We’ve all been there. Whether you’re mid-campaign or starting from scratch, sometimes you’re not sure where to start, let alone figure out how to convince your prospects in 5 seconds and one line of copy to have a meeting with you.

A little pro-tip from our team: Go back to the basics.

Simply take a step back and jot down a value statement. What value do you provide for your target audience? The following formula can be used to help you refine yours:

WHO: Who are you targeting?
PROBLEM: What problem are they facing?
SOLUTION: What is your solution to that problem?
VALUE: What value does your solution provide?
IMPACT: What positive impact has this resulted in?

Now throw that into a short statement…

VALUE STATEMENT: For [WHO] who face [PROBLEM], [YOUR COMPANY] is a [SOLUTION] that can help them [VALUE]. Similar companies have [PROOF] with [YOUR COMPANY].

If you nail this, you’ll have 90% of what you need to craft outbound messaging that will get you meetings. We promise.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Slack’s value statement

Slack, like most software companies, has several different buyer personas. For each of these buyer personas, the company’s value statement looks a little different. As will yours! Be sure to jot down a value statement for each of your buyer personas.

Here’s an example of what the company’s value statement for startup customers could look like:

WHO: Founders of early-stage startups
PROBLEM: Maintaining high team productivity
SOLUTION: A collaboration tool for teams
VALUE: Makes work simpler and more productive
IMPACT: Generate more results, in less time

VALUE STATEMENT: For founders of early-stage startups who need to break down communication silos and maintain high productivity, Slack is a collaboration tool for teams that makes work simpler and more productive. Similar companies have generated more results in less time with Slack.

Apollo’s value statement

At Apollo (meta, we know, but bear with us) one of our buyer personas is recruiters. Here’s an example of what our value statement looks like:

WHO: Business Development Directors at Mid-Market Recruiting Agencies
PROBLEM: It takes them forever to reach out to hiring managers at companies
SOLUTION: All-in-one engagement platform
VALUE: Find hiring managers with active job postings and get their email / reach out in seconds
IMPACT: Save hours every day

VALUE STATEMENT: For Directors at Mid-Market Recruiting Agencies who waste hours reaching out to hiring managers, Apollo is an all-in-one engagement platform that can help them find prospects with active job postings and reach out in seconds. Recruiters save hours every day with Apollo.

In this example our “who” isn’t just about the type of company we’re reaching out to. Instead, we’ve written this value statement to a very specific Apollo buyer persona. The more specific you can be in your value statements and who you are writing them for, the more effective your messaging will be.

To summarize, below are 3 key tips for getting your value statement right:

1. Narrow-in on the problem you solve: Your buyers are likely facing multiple problems that you can help solve. Pick one – the most important one to them.
2. Write for each buyer persona: Don’t try to write a value statement that speaks to multiple buyers. Jot down one for all of your top personas.
3. The more specific, the better: Don’t shy away from getting as specific as possible with the persona you are writing for.

The bottom line – keep it simple, keep it targeted.

Now we know you’re probably thinking: “OK, got it. But how do I actually take this foundation and WRITE some compelling outbound messages?”

We hear you. Stay tuned for our next lesson on how to write a winning email

The post Sales Pros: Messaging Foundations appeared first on Apollo.

Our VP of Product, Krishan Patel, discussed last year’s most significant releases in an end-of-the-year webinar, along with some of the exciting things we have in store this year.

Let’s recap.

What’s new in data?

Find your highest-potential prospects with buying intent

“Buying intent is hands down the best feature that Apollo has come up with. No more spray and pray. I am directly able to reach folks who actually need my solution” — Apollo customer

In 2022, you unlocked more intelligent prospecting with buying intent, Apollo’s free data solution that uses intent signals to tell you which buyers are actively researching solutions like yours.

Buying intent helps you target the right accounts at the optimal time to start conversations early and maximize your chance of winning a deal.

Curious how it works? Read about Apollo’s intent data collection practices here.

Access 11 million new European phone numbers

It’s never been easier to reach international prospects at scale.

We added 20% more international mobile phone numbers to the Apollo B2B database. With Apollo’s click-to-call dialer, your sales calls are also verified in real-time, bringing you more closed deals with less effort.

Find qualified candidates with 27M personal emails

Recruiters, this year your tech stack leveled up.

Thanks to Apollo’s new 27M personal emails, you’re able to source top-tier candidates, reach out where they’re more likely to respond, and exponentially grow your talent pipeline. We also added additional recruiter filters to our database such as years of experience, years in current role, past positions, and past companies to help you hone in on ideal candidates.

What’s new in engagement?

Improve email deliverability with sequence diagnostics

2022 was the year of delivered emails and healthy domains.

With the launch of sequence diagnostics, you were able to run end-to-end health checks on all of your domains, receive customized solutions to fix any issue, and use custom-tracking domains to avoid spam filters.

Our data shows this led to a 15% reduction of emails being SPAM blocked.

If you’re someone who sent thousands of emails this year, this improvement gave you hundreds of new opportunities.

Join active calls for more collaboration with Apollo’s dialer

Live call coaching is a must-use feature for sales leaders managing large remote teams.

Using our click-to-call dialer, managers (as well as fellow teammates) can join active calls and give reps real-time tips without prospects hearing. You’ll have greater transparency across your dials while tracking team productivity and optimizing every conversation.

Personalize more emails faster with snippets

Based on feedback from users, we learned that a lot of sellers have specific phrases, customer stories, email closers and openers, or answers to FAQs they use frequently in their emails.

Snippets is a new feature that allows you to save commonly used text, links, or paragraphs and add them to your emails with the click of a button.
They make it easy for you to create engaging, high-performing emails at scale and allow your team to share quality messaging that converts.

What’s new in integrations?

Newly added integrations with Google Calendar, Outlook, Mailgun, and Vidyard streamline your workflow like never before.

Apollo users can access contact data directly in their calendars, view sequences in Outlook, and personalize their emails—at scale and all in one place.

Head to the Knowledge Base for detailed information on setting up and using Apollo’s dozens of integrations.

What’s next? Here’s the 2023 product roadmap

We have so many exciting features planned for you and they all revolve around three main themes:

#1: Actionable data. We will continue to improve the size and accuracy of our database while providing you with unique, actionable data points that you can’t get elsewhere.

#2: Intelligent guidance. Apollo will act as your revenue partner. Machine learning and AI will assist you with your workflows around prospecting, engaging, improving processes, and coaching reps.

#3: Beyond pipeline. New suites of features will help you go beyond generating leads and actually turn your pipeline into real revenue.

We believe these areas will drive the future of intelligent go-to-market next year and beyond. Here’s how we are going to help you get behind it…

• Data health center. Identify gaps and stale data in your existing CRM and instantly de-dupe and enrich it with clean and accurate data from Apollo.
• Meetings. Cut down on scheduling back-and-forths with an in-app calendar that allows leads to view your availability, select a time that works, and automatically slot out time on both of your calendars.
• Intelligent go-to-market. Get unparalleled visibility, insights, and recommendations that improve success across your pipeline. We’ll look across your entire revenue funnel and help you find your biggest opportunities with AI email writing, signals, coaching and analytics, custom alerts, plays, and more.
• Conversation intelligence. Find insights in your calls and demos to improve effectiveness and increase meeting set to closed won conversion.
• Salesforce AppExchange. In-Salesforce integration to analyze, cleanse, and enrich data and provide more research from Apollo within Salesforce itself.
• Extension revamp. Upgraded extension user experience and functionality across Gmail, Outlook, Salesforce, and LinkedIn.

