This week at Scrunch: GirlBoss @ Sales Hacker Brisbane
This week at Scrunch our wonderful GirlBoss, Danielle Lewis, represented Scrunch at a sales hacker event hosted by Andy Farquharson at the Precinct. Dani teamed up with Brendan Batch, national sales manager for Felix, to discuss how to best sell to your ideal customer. Naturally, all of the sales representatives were eager to learn about the hot sales tips, tricks,
strategies. And, after networking, pizza, and a few beers, we were ready to be schooled by these pros (at least I was). Andy, the MC for the night, was sure to let us know that above all things this sales hack was a conversation, and told us not to be afraid to call bullshit on the things we wanted to challenge. In this article, I will relay the key takeaways from our sales hacker night!
The first big question thrown at Dani was who do you sell to? This was a bit of a rhetorical question on part of Andy. Oftentimes, companies and brands believe they should be selling to everyone, but the correct answer is whomever you have documented as your buyer persona. “Finding the champion in the industry” is not a straightforward task. To ease the process, here are some key strategies and considerations that were discussed.
A/B test how you speak about your business to leads. You may find alternative approaches to your usual pitch convert better. Be creative; you can change the vernacular every time.
Keep a record of the verticals that performs the best. Who in the organization do you approach first? For larger companies or brands, you may find you get the cut through at a higher level in the organization.
Find the people close enough to the problem you are trying to solve. Who have the biggest pain points.
Consider what your current customers are asking for. Addressing the concerns of current customers may also eradicate the concerns of your leads who are on the fence.
Cherry pick from the sign-ups of the free version of your product.
Exploit your LinkedIn. Also, if you see someone that you have reached out to before has changed jobs online, reach out and ask them what’s up.
Attend conferences for some face to face action, yet be choosy with which events you want to prospect. You can’t attend all of them! At Scrunch, face to face converts well for us.
Personalize your email or phone call. Understanding them even at a glance goes a long way. Maybe you share a similar interest or have mutual friends–talk about it!
Consider how they want to communicate? If a prospect responds well to emails, establish email as your primary method of reaching them. This is a no-brainer.
Contact other people in the business you are targeting to maintain the relationship with the organization.
Automated workflow emails!!! Persistence is key. 30-day automated touch ins hit the sweet spot.
Send your prospects relevant, original blog content that might answer their questions or resonate with their business.
Personalized video. Turns out when you use the ugliest picture of you from the video for the thumbnail, you get a higher open rate!
This was just a portion of Dani and Brendan’s insightful advice on who to sell to and how to approach the right people. An even more anticipated question racking everyone’s brains, was _when do you pull away? _Pest mode and feeling annoying is every salesperson problem, yet everyone has a different threshold for outbound reach. Andy proposed an audience poll of the everyone’s threshold–how many touches until you feel you are being annoying and pestering people? One person said straight away! But, the majority said seven to eight check-ins. The synopsis of this poll indicated the best way to determine pest mode is to read the people. Follow up with a person because they have asked you to (whether they have realized they have asked you or not), and always be sure to add value to every interaction.
At the end of the event, we asked Danielle for her most impressive (or most secret) tip, to which she replied, “We all need to remember that people buy from people, and while there needs to be a strong strategy and process, sales is a human interaction that should be motivated by doing good.”
Ultimately, your goal is to enable and empower other people to improve their own businesses, and when you approach sales with this mindset magic happens. And, most importantly remember mistakes are gold.
To keep up with Scrunch in our community, be sure to follow our Instagram and subscribe to our blog. There will be more exciting events coming your way!
