Ask sales and marketing leaders what digital channels they leverage to generate leads and help their teams hit quota and you’ll likely get the same answer over and over: cold calls and emails.
These are useful tools, but we’re long past the era where companies can rely solely on them to drive business. The biggest problem with email is that personalization is on the decline. Look at your own inbox and notice how many cold emails incorporate an HTML template and have been blasted to tens of thousands of people.
If you want to hit your quota faster than your colleagues or competitors, you need to start taking advantage of the underutilized channels that salespeople have available today.
Video Email: How many video emails do you receive each day? Probably not many. When others are not being innovative with the video phenomenon occurring in communications, it’s your chance to stand out by sending personalized video emails to your prospects. Video is an incredibly powerful format. Cisco expects it will make up over 82% of all traffic by 2022. It’s capable of including other mediums, both visual and auditory, which means you can engage your prospects on a deeper level. And since it easily conveys body language, tone and emotional undertones (unlike text), video is effective in getting your message and emotion across. With far fewer in-person interactions expected to be part of the new normal, that’s critical.
Conversational Bots: Prospective customers want answers to their product-related questions instantly. No matter how great your customer support reps are, they can take only one call at a time. Conversational chatbots can service multiple callers simultaneously and they’re available 24/7/365. Chatbots can help engage prospects and prevent them from bouncing off your website. You can start chatting with your accounts and have them make an introduction for you to the decision-maker at a company. Remember, the decision-maker is the one that will help you hit your quota.
LinkedIn: Use Linkedin for intangible touches to your prospects in your sequences. This channel can be used to endorse, like, comment and share on prospects’ engagement that will only help you expedite your project, close deals and hit quota. Use it to warm up your cold emails and calls, as well as to stay on your potential customers’ radar. By engaging in conversations with prospects on LinkedIn, you won’t be a total stranger when they see your message in their inbox, which means they are more likely to open and respond to it.
LinkedIn Voicemail: Yes, you can leave voicemails on LinkedIn just like you would leave a voicemail if you were making a cold call. This voicemail can be up to 60 seconds long and help you build trust with a prospect.
Emails and cold calls aren’t out of the mix completely, but implementing multiple channels into your sales process is necessary to rise above the din and build trust. It’s trust that will get you the sale at the highest price.
If you’re wondering what digital channels to use, I recommend identifying which channels your prospects are receiving 100 messages through and which channels they are only receiving five through. Go with the latter. The best way to hit quota is deploy out-of-the-box marketing tools.
Shawn Finder is founder of Autoklose, a sales automation platform that is used by thousands of sales professionals around the world.
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