Excited? Us too.

You can view the full-length webinar recording here. And, don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn to never miss out on future Apollo webinars, events, and product updates.

The post Webinar Recap: 2022 Product Releases and What’s Ahead appeared first on Apollo.

In 2022, you were the trailblazers of B2B sales, prospecting better, engaging smarter, and closing faster.

Before we ring in the new year, we wanted to take a moment to highlight our remarkable users and the hardworking Apollo team behind them. There were so many unforgettable moments, but to keep it short and sweet we narrowed it down to the top 10.

Let’s recap.

2022 was the year of delivered emails and healthy domains.

With the launch of sequence diagnostics, you were able to run end-to-end health checks on all of your domains, receive customized solutions to fix any issue, and use custom-tracking domains to avoid spam filters.

Our data shows this led to a 15% reduction of emails being SPAM blocked.

If you’re someone who sent thousands of emails this year, this improvement gave you hundreds of new opportunities.

Apollo users sourced high-quality leads faster than ever with buying intent data—the industry’s first fully-free intent data solution.

Armed with the newest Apollo data intelligence that told you exactly what, when, and how often prospects showed intent to buy, you were able to target the right buyers, engage at the right time, and convert with the right message.

“Apollo buying intent is the perfect feature for us to identify the right prospects who are in need of services like ours right now. The buying intent filter was very easy to use, and we found relevant intent topics important to us.” – Alvaro Rosa, Business Development Executive at Auxadi

In 2022, you were hungry for knowledge.

Over 200,000 people visited our blog for guides and resources, thought leadership, product announcements, and other insights to move their sales forward.

Here are a few pieces you found especially helpful:

• How to use the Apollo chrome extension on LinkedIn
• Cold email subject lines to increase open rates
• Outbound prospecting guide for sales professionals
• Improve your close ratio using storytelling in sales
• Top 3 sales sequences in Apollo

Take some new tips into 2023 and head to the blog’s sales wisdom page. Here we have actionable advice on everything from following LinkedIn sales influencers to boosting your sales productivity.

Thanks to our new partnership programs, the Apollo community now has 500+ unique and innovative partners.

Our partners are experts who span across dozens of industries—from agencies and consultants to influencers and investors. Partnering with them helped thousands of users surpass their revenue goals this year.

If you’re interested in joining the Apollo mission and earning unique go-to-market benefits, dynamic integrations, commission on customer referrals, and more, we’d love to hear from you. Email our team at partners@apollo.io and join the community.

Did you attend any of our live events this year?

The Apollo team hosted four free webinars where we announced Apollo product updates, shared SDR hacks, interviewed subject matter experts, held Q&As, raffled away gift cards, and more.

And it couldn’t have been done without you!

Our live events were fueled by your interaction and enthusiasm—in one webinar alone over 440 of you asked questions and shared your insights.

We can’t wait to bring you more in 2023. Follow us on LinkedIn and make sure you don’t miss out on future Apollo events.

When the best in sales intelligence joins forces with the best in revenue intelligence, it earns a spot in the highlight reel.

This year, our partnership with Gong made waves across the industry. In Phase 1, we released an exciting pricing discount that gives Gong users a 70% Apollo discount. Check out the details here.

In Phase 2 (to be released soon), Apollo’s data will be directly integrated into Gong’s platform. This will provide millions of sales professionals with verified contacts at their fingertips and the intelligence they need to understand who should be contacted and when within the context of every deal.

“I am so excited about the value Gong and Apollo can bring to their customers through this collaboration,” says Ashi Aber, Head of Technology Partnerships at Gong, “We have no doubt the value of this partnership will continue to increase once the integration is released.”

Keep your eyes out for the official release of the Apollo-Gong integration in just a few weeks!

Teambuilding by the beach? Sign us up!

This summer, 110 Apollo employees from 12 different countries gathered in Cancun for our first-ever company offsite. We celebrated our Series C funding, built new growth strategies, shared ideas, and, most importantly, connected as friends and co-workers.

From leadership meetings to lunch gatherings, our team took every opportunity to gather in person across the globe.

In NYC, the Apollo leadership team held an offsite to work towards our mission of innovating the go-to-market experience (and even got a shoutout on the NASDAQ billboard!). In India, Apollo engineers came together to share incredible conversations, ideas, and tech insights at the Leela Palace. And in San Francisco, teammates from the Bay Area met up for lunch dates and work seshes.

It’s moments like these that make us especially grateful for our collaborative and connected work culture.

This year we increased our headcount by 80+, growing our team by over 50%. And thanks to our flexible remote work environment, we were able to add new talent around the world—from India and the Philippines to Canada and Pakistan.

Other good news—we’re still hiring across multiple departments including engineering, design, marketing, people, and product. Check out our job opportunities here.

To put it simply: Apollo users got the job done.

In 2022, you sent over 64M emails and made over 3.4M calls. You created streamlined prospecting processes that brought millions of leads into your pipelines. You crafted personalized messages, valuable conversations, and unforgettable pitches. And you closed deals with best-fit leads, turning them into happy customers.

So thank you—for being a part of our world-class community of sellers and business professionals and helping us build the future of go-to-market.

If you haven’t joined, what are you waiting for? Take a better, smarter, faster selling system with you into 2023 by signing up free for Apollo today.

The post Our 2022 In Review—Here’s Everything We Accomplished Together appeared first on Apollo.

Read this article to learn the qualities of a healthy sales culture and ways sales leaders can create a better environment to help their reps thrive.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What we mean by “sales culture”
• Who’s responsible for building sales culture
• The 5 signs of a healthy sales culture
• How to build a sales culture of the future

The definition of sales culture

What do we mean by “sales culture”?

Sales culture is the collection of a sales organization’s attitudes, habits, and values. It’s the set of “norms” that make up the day-to-day work life of team members.

The best sales cultures are competitive, collaborative, passionate, and inclusive. They give people a reason—outside of earning a paycheck—to show up to work every day and perform their best.

Who’s responsible for building sales culture?

Everyone contributes to culture building. But, it’s ultimately the sales leader’s job to ensure their team’s culture is positive and productive.

While higher-ups (i.e. founders and executives) are in charge of setting the tone for the company, sales managers and team leads are responsible for creating a sales culture that motivates and inspires their teams.

Research says that direct managers influence 80% of salespeople’s perception of a company. Every time a sales manager structures a team meeting, gives feedback, or sets a goal, they are upholding a sales culture—whether that be a positive or negative one.

5 signs of a healthy sales culture

Sign #1: Unblocked communication

“Employee checkouts happen when we feel we are not being heard, respected, or considered in the workplace. People tend to experience this as an identity threat…their reaction is to stop caring as much about their work and about the people around them.” – Chris White, Leader of the University of Michigan’s Center for Positive Organizations

Your reps won’t buy into the organization if they feel their voice isn’t valued.

In healthy sales cultures, open communication is routine. Leaders are continually inviting people to speak up They encourage input, ask questions, foster creative conflict, and actively unblock communication channels.

Sign #2: Lively sales competition

Most salespeople are confident, hungry, and goal-motivated. Sales cultures that are fast-paced and competitive give these reps the motivation they need to reach their goals.

