How to Set-up Multi-channel Sales Cadences with Harinie Sekaran

Instead of manning only one channel, sales teams are slowly implementing multi-channel sequences into their sales processes. Buyers expect you to communicate with them on their preferred channel - and to find out, you need to experiment with your outreach. Tying all hopes onto just one channel will keep your leads stagnant on the sales funnel. How do you make them move down the funnel?

Multi-channel sequences are the answer. In session 10 of our Outbound for Dummies series, Harinie Sekaran, CEO and Founder of Leadle, talks about how to build outbound multi-channel cadences that deliver.

As Harinie says, you need to be in touch with the prospect at least 4-6 times before you hear something. You might as well include a multi-channel approach instead of focusing only on one channel.

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of creating such cadences. Over to Harinie. 
 

Why Should We Include a Multi-channel Outreach? 

What are the main reasons that teams should shift their focus from single-channel outreach to a multi-channel approach? Looking at this through an objective lens, Harinie talks about the need for doing so:

1. Nowadays, you need to include several touchpoints in your sequence, before you make an impact on the buyer. So, instead of putting all your attention on one channel, shift your focus to the other available channels. This way, the buyer won’t be bombarded with continuous messages on one channel.

2. Each channel has its specific benefits. The language in your messaging on LinkedIn will be different than that found in your emails. For Eg: On LinkedIn, you need to be more strategic and friendly, on Email you can share more value points and benefits, and Cold Calling would allow you to hear more from the prospects. Multi-channel gives you the ability to connect with prospects in different forms and across different channels.

3. Better quality meetings. No prospect looks at the first message/outreach. When they do find your outreach across channels, they end up having a more holistic view of your tool before stepping into the meeting.
 

How Can You Get Started?

Before you build your sequence, it’s important to understand that any outbound campaign has two important pillars. That is, the ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) and your Value Proposition Matrix.

1. Starting with the ICP. It’s important to map it correctly. Reduce the vagueness and broad characteristics here. If you think you match with 5 industries, pick 2 that match the closest with yours and with whom the use cases would fit like a good puzzle.

Hot tip: If it’s hard to determine, assign different ICPs to your team of SDRs and then gauge which ICP fits perfectly after your sales reps finish connecting with them.

2. Next is the Value Proposition Matrix.  Why should the buyer buy from you? You should be able to answer this question. Forget about the product. You need to understand the buyer here.

To get a better hold of this, answer these questions for each of your decision-makers:

Look at the KPIs your product would be able to solve. 
What’s stopping them from achieving these KPIs?
What would your product bring to the table for this role, for eg. the Head of Sales?

While talking to them, bring in case studies, and quantify them. It’s better to provide different numbers, pain points, case studies, and KPIs for different decision-makers.

Eg: A founder would be interested in the overall growth and revenue of the company, and a head of sales would be interested in the revenue and making their team more efficient.

After your ICP and Value Prop mix, you can understand what piece of information you have to bring up on which channel and to which decision-maker. You get to decide where you should have a low-level conversation, and where you should be granular.

Hot tip: Knowing where your prospects are and leveraging those channels, would save you good time and cost. Learn more about the industry and where you think folks from there would hang out. Look at the geography as well. For Eg: Cold calling might not be permissible in certain regions. 
 

Is Your Mix Working?

Harinie says, 3 months should be enough for you to determine if your multi-channel mix is working or not. You’ll be able to understand which channel is most promising for your prospects and which channel is giving you nothing.

Here are a few factors to keep in mind:  

1. Thoroughly track your open rates and reply rates.

2. Are they accepting your invitation and then not responding to you after? You need to figure out the why. In most cases, it’s because your message on the channel is not striking a chord with them.

3. A prospect’s ‘no’ or their silence can tell us many things. Look at the pattern and pick up on all the signs. This is also why the role of an SDR becomes important. They can observe patterns and figure out if certain channels aren’t working.

4. Once you figure the channels out, it’ll be easier to keep your tone and language similar across channels. This should not be your concern in the initial months.

Hot tip: SDRs must be told how they contribute to revenue as a whole. They need to see the bigger picture. Instead of just executing campaigns, they need to own them as well. 
 

How Can You Personalize?

“Relevance matters 500 times than personalization.” - Harinie.

You don’t always need a personalized line to connect with your prospects and get them interested. As long as you're relevant - by covering the pains and the solution, you’re good. Your objective should be to talk to the prospect’s problem today and be relevant.

Instead of hyper-personalization, you can follow bucketed personalization. That is, personalizing your message to a narrow set of ICPs. Once you find a common pain point or link between these niche ICPs - you can create a similar sequence for all of them. You can easily follow this approach for some 100 prospects. 
 

What’s Coming Next?

We asked Harinie if she was excited about the future of sales and what she thinks is about to come. This is what she said:

1. We should be ready to automate whatever that can be with AI but at the same time, SDRs and AEs should be able to hold down the fort and be ready to humanize the outreach.

2. Leveraging predictive analytics in campaigns. Companies will be able to determine how to run campaigns with advanced data.

3. “I’m waiting for something where the AI tells you what channels to use, how to reach out to the prospects, etc. in order to see a high impact.” This is what Harinie wishes for to happen in the next few years!

If you want to listen to the entire session recording, click on the video below. It’s your one true guide to get started with outbound multi-channel cadences.  

Good luck!