help you do the same. 

It'd be great to connect sometime next week - how's your availability on ___? 

Cheers,
{{ sender-name }}

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2. Social selling and SDRs

The concept of social selling has been floating around the internet for quite some time now. Social selling is when SDRs use social media to connect and engage with prospects by answering open-ended questions or by sharing valuable content to spread knowledge and awareness.

Research conducted by IDC found out that 75% of the buyers use social media for B2B purchase decisions. Thus, connecting with prospects on social media helps in forming a stronger bond with the prospects, increasing the number of leads and improving the conversion rate.

You can begin by identifying the social media platforms that are most used by your ideal customers and start being active there. Also, following a list of active companies or influencers on LinkedIn/Twitter and commenting on their posts or sharing them regularly will help you stand out from the crowd.

Additionally, posting relevant content regularly will get interested buyers to reach out to you straight away.

3. Stand out with video prospecting

This is a form of customized outreach in the form of a short video sent to your prospect. Prospects end up preferring videos over the regular zoom calls as they can watch this personalized video at their own convenience.

You don’t have to be video editing experts in order to send such customized videos. You can become your own film director by using easy-to-use platforms like Vidyard and Loom which allow you to create videos in no time with just your webcam and the ‘screen share’ option.

The sales team at Outplay swears by Vidyard to enhance their outreach efforts.

Within a span of a minute or two, you can introduce yourself,  talk about the business in question, deliver value and ask when they’d like to schedule a meeting.

4. SDR + Prospect = Powerful relationship

The key to a successful business is building a relationship filled with trust and respect. Relationship-selling acts as a strong persuader when trying to convince the prospect to convert into a customer.

It also helps in raising the probability of getting a meeting booked and adds more room for customer retention.

Not only does having a genuine relationship affect the current purchasing stance of the buyer but it also helps in generating positive word-of-mouth marketing along with increasing the chances of up-selling.

Using the tactic of social selling, practicing active listening, relating to them on a personal level, etc., are all ways to build your relationship brick by brick.‍

SUGGESTED READING: THE POWER OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN SALES

5. Strong follow-up game

It takes a certain number of touchpoints and follow-ups for a prospect to actually get back to an SDR. SDR’s using a multi-channel approach to send sequenced follow-ups can lead to a higher SQL(sales-qualified lead) conversion rate.

A follow-up can be sent through email, SMS, social media, or even a video (like we discussed above). But, sending messages daily on multiple channels can be termed spam, thus, to avoid that, the first few follow-up messages should be sent within a gap of 2-3 days from the previous message. Post that, you can gradually increase the gap between the next follow-up if no response is received, still keeping in mind to add as much value as you can in each message.

A follow-up message is very crucial in persuading the prospect. It should also provide value, brush over the first mail and create an opportunity for the buyer to create interest in the product. 

Example:

Hey {{firstname}}, 

I hope you appreciate my persistence. You won't be surprised to learn that I am a Business Development Rep at CloudTask and this is the same perseverance your rep would provide in delivering you a consistent pipeline of sales appointments. 

As I love helping sales teams I’ve attached our 1 pager on 'Sales Outreach Best Practices' which outlines the times to reach people, why prospects buy from you, and more.  

What could I do to earn 5 minutes of your time and prove our value? 

Cheers,
{{sender-name}}

The above follow-up is crafted and widely used by Cloudtask. Get access to 25+ sales sequences with templates here for free: I wan’t access to the templates!  

The tactics discussed in this blog are easy to implement and can be incorporated into your sales sequences from today itself. These 5 strategies will surely help in enhancing your outreach and relationship with your prospects, thus pushing you towards crushing your monthly targets easily.