But, there’s a fine line between harnessing positive competitive spirit and encouraging toxic rivalries. How can teams stay competitive without pitting sales representatives against each other?

• Give teams an external competitor. Encourage salespeople to rally together and outsell your market’s top competitors.
• Match newer reps with more experienced reps. Strategically pair up salespeople to encourage mentorship and growth.
• Gamify sales. Use creative sales incentives that challenge and reward sellers of all skill types. Try daily challenges, team competitions, and/or contests based on retention or customer reviews.
• Focus on personal bests. Awesome sales cultures direct a lot of competitiveness toward personal numbers and setting new PRs.

Sign #3: Maintained accountability

“If you want to have better sales results, you need a culture of accountability where people understand what’s expected of them, what they are committed to, and that they are held accountable for creating the results.” – Anthony Iannarino, Sales and Leadership Speaker and Bestselling Author of The Sales Blog

Sales accountability is the sense of ownership that salespeople feel over their jobs and their work. An accountable team takes the necessary steps to meet its goals and accepts responsibility for the outcomes.

There are a few ways to identify if a sales team promotes a culture of accountability.

First, they set clear expectations. Team members can only take responsibility for their work when they are aware of their role and what’s expected of them. Tip: Using the SMART format is a helpful way to create specific and measurable goals for your team.

Next, they encourage autonomy. A workplace that gives its employees the freedom and control over how they work empowers them to take ownership of everything they produce.

Finally, they are data-driven. Leaders in accountable environments rely on performance metrics to uncover real outcomes and to show reps their successes and areas for improvement.

Sign #4: A shared vision

There is a lot of emotion in selling. Peak performance only happens when sellers believe in the organization’s product, offerings, and mission.

Align team members towards a common goal with a distinct vision statement. For example, “Be one of the top five sales teams in the company in the next 12 months” or “Increase retention by 45% in the next 6 months.”

A good mission statement is ambitious, but also achievable. It supports a healthy sales culture by keeping reps motivated to make something positive happen—together.

Sign #5: Frequent training and coaching opportunities

B2B sales reps forget 70% of the information they learn within a week of training. Companies with successful sales cultures keep reps fresh and up-to-date with regular training and coaching.

As you look to provide reps with growth opportunities, keep the 70-20-10 model in mind.

Used by thousands of high-performing companies around the world, the 70-20-10 model states that 70% of learning experiences should be hands-on, 20% should be through coaching and mentoring, and only 10% should come from formal instruction and training.

Building a sales culture of the future

If your culture doesn’t check all these boxes, it’s never too late to make some changes. Here’s how you can start building and scaling a world-class sales culture.

Know where you are and where you want to go

Take a minute to assess your current situation. Ask yourself:

• How do we define selling in this organization?
• What is our informal sales culture today?
• What best practices do we want our team to follow?
• What are our values?
• What habits and disciplines do we expect from our team members?

Open up the discussion and ask your team for their opinions on the current state of the workplace. Their feedback should heavily inform where changes need to be made.

Hire candidates who are the right fits

CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, once said, “There’s no tolerance for brilliant jerks. The cost to teamwork is too high.”

And he’s right: one toxic person can infect an entire organization.

As you scale your team, look to hire candidates who add value to your culture. Balance these qualities with a candidate’s skill set and potential as you assess whether or not they’ll be a good addition to your team.

Here are a few interview questions that can be used to help you hire for culture add:

• How do you personally benefit a team when working with colleagues?
• What skills, interests, or passions do you have that set you apart from others in this role?
• Tell me about a problem you solved creatively.
• What is your impression of our company culture so far?

Upgrade your tech stack

Modern sales tools promote a culture of efficiency and empower reps to do their jobs and do them well.

Ensure that your team has access to the best sales software on the market. With an end-to-end platform full of enriched contact data and time-saving sales automation tools, reps can ditch manual data entry and focus on creating human interactions and relationships.

In closing

It’s all too easy to forget about the hygiene of your sales culture. But with a consistent effort and a few (or all!) of the tips we’ve listed above, sales leaders can create a healthy sales culture that boosts employee satisfaction, as well as their bottom line.

The post 5 Signs of a Healthy Sales Culture appeared first on Apollo.

But it’s easier said than done…

The average sales rep only spends 37% of their time actively selling. The rest of the time is spent planning, manually entering data, doing paperwork, and other tedious administrative tasks that don’t move the needle. Over time, inefficient workflows like this result in missed sales targets, low morale, and poor company culture.

Fortunately, several sales productivity tools and tactics can help and we have the answers for you here.

Read on to learn:

• What sales productivity looks like
• The causes of sales inefficiency
• Tips for a more productive sales workflow
• Must-haves for sales productivity tools

What is sales productivity?

Sales productivity is the practice of maximizing sales results while reducing resources expended.

In other words, efficiency + effectiveness = sales productivity.

Sales efficiency is all about making the best use of limited time to accelerate sales. An efficient sales rep spends time on high-impact activities like cold-calling and email campaigns versus low-impact activities like administrative tasks.

Sales effectiveness is when sales actions have a positive effect on the sales cycle. Sales effectiveness is all about results and driving revenue. A highly effective rep uses available resources to win customers.

Sales productivity requires a balance of both. Here’s a way to visualize this balance:

As you can see, the top performers have both high efficiency and high effectiveness. They focus on revenue-driving activity against the low-impact tasks and have positive results to show for it.

What causes sales inefficiencies?

Here are some of the biggest obstacles to achieving peak sales productivity:

• The complexity of today’s buyers. 81% of buyers conduct research before ever reaching out to a salesperson. It’s hard to know where buyers are in the buying process, what information they need, and how to effectively conduct buying conversations.
• Time-draining administrative tasks. Sales reps spend more than 25% of their working hours on administrative tasks like internal meetings and data entry. These non-revenue-generating tasks can be a huge setback on the path to sales productivity.
• Poor training. Many sales organizations view proper sales training as a cost center rather than an opportunity to drive productivity. In fact, 27% of companies don’t offer sales training of any kind. This de-prioritization results in all types of sales inefficiencies.
• Lack of communication. Poor communication can lead to delayed campaign launches, misentered data, incorrect integrations, off-tone branding, slower growth, and even lost deals.
• Utilization of the wrong tools. When information gets stored in multiple silos across different sales tools, salespeople spend their time chasing data rather than leads.
• Poor data. “Dirty” data (i.e. outdated, duplicated, non-compliant, or incomplete information) throws off marketing efforts, damages brand reputation, and contributes to a slower sales cycle.
• Negative sales cultures. Poor leadership, a lack of enthusiasm, limited trust, and low morale—negative sales cultures can present themselves in a variety of ways. Nobody wants to perform in toxic sales environments; they are a breeding ground for inefficiency and negativity.

7 tips for improving sales productivity

The sheer number of obstacles to achieving an optimized sales output might feel overwhelming.

But, worry not! A few intentional changes can increase organizational sales productivity and boost sales.

Here are 7 sales productivity tips to help you start:

1. Define your ideal customer

For most companies, 80% of revenue comes from 20% of clients.

Finding out who these customers are and targeting prospects who are similar will help sales teams use their time and energy on the buyers who count.

First, build your ideal customer profile (ICP) and make it the foundation of your prospecting efforts.

You should use what you already know about your top customers:

• Their industry/vertical
• Geography
• Employee headcount (company-wide and key departments)
• Annual revenue/budget
• Technologies used
• Pain points
• Business objections
• And any other notable attributes

Interested in learning more about building ICPs? Check out this quick video.

