Do you have your outbound sales/prospecting flow dialed in? Please share how you do it

Discussions
#1

I’m trying to find a sales/prospecting flow that works for me. Is anyone particularly happy with theirs and can share how they do it?

I’m interested in everything:

How much time per day, or per sit down session?
How do you get leads? Tools?
How do you get leads into email marketing software? Tools?
How do you get leads into CRM? Tools?
How do you follow up? If your tool does it, which tool?
How do you write the emails or customize templates? (Taking into account all relevent CRM data)

I have looked into these questions through basic Googling but I want it from a bootstrapper’s perspective.

I currently use Zoho Mail/CRM but have not figured out how to optimize it. Will probably try to see how the flow changes if I send emails directly from the CRM.

Anyway, hoping to hear some interesting workflows.

Thank you

UPDATE:

Creating templates in Zoho CRM is not a good experience. They force an HTML email which on the receiving end looks “automated” and so will likely turn-off cold leads even more. Turning email to plain text then adds a bunch of line-breaks that need to be removed. So yeah, this will not stand… man… looking for a tool that can do Email, multiple follow ups, and CRM integration.

#2

How much time per day, or per sit down session?

Depends on the task. If it’s prospecting, I can sit down for 2 hours and take a 30 minute break and then do another 2 hours. But generally don’t do this anymore due to GDPR. Prefer a lighter batch load and more rifle approach to cold email. Full manual, and then adjust approach as per replies.

How do you get leads? Tools?

No tools. All manual. There’s so much out there for free.

  • Angel
  • Startus
  • Linkedin

Just a few …

Never buy shitty lists.

How do you get leads into email marketing software? Tools?

  1. Prospect manually into Google sheets.
  2. Export sheets into .CSV
  3. Manually import into Closeio (amazing CRM)

Another more “fancy” approach I’ve tried.

  1. Create Typeform with questions like name, email, industry, etc.
  2. Submission data gets piped into a Google sheet via Zapier
  3. Then automatically added into Closeio via Zapier as well
  4. Then automatically bumps a Slack channel so I can get alerted (nice to know when my prospectors are working and what they’re prospecting so I can get involved if I notice something fishy).

How do you follow up? If your tool does it, which tool?

Closeio has a great “reminder” feature for emails so you can set it to remind you to followup after X days/weeks and then that time comes, it pops up in your inbox as a task reminder. Works great.

Used Woodpecker once for followups. Also good for @ scale.

How do you write the emails or customize templates? (Taking into account all relevent CRM data)

I start manually. Work with batches of 10 leads. Do 100% custom sales pitches to each. Then, based on what works, and what doens’t, I create templates.

I don’t stress about templates in beginning. They’re always changing anyone. Don’t ever settle with your templates. Switch them up.

Hope this helped a bit.

1 Like
#3

But generally don’t do this anymore due to GDPR.

Why’s that?

Closeio

Any free alternatives (for now) you can recommend? (not happy with Zoho atm)

Used Woodpecker once for followups. Also good for @ scale.

Won’t your automated responses be templates? Meaning, not custom? Shouldn’t follow ups be custom as well?

Also, how do you decide which leads get a woodpecker templated follow up vs a custom email triggered by a reminder in Closeio?

Thank you for all the insights

#4

Why’s that?

We’re taking a more 1:1 100% personalised approach to avoid any issues.

Any free alternatives (for now) you can recommend? (not happy with Zoho atm)

Sorry, no experience with any free CRM…

Won’t your automated responses be templates? Meaning, not custom? Shouldn’t follow ups be custom as well?

If your 1st outreach email is 100% custom, you can get away with a single, simple, and to the point, templated follow up.

I never send more than 1 followup.

If they haven’t replied after 2 mails - get a hint.

Also, how do you decide which leads get a woodpecker templated follow up vs a custom email triggered by a reminder in Closeio?

Woodpecker is an automated email blaster.

With the pro pack, it gives Zapier integration ability.

So what I do with this is as follows:

  1. If someone replies to the cold outreach pipe him into Closeio [no woodpecker followup sent]
  2. Then I engage the lead and reply manually, and then it set the reminder in closeio
  3. If they don’t reply to the first email blast from Woodpecker, they’ll get sent a single extra followup
  4. If they reply to that, then they get added into Closeio as a lead and then I engage it.
#5

Thank you for the follow up. Some good insights there. Can’t avoid the grind. Limit follow ups. Manual kicks off the prospecting, automated tries to save the lead.

Thank you!

#6

Have you looked at https://bluetick.io? I don’t currently do cold outreach, but will consider using it if the time comes.