Overcoming outbound challenges

Standout strategies to increase pipeline generation

DEAR STAGE 2: I’m a sales leader. I receive tons of cold emails every week and find myself tuning out with all of the noise. That said, I have a team of BDRs who are tasked with helping us set appointments and our outbound team is a critical part of our growth strategy. We have the tools, we know who we are targeting, but I’m wondering how you can actually stand out in the sea of email these days? What’s working? ~INBOX FULL

DEAR INBOX FULL: You’re not the only one on the receiving end of mass emails! It often feels like the quantity has won in the great quantity v. quality debate, but when you are also leading a team, these signals from the market can be a great reminder of what you are up against. You’re fighting for time and attention from your buyer — not just from competitors, but from the onslaught of email we all face. 

So what can you do?

I tapped Richard Savage, a Stage 2 LP and seasoned XDR leader to share a few ideas. Richard recently joined a new company and took over an existing team. In just a few months, his team has increased the pipeline generating machine by 33% per XDR based not so much on tools, but some best practices and some key business strategies. Read on to see what’s working…

Advice for XDRs

• Seek out help: Communicate with your team! Socialize what you are working on and be open to constructive feedback. There is a wealth of knowledge internally for you to tap into, especially when you are new in the role. No one expects you to know everything. Go figure out what’s working for others, be a sponge, and keep improving your craft every day. 

• Focus your efforts: Start by doing your research at the account and contact level. To do this well you need to slow down and spend time on the few right individuals. Avoid ‘scaling’ to an entire organization for the sake of vanity KPI metrics. Instead, focus on the key buyer personas and strategically multi-thread an account over time instead fo blasting 10-20 people as part of one sequence. 

• Think before you send: Too often XDRs rely on sequences written by someone else in the org and don’t take the time to ask - would I respond to your email? Never once have I read “I hope this email finds you well” and thought, “Ah yes, you really care.” Make sure you are sending personalized, relevant content and that you get to the value fast. Two rules to live by for your cold outreach: 1) Avoid bullet points and 2) Keep it to 50-100 words. 

• Qualify ‘the need’: Ultimately defining ‘the need’ is what drives quality pipeline. Double click and ask open-ended questions about anything the prospects mention related to their challenges or opportunities. Try phrases such as “Can you tell me a little bit more about…” or “You mentioned XYZ, can you tell me how you define that as not everyone does it the same way.”

• Use (all of) your insights: Many XDRs use the last activity or most recent intent data listed about the account or prospect, only to shortchange themselves on what that means as a collective whole. Perhaps there are multiple individuals from an account joining a recent webinar/event/WhitePaper. Call out the specific individuals in your follow up or history of what the account has been researching. It is no longer weird to be tracked, we all know we are!

Advice for Leadership

• Be data driven: You may, and probably will, find that the data shows your old school way of doing things is no longer working as effectively — but, you can’t make decisions, or iterate, if you aren’t tracking the right data. Define your funnel. Set up the key KPIs. Monitor progress weekly. 

• Compensation bonus plan: Align the plan to the business outcomes you want. Generally this is done with either Meeting or Opportunities as the primary variable in an XDRs pay. However generally there are secondary items such as ICP, Target Account, Revenue, etc the business would also like an XDR to focus on. Build a bonus structure that allows a XDR to go above and beyond their OTE for top performers. 

More on designing XDR comp plans here.

• Remove ‘Have the XDR Do It’ from your vocabulary: The XDR job is difficult. They not only have a long list of tasks, but a sea of tools to master and feedback coming from all directions. You need to help protect their time and let them focus on building pipeline. It’s tempting to assign projects and new pilot ideas to this group, but beware - too many side projects make the XDR a master of nothing and less efficient.

Hope this helps as you think about cutting through the noise and improving the efficacy of your team. Until next week!