2. Focus on qualified leads

High-quality leads are folks who have shown interest in the solutions you offer and/or align with your ideal customer profile.

Use data and sales intelligence tools to cut down on wasted time and find and obtain the leads who are most likely to purchase.

Sales intelligence tools allow you to:

• Find and prioritize prospects actively looking to buy with intent data.
• Uncover valuable buyer data like funding, revenue, technologies used, company size, and more.
• Access verified email addresses and phone numbers at scale.
• Personalize cold emails and cold calls with detailed information about the prospects.
• And more.

3. Automate time-consuming tasks

It should come as no surprise: more automation = increased productivity.

McKinsey reports that adopters of sales automation report increased customer-facing time, higher customer satisfaction, 10-15% more efficiency, and a sales uplift potential of up to 10%.

Here are some ways your team can leverage automation and cut down on repetitive tasks:

Say no to manual CRM entry

It’s the 21st century—there’s no place for updating client information by hand. Keep your client data updated and enriched with CRM automation and enrichment tools that do the work for you.

Power your sales calls with AI

Get insights from sales software that records, transcribes, and makes suggestions for your outbound calls. Sales conversation intelligence can automatically pull out call insights to help sales managers and their reps see exactly what can be improved and maximize call conversions.

Automate sales prospecting

Databases that offer intent signals and advanced filtering help reps find best-fit prospects in bulk with half the effort. Paired with prospecting tools that automatically pull verified contact data from across the web (like the LinkedIn Chrome extension) finding qualified leads has never been easier.

4. Align with marketing for sales enablement

Studies have found that alignment between sales and marketing can increase quota attainment by 25%, win rate by 15%, and annual revenue growth by 32%.

Sales enablement is a great way to reach sales and marketing alignment. Sales enablement is when sales teams are given the resources they need to close deals (i.e. customer stories, E-books, product slide decks, demos).
As you build out your sales enablement system, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Emphasize communication. Sales teams should be specific about what they need, who they are targeting, and what their goals are when they ask marketing for high-quality, customer-centric content.
• Organize sales content. Centralize all existing sales content in one location and ensure your reps can quickly and easily find selling resources. Content libraries like Google Docs, Google Drive, an internal wiki, or even your CRM are good places to start.
• Ensure materials are being put into practice. Try hosting a training, creating a video tutorial, or tying adoption into sales goals to implement new resources into your rep’s day-to-day.

5. Track sales performance with the right metrics

Sales performance metrics are like mile signs on the highway. They indicate how far you’ve come and how much longer you have to go.
Here are a few metrics every sales team should be tracking:

• Conversion rate
• Engagement rate
• # of accounts called/emailed
• Open, reply, and interested rates
• Time spent with customers
• Win rate
• Year-over-year growth
• Lifetime value (LTV) of a customer

Sales leaders should focus on the metrics that align with their sales goals and use them to make data-based decisions.
Tracking sales performance is even easier with an end-to-end sales platform that tracks analytics in the same place your reps conduct sales tasks.
Jeff Kreinik, former CRO at Buzzcast, saw amazing results when he ditched his multiple data tools for Apollo analytics.

“Once we started using Apollo, I was able to track all kinds of KPIs such as the number of accounts targeted each week, or the number of contacts added to an outbound sequence,” says Jeff. “I tracked a total of ten different KPIs within Apollo, and by doing so, I was able to set specific expectations for individuals and the team as a whole.”

Read Jeff’s story here and learn how he used Apollo to 4x Buzzcast’s sales pipeline and take sales productivity to the moon.

6. Provide continuous sales training

Sales is constantly changing.
To keep reps performing their best, provide ongoing, comprehensive training on industry trends, new sales strategies and tools, performance debriefs, or simply boost morale.
An emphasis on sales betterment promotes a culture of self-improvement. As your salespeople improve their skills, they will be able to close higher-value deals, faster.

7. Celebrate wins

Finally, it’s important that sales teams stay inspired and motivated. Sales work is not easy and it comes with a lot of rejections and frustration. So celebrate your wins (even the small ones) and see that your team rewards sellers for their achievements.

A happy, motivated sales rep is a more productive sales rep.

Choose the sales tools that count

Top-performing sales teams use 3x the amount of sales technology as their competitors.

This means that boosting sales production starts by finding and implementing the right sales tools.

Sales productivity tools come in many different forms. They include customer relationship management platforms (CRMs), account-based marketing tools, marketing automation, customer service software, as well as sales intelligence and analytics databases. They are any software that helps sales professionals with their daily activities and cut down on wasted time.

If you choose the right tools and train your reps to use them effectively, you’ll have more productivity, higher-quality leads, and more deals won.

Find a sales productivity tool that works best for you with G2’s lists of top sales intelligence and sales engagement software. Or skip the search and sign up free with Apollo to drive a more productive sales team today.

The post 7 Proven Ways to Boost Sales Productivity appeared first on Apollo.

You can do it from the inside—standing at the door with a flashy sign and conversing with the interested people who pass. Or you can do it from the outside—venturing onto the street, approaching individuals to tell them about your offering and why they should enter.

This is a very literal example of inbound and outbound prospecting.

Let’s look at these concepts more closely—what they mean, when to use them, and how they differ. To close, we’ll give you strategies for hitting your outbound prospecting out of the park.

What is outbound prospecting?

Outbound prospecting (or outbound sales) is the technique where companies push their message or social selling, email marketing, and so on.

In outbound prospecting, the sales reps contact leads, rather than wait for the leads to come to them (i.e. inbound prospecting). A common misunderstanding is to equate outbound sales with cold calling, but while cold calling may be an attempt to capture leads with random calls, outbound sales is a data-driven and strategic process.

Outbound prospecting allows salespeople to:

• Conduct hyper-targeted outreach
• Obtain quick feedback and results
• Have personal contact with prospects
• Take control over the pace of the selling process

The stages of outbound prospecting

The outbound sales process can be summed up into five key stages.

1. Identifying potential customers. To ensure you find, engage, and convert the right businesses for your product, identify the defining characteristics of your ideal customer.To identify your ideal customer profile, start by asking yourself five essential questions:

• Which of your current customers make the most out of your product(s) or service(s)?
• What traits do your best customers have in common?
• What recurring objections do you receive from past customers or lost opportunities?
• Which customers are easiest to upsell to and why?
• What do the customers of your closest competitors have in common?

2. Generating leads. Now that you know who to reach, you need phone numbers and email addresses. Sales teams gather contact information by purchasing third-party data, using a sales intelligence platform, and/or employing an in-house lead generation team.

3. Contacting and qualifying leads. The outbound sales team now reaches out to the list of contacts by email or phone and finds out whether they’re really a fit for their product or service. Here are a few methods salespeople can use to qualify leads:

• Assess whether a lead’s budget, authority, needs, and timeline are a fit with the BANT technique
• Get valuable insights into a customer’s interest and likelihood of purchasing with intent data
• Score leads based on their engagement with your website, content, ads, etc. The higher the score, the more qualified the buyer.

This is also the stage where sales reps use top-of-funnel strategies with leads and focus on creating connections, asking questions, learning their pain points, and making prospects aware of solutions.

