The 3 P’s of Outbound Prospecting

August 8, 2021

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min read

Did you know that the close rate for outbound sales leads is a meager 1.7 percent? Yet, high-performing companies see 55% of their converted leads come down the outbound sales pipeline. So, what’s going on? How is it that so many companies fail so miserably at outbound sales, despite some companies absolutely dominating the outbound landscape?

The answer is pretty simple: most of us aren’t doing it right. The introduction of outbound automation platforms has made it all-too-easy to push “start” and run a quick campaign. But blast emails and InMail spam won't cut it in 2023. Buyers expect more. So, let’s talk about the three “P’s” of outbound sales. Believe it or not, you can solve your outbound woes with three simple words: personas, pain and personalization.

Here’s why P should be your favorite letter in sales.

#1 | P is for “Personas”

Companies that create personas are 2x as likely to meet their goals than those that don’t. Not everyone experiences pain points in the same way.

Personas help you understand how the people you’re targeting experience their pain points — and how your product/service cures those pains. Here’s the problem: most companies fail to create robust personas. “Marketer, age 33, $100k salary” is not a persona; it’s a description. What makes them tick? What are their problems? And how does your product/service help them navigate those problems?

We recommend (at the very least) doing a 3-deep, 3-wide persona strategy. So, identify your key decision-maker, then create personas for the three positions under them and the three positions beside them that could inﬂuence their decision. Once you identify these 6 key positions, identify who they are, what their pain points are, and what they need to solve those pain points. Ideally, you should tweak your value prop to cater to each of these pain points and target each level in the organization with a unique (but somewhat similar) message.

So… is it worth the effort? Should you really spend time creating unique messaging for each of these layers? Here are some statistics to think about:

71 percent of companies that exceed their revenue and goals have well-documented personas.
47 percent of companies that exceed their revenue and goals also consistently maintain those personas.
82 percent of companies with personas say it helps them create improved value propositions.
56 percent of companies say personas help them attract higher-quality leads.

Here’s the big kicker: high-performing companies are 1.6x as likely to fully understand the challenges, problems, and fears of their buyers. You can approach personas in a variety of ways. You could try to dig deep and create a ton of personas for each position, but that can be incredibly time-consuming and difﬁcult to navigate. According to Mark Schaefer — one of the world’s leading marketing and sales consultants — 3 to 4 personas usually account for over 90 percent of your purchases. And those personas are usually centered around those 3-deep layers.

#2 | P is for “Pain”

The single largest sales mistake revolves around pain points. Thirty-three percent of customers will outright ignore a brand that doesn’t understand their needs. Unfortunately, the majority of marketers fail to fully incorporate pain-point-targeting into their outbound strategies. Don’t sell them a product; sell them a solution. There’s certainly some cross-over between products and solutions. Both are created to solve a problem, provide value, and generate revenue. But products target an audience, and solutions target people.

According to Walker, the “customer experience” has overtaken price and product as the differentiator between companies. People have genuine needs, and they want to forge meaningful connections with the companies they purchase products from. Google research shows that B2B decision-makers are “50% more likely to buy a product or service” when they see personal value in that produce/service instead of company value. They’re also 8x more likely to pay a premium for it.

Often, we like to think of B2B in terms of pure ﬁrmographics. You ﬁnd a decision-maker, give them a bland paragraph about how awesome your product is, and follow up with them 3 months later. But why should they care? What’s in it for them?

Homeowners don’t want to buy a mortgage; they want to save money on the house they love. Similarly, C-level ﬁnance execs don’t want to purchase a SaaS budgeting automation platform. They want to save money, spend less time on repetitive and dull tasks, and ﬁnish the day faster.

Don’t focus on how amazing your product is compared to your competitor; focus on the value they get out of your product, and why purchasing your product will save them time, money, or headaches. Obviously, this takes a little research, but it’s well worth the time investment.

#3 | P is for “Personalization”

Every pain point you identify, persona you create, and sales software you invest in has one key purpose: to increase your personalization. A full 72 percent of buyers will only engage with content that’s personalized to them, and 51 percent of marketers admit that personalization is their #1 priority. Again, this is an area that many B2B brands only tackle on the surface level. Knowing someone’s name, position, salary, and location doesn’t help you personalize your message.

This is an area that’s really difﬁcult to navigate. On the one hand, you want to dive deep and “get to know” your prospects beyond the surface layer. On the other hand, trying to accomplish this at scale can be nightmare fuel. You may lack the resources, strategies, or personnel to dig deep into the onion. That was a guiding force behind Regie. We wanted to combine the time-saving and cost-saving capabilities of the oh-so-popular blast messaging with the heart, soul, and effectiveness or personalization. Many B2B marketers are between a rock and a hard place. 63 percent of purchasers will completely stop purchasing from a brand that doesn’t personalize content to them, but the cost of individual- level personalization at scale can be overwhelming — especially for outbound.

This leads to a problem. A lack of personalization will create failed campaigns. Over-personalization can cause customers to feel disconnected and see your company as invasive (81% of people believe that companies use too much of their personal data). Additionally, over-personalization accrues signiﬁcant time costs, which can leave your team stressed and resource-drenched. You have to ﬁnd the sweet spot.

Regie Can Help You Tackle the Three P’s of Outbound Sales

Highly-effective B2B outbound campaigns require pain point identiﬁcation, robust personas, and deep layers of personalization. So how do you accomplish all of that without sinking your entire liquidity into lead gen? We can help. At Regie, we help sales teams apply personalization and personas at scale to tackle customers’ trickiest pain points.

Our holistic sales enablement solution can help you meet the right target at the right place and time, without spending hours on each person. Are you ready to embrace the future of B2B personalization?‍