4. Showing off your solution. Here, the sales team (often a sales development rep or an account executive) schedules a qualified meeting or demo to show the prospect the value of their product.Salespeople use their unique selling proposition (USP) to answer a lead’s most important question at this stage:“What makes you different from the competition?”Here are a few tips for navigating this part of the buyer’s journey:

• Stay focused on what your customers value. Use what you learned about their pain points and specific needs in your discussions.
• Be clear about your product’s unique benefits. Paint a picture of a customer’s improved reality after purchase.
• Provide social proof. Sending a case study, highlighting positive reviews, or sharing a positive customer story is an effective way to move buyers to the bottom of the funnel.

5. Closing the deal. At this point, prospects are already familiar with your product and its value and sellers can begin to move into product-heavy conversations and negotiations using closing techniques. If all goes well, the contract is signed with the customer.

Inbound vs. outbound prospecting

Now that you know all the outbound prospecting details, here is how inbound prospecting differs.

Like the name suggests, inbound prospecting is a lead-generation strategy where prospects come to you. It’s when a company makes a dedicated effort to “pull” interested prospects in to qualify them and see if they’re a fit for their product.

Where do these leads come from?

Well, lead generation for inbound prospecting relies heavily on inbound marketing tactics and channels. Inbound leads are drawn in through marketing and email campaigns, social media, blog content, SEO, and other lead source channels.

Unlike outbound prospecting which focuses on “hunting” for buyers, inbound prospecting starts with the sales lead initiating contact and/or expressing interest in your brand. It focuses on the customer’s needs and requires that salespeople adapt to the buyer’s journey, acting as trusted advisors.

Inbound sales can be very cost-effective since you are targeting and engaging only with people who have shown interest in your company. But, unlike outbound sales, it takes more upfront work, doesn’t allow for hyper-specific targeting, and takes more time to generate leads.

Strategies for outbound prospecting

Boost your outbound sales efforts with these best practices:

Start with the right data

The success of your outbound efforts is directly related to the quality of data in your sales stack. According to McKinsey, data-driven organizations are 23x more likely to acquire customers and 6x more likely to retain those customers.

First, ensure that your CRM is up-to-date. CRM enrichment tools can sync with your current database to enrich existing records and automatically cleanse new and existing records as your customer database grows.

Beyond the data you currently have, you should invest in an end-to-end sales platform that offers all the outbound bells and whistles.

The best platforms for outbound prospecting offer:

• An expansive database with advanced filters for honing in on your buyer personas
• Engagement tools that allow you to contact your pool of newly sourced leads in the same place you prospect from
• Automated features like job change alerts and buying intent data that give you purchasing signals without lifting a finger
• Seamless integrations that optimize your workflow across all of your tools

Start your search for the right platform with G2’s Top 20 Sales Intelligence Platforms list.

Send highly-targeted email campaigns

After you identify your prospects, you can start doing outbound outreach and by being specific in your approach, you’ll have higher overall engagement.

While there is a time and place for email blasting, highly targeted and personalized outreach will lead to more relevant content, better response rates, and exposure to contacts who will be excited to receive your messaging and offers.

Un-targeted email campaigns, on the other hand, lead to lower engagement and response rates, email unsubscribe requests, or worst of all, your messages being marked as SPAM. Over time, this has a detrimental impact on your domain score and deliverability.

Remember, the better you know who you’re targeting in terms of buyer persona—their characteristics, interests, motivations, and pain points as well as how they perceive you—the better success you will have.

Here are five questions you should think through when writing targeted messaging to a potential customer:

1. Why are you sending this email? Meaning – where in your sales/marketing/customer funnel does this email fall? That will help set the tone of your email.
2. Who are you talking to? Think about the individual reading the email, and write it to them.
3. What’s one message you want them to take away from your email? Be clear with the main message (i.e. introducing yourself, learning their needs, giving them inspiration)
4. What’s your call to action? What do you want them to do after they read the email?
5. Have you come up with a matching subject line? This is the first step to targeting—get them to open the email!

Check out this blog for more tips on building cold email campaigns.

Be prospect-obsessed

When outbound prospecting, it’s important that you leave your ego at the door and make the buyer the hero of the story.

Rather than talking about all the awesome things your product can do, how it solved X client’s problems, what an amazing and generous offer you have (blah, blah, blah…), reflect the problem they’re having back to them.

Paint an improved reality for the buyer with phrases like:

• “If there was a way to significantly save on XYZ, would you be interested in a solution like that?”
• “I understand pricing is very important to you since you’re working with a tight budget. But let me just ask you this question: if you found a solution to [the problem you’ve discussed] in [amount of time], how much time would that save you?”

These are the sales conversations that speed outbound leads through the pipeline to a closed deal.

Make outbound prospecting work for you

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to outbound sales. Your strategy will differ depending on your industry, product, selling methodologies, and the unique needs of your prospects.

But with reliable data, highly-targeted prospecting, and value-based messaging, your outbound system will lead to successful engagements and winning deals.

The post Outbound Prospecting Guide for Sales Professionals appeared first on Apollo.

But this isn’t a promotion that’s guaranteed; it’s one that’s earned.

The SDRs who advance to AEs are hungry and driven. They are committed to managing their pipeline, exceeding their targets, and learning and developing new skills.

With insights from Kyle Coleman, once AE and now SVP of Marketing at Clari, this blog will teach aspiring SDRs the must-have skills of an AE and provide best practices for making the big career jump.

The must-have skills of an account executive

SDRs spend most of their time working the top of the funnel, while AEs typically engage with active, qualified prospects on the verge of making a purchasing decision.

Here are some essential skills an AE needs to convert buyer-ready leads into paying customers.

Lead nurturing

On-the-fence leads don’t wake up one morning and randomly decide to purchase. They need to be nurtured with relevant information, value-based content, delightful interactions, and lots of support.

To close deals with valuable, but indecisive leads, AEs need to use lead nurturing strategies like:

• Scoring and segmenting leads
• Creating relevant and engaging content
• Building personalized email campaigns
• Leveraging multi-channel outreach methods

Negotiating

At the bottom of the funnel, many buyers will bring up their purchasing concerns. Account executives need excellent negotiation skills to address these concerns and re-establish their product’s value without losing the sale.

Good negotiators actively listen. They create value while maintaining control of the sales conversation and they use data and social proof to eliminate their lead’s concerns.

SDRs—get a better idea of how to properly prepare for a negotiation and where to better your skills with this free downloadable checklist.

Closing

Closing sales is both an art and a science.

As an AE, you’ll need to know how to create a sense of urgency, overcome sales objections, and create a clear and easy path to purchase to successfully close out the sales cycle (and earn your commission checks!).

Check out this blog for tried and true techniques for closing sales deals.

Prime yourself for a promotion with these best practices

Kyle Coleman, SVP of Marketing at Clari and LinkedIn thought leader, has helped 50+ people make the jump from SDR to AE and we want to share his top tips with you.

#1: Be a top-performing SDR

Before you even consider stepping into the AE role, you need to have your SDR game on lock.

The sales development reps that stand out and rise in the ranks work smarter, not necessarily harder. They hone in on a few key skills and choose the right sales tools to simplify their work and help them reach out to qualified candidates at speed and scale.

To make sure your SDR tasks don’t slip consider:

• Organizing a to-do list for daily outreach
• Testing your email subject lines
• Using sales intelligence tools for detailed prospect insights

Apollo recently hosted a killer webinar on SDR best practices. Learn more SDR essentials in this webinar recap.

#2: Become revenue-critical

To rise in the ranks, you also need to be focused on your team and your business’ bottom line.

“Understand your impact on driving revenue, track your stats, and study top performers,” suggests Kyle.

An expansive analytics tool can make all the difference in becoming more revenue-driven and performance-focused. SDRs can use these tools to instantly see key metrics like:

• Call and email efficiency
• Conversion rates
• Sequence/subject line/messaging performance
• Team performance
• Open and interested rates
• And (thanks to infinite report customizations) so much more

#3: Explore various growth paths in your career

Kyle’s next piece of advice is to take the chance to explore other career paths. Find opportunities to learn the ins and outs of your business within customer enablement, account management, product education, sales, etc., and make sure that the jump to AE is what you really want.

“This gives you confidence that sales is right for you,” says Kyle, “And it gives everyone else confidence that you’re making the move for the right reasons.”

#4: Build a crew of advocates

Every interaction with a team member, manager, client, or boss will leave them with an impression of you.

Make each one count.

With the right mindset and a quality work ethic, you will quickly build a community of advocates who will vouch for you in opportunities for career growth. “From individual AEs and front-line managers to your sales leaders; everyone will be in your corner because they know you always approach your work the right way,” Kyle says.

Takeaways

In an SDR role, you can apply brute force and see results. Send more emails, dial more calls, make more connections, and see your numbers go up. Meanwhile, an AE’s job often requires more intentional interaction and finely-tuned bottom-of-the-funnel selling skills.

SDRs aiming for a promotion should find every opportunity to foster these skills and stay committed to crushing their numbers, tracking their performance, and building meaningful relationships.

The post How to Make the Jump from SDR to AE appeared first on Apollo.

The tech stack of a B2B sales team can be one of the highest costs of doing business today, so it is important to not only choose the right sales tools but also find solutions that are multi-functional and integrate well with other existing tools they use.

Beyond that, SMBs need to ensure that these tools are creating more efficient sales reps and helping track ROI. After all—what is the purpose of paying thousands of dollars for a sales tool that your team does not use (either because they don’t know how or they don’t like it) or that doesn’t work?

Without end-to-end adoption and results, you’ll just be wasting money.

So, how do you choose the right tools? We’re here to help.

Sales software 101

Sales software is a set of tools that makes selling and completing sales tasks easier, quicker, and more successful. From sales prospecting to managing your sales pipeline, there are tools for every need.

In fact, G2 recognizes 21 different categories of sales software including:

• CRM software
• AI sales assist software
• Auto dialer software
• Revenue operations software
• Sales analytics software
• Sales intelligence software

The type of sales software that works best for you depends on your industry, your needs, and your goals. However, the software that’s worth its sale should leverage automation to help you complete tasks, keep track of sales activities, streamline engagement, and fill and manage your pipeline.

How to choose the right sales software

SMB and enterprise companies face vastly different business challenges.

While mid-market and enterprise-level companies typically face big-picture challenges like unintegrated distribution channels and shrinking margins, SMBs need tools that help them overcome hurdles on the near horizon. A survey of 1,000 SMBs revealed that two of the biggest pain points for small businesses are growing toward stability/profitability (47%) and increasing productivity through workflow improvement (47%).

An SMB’s decision-makers need to evaluate their options well and choose sales tools that cut down on wasted time and help them scale.

Rashmi Viswanath, Director of Growth at Apollo.io, says you should ask some important questions before selecting a sales tool:

• Is it easy to use?
• Does it solve the core problem I’m trying to address?
• Can I quantify the sales (in dollars) that implementing this tool will influence?
• How favorable does it look in terms of ROI?
• Does it integrate/fit in well with my other tools currently?
• Will it negatively disrupt my reps’ workflow?
• What kind of tracking or analytics will I get from it?
• Will anyone in my company have a problem if I bring this tool on?
• Will anyone else in my company other than myself also want to use this tool?
• Will I have support from others for this tool purchase?

The best sales software for SMBs

In terms of prospecting and sales, these are the tools best suited to SMBs:

• CRM
• Database
• Sequencing and Template tool
• Calling tool
• Activity Monitoring and Tracking
• Task Management
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator
• Video Conferencing
• Transcription and Recording

Let’s take a look at top-ranked sales software that offers some (or all!) of these important features:

• HubSpot. If you’re still operating out of spreadsheets, today is the day you upgrade. As a CRM, HubSpot helps you replace a multitude of spreadsheets, databases, and apps that are messily patching together all of your client data and keeps managing your customer relationships simple. HubSpot is also infinitely scalable. Integrate HubSpot with other dynamic sales tools to see all of your contact data in the same place that you do your prospecting and engagement.
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator. When it comes to prospecting platforms, there is hardly one more popular than LinkedIn. The LinkedIn Sales Navigator allows you to take advantage of the social network’s user base of over 600 million professionals. Find new leads with advanced search options, then let the tool suggest new leads for you. With a simple Chrome Extension, you can also amplify LinkedIn’s automated prospecting capabilities while cutting down time spent. Access verified contact information, click-to-call capabilities, automatic research and stage sync, one-click list building, and more.
• Vidyard. With limited resources and personnel, SMBs need ways to personalize sales interactions at scale. Vidyard is a cutting-edge tool for digitally-focused, automation-seeking sales teams. With Vidyard, you can record and send videos in just a few clicks – perfect for busy sales reps trying to use automation to break into inboxes and create lasting impressions with prospects.

Streamline all your go-to-market efforts with Apollo

These sales tools serve important functions for an SMB. However, implementing each as a separate tool, not only chips away at your budget, but adds a lot of admin work to sales reps.
That’s why Rashmi recommends Apollo.

“Individual tools take money and add up to a big budget,” Rashmi says. “They also might not integrate smoothly, making the salesperson’s workflow really complicated and confusing, and things can slip through the cracks. Apollo automates all the tedious repetitive tasks and establishes a smooth workflow. You get top-notch data coverage, workflow automation, and the ability to smoothly integrate with any other systems without admin or system level headaches.”

Apollo gives SMBs:

• Efficient prospecting. Filter for your ICP across 250M contacts and 63M companies and easily identify who is looking to purchase with buying intent.
• Streamlined engagement. Funnel your leads into tailored sequences full of automated emails, call tasks, action items, and send and test personalized messages at scale.
• An integrated platform. Scale your business with a robust sales engine that brings together enriched contact data, engagement features, team hubs, and performance analytics.

And don’t just take Rashmi’s word for it…Apollo is ranked #1 in G2 for best sales intelligence software for SMBs.

Here’s what users have to say:

“I’ve tried many of Apollo’s competitors (too numerous to mention), and they were either too expensive for a small company or unreliable. Apollo does so much!” – Jo M., SMB Marketing Director (G2 review)

“We are a small company of 100 people and we don’t have large budgets to go very wide with marketing (PR, advertising, shows, videos, podcasts, etc.). I decided to go all-in with lead generation, and I don’t see how I could have accomplished what I did without Apollo.” – Mark L (G2 Review)

Wrap-up

According to LinkedIn’s State of Sales Report, 94% of salespeople say the right sales tool helps them close more deals.

Apollo.io is an all-in-one GTM platform—fully equipped with a B2B database, engagement suite, and workflow engine—that fits the needs of small business owners and sales professionals.

The best part is that you can try us for free. Get started today!

The post The Best Sales Software for Small Businesses Looking to Scale appeared first on Apollo.

Lucky for you, some of the greatest sales minds out there use social media to push their field forward and inspire other sellers with their successes, challenges, and tried-and-true best practices. With a simple click, you can access daily advice from top sales and business leaders and better yourself as a seller (and person!).

To help you stay ahead of the game, we’ve narrowed down the top ten sales influencers that should be on your feed.

Get expert advice from these sales influencers

#1: Lauren Surman, Recruiter @ Kastel Staffing Group

Lauren Surman is a social selling expert, with a diverse background in operations, sales, and recruiting. She has managed teams of 100+ and closed deals as large as $1.2M—and she wants to help people like you do the same.

Her LinkedIn community is full of career advice, prospecting tips, and relatable stories.

“Sellers are researchers, detectives, and psychologists, they figure out problems before people know they have them and most of them know someone for everything,” Lauren says, “It’s important to have a community of sellers so you are always informed and connected.”

Join her LinkedIn community or check out her sales accountability group to get helpful tips on expanding your LinkedIn network.

#2: Gabi Sayah, Sales Manager @ Stealth Startup

Are you trying to navigate the world of remote work? We have a guy for you!

Gabi Sayah is a sales manager and world traveler who shares daily content about the highs and lows of sales and remote work. What we love about Gabi’s profile is that it’s full of highly actionable resources like content formatting tips, daily activity systems, and must-have tools for your tech stack.

Don’t miss out—give him a follow.

You can also read about Gabi’s experience using Apollo.io and his best practices for finding sales success in this blog.

#3: Andres Angulo, AE @ Apollo.io

Meet Andres Angulo—Apollo’s very own up-and-coming sales influencer.

Andres’ LinkedIn is similar to a business diary. If something happens to him during his work day—a victory, a learning experience, or even a mistake—he puts it out there for others to see.

“I think to myself ‘If this [work experience] was valuable to me, then maybe it will be to someone else,” he says.

Give Andres a place on your timeline to see relatable, human posts that will not only give you quick Apollo tips but help you navigate the ups and downs of a career in sales.

#4: Eric Nowoslawski, Founder @ Growth Engine X

Eric Nowoslawski is all about helping sales pros create highly methodical and process-driven sales strategies.

“I teach sales teams to embrace technology and multiply what is possible,” Eric says.

Leveraging his knowledge and experience in building targeted sales playbooks, he provides his LinkedIn community with cold email examples, advice for email deliverability, and handcrafted e-books.

For expert advice on all things sales, tech, and demand generation, visit Eric’s profile.

#5: Max Altschuler, GP @ GTMFund & Founder of Sales Hacker

In addition to being an advisor, investor, and author, Max Altshuler is the founder of Sales Hacker (which tells you all you need to know about his dedication to building sales communities).

“I spend almost 100% of my working hours helping people make money and build exceptional careers,” says Max Altschuler.

Max uses his social platforms to help salespeople stay motivated with modern sales tactics, helpful articles, personal success stories, and industry trends.

Check out what Max is saying on LinkedIn.

#6: Morgan J. Ingram, Strategic Advisor @ Lavender

As a 3x back-to-back LinkedIn Top Sales Voice, Morgan J. Ingram is the real deal.

He’s empowered thousands of sales professionals with modern-sales techniques that leverage social media, schedule net new accounts, and help you connect cold calls with confidence.

We love Morgan J Ingram’s advice because it’s tactical. His podcast, the SDR Chronicles, has over 100 videos providing SDRs and reps with motivation and advice for their sales journey.

Join hundreds of thousands of growing sales professionals by following him on LinkedIn and TikTok.

#7: Viveka von Rosen, Co-Founder @ Vengresso

Viveka von Rosen is the co-founder of Vengresso and a productivity expert, specializing in time-saving tools, prospecting hacks, and efficiency tips.

She also gives her followers helpful advice for virtual selling and video prospecting. “With as noisy as everything is, we need a differentiator”, Viveka says, “bringing a video component [into prospecting] brings that human factor back in.”

If you’re looking for ways to make outbound highly efficient and personalized, Viveka is worth the follow.

Check out her LinkedIn and TikTok pages.

#8: Gabrielle ‘GB’ Blackwell, SDR Manager @ Airtable

GB is a sales development coach committed to developing the next generation of sales talent.

She’s an expert in building community in the workplace and frequently shares insights on the power that fierce compassion, authenticity, and collective spirit have on career advancement.

“Through learning from failures and the help of mentors close and far, I seek now to offer the words and guidance that have helped me achieve success across multiple companies and teams, ” says GB.

Follow her on LinkedIn.

#9: Josh Braun, Founder @ Braun Training

Josh Braun is one of the most prominent sales voices out there and if you’re not already following his work—you should.

He has an uncanny ability to break down complex topics into digestible and easy-to-implement best practices. From cold call frameworks and engagement tips to life lessons and storytelling, his content will help you keep leads engaged and book more meetings.

Aside from following Josh on LinkedIn, you can explore his website for resources on dozens of sales topics or listen to his podcast Inside Selling for modern sales techniques.

#10: Marcus Chan, Founder and President @ Venli Consulting Group

Marcus knows sales. Period.

He has hired, trained, and developed killer sales teams that have sold $700M+ over the last 10 years. Today, he is committed to helping B2B sales professionals everywhere sell more and sell better.

Marcus’ posts are not only practical and relatable, they also receive a ton of engagement. Under any of his posts, you can head to the comments and learn even more from his community of sellers and help others with your experiences and insights, too.

Follow him on LinkedIn.

Wrap-up

Social media is one of the most powerful resources for ambitious salespeople, not only for social selling, but for learning, growth, and career advancement. By following the best players in the game, you can ensure that your feed is delivering you real value each and every day.

And of course, we also recommend keeping up with our content as a part of your daily routine. Following Apollo on LinkedIn is a smart way to ensure you’ll never miss out on hot sales advice.

The post 10 Sales Influencers You Should Be Following appeared first on Apollo.

Jasper Guilaran, Manuel Martinez, and Isaac Cruz are three SDRs crushing it here at Apollo HQ (not to mention major up-and-coming YouTube stars with their Sales As Usual podcast). In our recent Apollo webinar, they shared their best practices for being a successful sales rep in an ultra-competitive, high-growth company.

Stick with us as we recap the event and uncover their pro tips for building better relationships, booking more meetings, and closing more deals.

We’ll discuss:

• The one thing every SDR should be doing
• Best ways to win at cold emailing and cold calling
• Top sales tips and sales influencers
• How to work efficiently as an SDR

TLDR: We’ve included all of the tips you’ll read here plus more in our SDR Essentials sheet. Download it here!

Topic #1: What is the one thing that every SDR should know (and do)?

SDRs are the Swiss army knives of sales—juggling prospecting, outreach, lead qualification, strategy testing, and dozens of other tasks.

Our panel members understand these expectations better than anyone and they boiled down a few basics that every SDR should do to transform their mindset and improve their workflow.

Be self-aware

When SDRs are aware of their weaknesses and strengths they not only have better cold calls and emails, but they create a clear path for success and growth in their careers.

An easy way to better understand your strengths and areas of growth is by actively seeking feedback and learning opportunities.

“I use Apollo to go back and listen to all my calls, as well as my peer’s calls,” says Manuel, “I also like to share my calls with my manager to get feedback on where I can improve. I think this is a game-changer for growing as an SDR.”

Stay persistent and don’t get discouraged

Selling is a game of rejection.

One of the worst things you can do is take “no” personally and allow it to discourage you. “I want you to know that it’s all a part of the game,” Isaac says, “No matter how great you are at socializing or at outbound, rejection happens. Be very, very persistent—that’s the key.”

Sometimes it can take up to nine touches just to get one response. The best SDRs push through the silence with new strategies and a positive, persistent mindset.

Bonus: Isaac mentions that finally booking a meeting with a prospect who has been ghosting you is one of the best feelings in sales. The boost in confidence is unmatched!

Be mindful of your intent

Manuel, Isaac, and Jasper are all in agreeance—commission breath stinks and your prospect can smell it from a mile away!

SDRs should always be mindful of their intentions and how they come across in their interactions with prospects. For example, if you go into cold calls with the sole intention of booking meetings you will probably say things that you shouldn’t. Your language will be pushier, you’ll be less focused on the prospect, and it will be clear that you’re in it for yourself.

“Your leads will be able to feel that,” Jasper says, “Instead, I suggest that you let go of assumptions because, at the end of the day, it’s not about you, it’s about the prospects.”

Topic #2: How to stay hot when you are cold emailing and cold calling

The next topic is something relevant to any and every SDR’s daily cadence—keeping momentum going during cold outreach.

Our panel members had a lot of helpful insights on the highs and lows of cold calling and emailing. Here are there their tips for staying on your outbound grind:

• Have relevant info on your prospect. Always do your research before you make a touchpoint. Use LinkedIn and a reliable B2B database to find relevant company, industry, and personal information. This will help you personalize your initial conversations and snag your lead’s attention.
• Transparency with your prospect—it works! “One of my favorite strategies is telling the prospect that I am cold calling,” Manuel says, “In my experience eight times out of ten, they will listen to your pitch.” Transparency builds trust. Try out Manuel’s method next time you pick up the phone.
• Be human. The people you sell to are humans just like you. Authentic conversations and meaningful interactions get you very far.
• Take breaks. No one wants to be on the phone for 5-6 hours a day. One of Isaac’s tricks for staying hot is a simple one: take a breather, go for a walk, drink some coffee or tea, then get back to your groove.
• Be aware of your tonality. How you say something is often more important than what you say. The best SDRs pick a cold call opener that they are comfortable with and deliver it with authenticity. Those are the openers that will bring you the most sales success.
• Deposit value; don’t withdraw it. Not every email needs to have a big call-to-action. Rather than asking for a prospect’s time or energy, provide them with value instead (i.e. relevant content, personalized videos, etc.)

Hacks for cold emailing in Apollo

When you chat with three Apollo SDRs about cold emailing, you can bet you’re going to get some best-in-class tips for increasing your open rates in Apollo….

Hack #1: Create Apollo email templates to streamline engagement. When you connect your Gmail or Outlook inboxes to Apollo, you can easily pull out all the templates you and your team have created and choose the right message for the specific persona you’re engaging with. “It makes your day-to-day workflow so much easier,” Manuel says.

Hack #2: Use a prospect’s contact page in Apollo during your cold call. Work history, company information, location, relevant technologies, funding information, and intent signals—all there for you to leverage into creating a personalized and relevant sales conversation (without the hours of call prep beforehand!).

Hack #3: Record and send Vidyard videos for enhanced email personalization. Video thumbnails can increase clicks by 50% and with an Apollo-Vidyard integration, you can record and send a funny, witty, or helpful video to spice up your cold emails and create engagement.

Topic #3: How can SDRs stay sharp? Who should you follow?

One thing that is super important for an SDR (and anyone who is trying to grow in their career) is to listen to the right people. By identifying the experts and giving them a place on your social feed, you can receive daily doses of sales best practices that lead to crushed quotas and bigger commission checks.

Here’s what Manuel, Isaac, and Jasper had to say about staying sharp:

“On LinkedIn, there’s a lot of people preaching what the correct process is. Let me tell you something, nobody has the perfect process. As an SDR, we are like scientists. We need to keep experimenting to find the right formula. Being able to test different things is what is going to set you apart from the rest. One of the people that I personally follow is Morgan J Ingram.” – Manuel Martinez

(Manuel shared a helpful tip that Morgan J. Ingram teaches: When you leave a voice mail in a cold call, mention the subject line of the email that you sent. Don’t ask for a callback, but treat it as a brief introduction and a “check-in” that you reached out via email.)

“I follow Becc Holland…she’s one of the G.O.A.Ts. I also follow my team. I stay in touch with my directors, my managers, and my peers. Iron sharpens iron and we are always picking each other’s brains, telling each other our tips and tricks. Sales is a lifestyle, it’s an everyday thing…and I am very reliant on my team to be the best version I can be as an SDR.” – Isaac Cruz

“To stay sharp, I keep on learning. I love listening to podcasts, [some of my favorites are] Outbound Squad, Inside Selling, and 30 Minutes to President’s Club. There’s a lot of great information that they give out so try listening to those. Another resource I love is listening to Gong videos of AEs selling. I listen to how they ask questions, and how they did demos, and I also ask tips from my fellow SDRs and listen to their calls, too.” – Jasper Guilaran

We’ve included some more of Apollo’s favorite thought leaders in our SDR Essentials sheet. Download it here and give them a follow.

Topic #4: How do you work fast and cut out wasted time?

Time is a seller’s most precious (and most wasted) resource.

In the webinar’s final topic, our sellers discuss their strategies for trimming the fat from their workflows and getting deals down the sales funnel with speed and skill.

Have a game plan

Selling is experimental and innovative, but that doesn’t mean it’s sporadic. Closing deals requires careful and strategic planning.

“On my evenings or during the weekend, I create my lead lists for the whole week,” Manuel says, “I make sure I have what I need handy, so I can do everything that I need to do in a smooth way.”

Every day you clock in, you should know exactly what you plan to do. Make sure that you lay out:

• Who you are going to contact and with what message
• Which contacts need to be researched
• Which meetings/calls you need to prepare for
• Any important account details

Prepping for your daily tasks may feel time-consuming but in the long run, it will prevent wasted time and, more importantly, wasted leads.

Use omnichannel selling strategies

To save time closing on accounts, Isaac swears by omnichannel selling.

“If they are not answering on email, I’ll call them. If they are not answering my call or voicemail, I’ll hit them up through LinkedIn. Lately, I’ve even been experimenting with different texting apps,” Isaac says.

83% of B2B decision makers agree that omnichannel sales is more effective than traditional methods. Make sure you are trying all the different avenues to get in touch with your prospect.

Take accountability

We said it before and we’ll say it again—as salespeople, you face a lot of rejection.

Jasper talked about how, instead of making excuses, thinking about resources he lacks, or focusing on the negatives, it’s important that he stays committed to improving himself and his own skill sets.

“Take responsibility because that’s the only thing you can control in sales”, he adds, “And I think that’s the cool thing about having a single platform for day-to-day prospecting—it’s so easy to see what sequences are working or not. What calls were and weren’t successful, so at the end of the day you can really grow as an SDR and reach your full potential.”

Closing

To close the webinar, Manuel gave a demo of how he uses Apollo to manage his tasks, quickly identify the right buyers, and engage with them across multiple channels.

Check out the demo along with a full recording of the live webinar here.

And don’t forget to download our SDR sheet for all the essentials on being the ultimate SDR and smashing your quota, quarter after quarter.

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