This weekend I was able to sneak in some free time to wind down. During this wind down, I had an idea... the Daily Dose needs to be more than just domain names. It needs advice, tips, tricks, and tactics. I mean, I can show you domain names all day long, right? Well, what about when it comes time sell one of them? So from now on, I will switch it up. One day it might be domain names, others I will drop a dosage of advice that has helped me along the way! 
Today, we talk about outbound techniques! Let's get right to it:
For starters... here are some of my ground rules:
1. Keep the message as simple as possible. I receive countless emails every day from people trying to sell me just about everything. A majority of them are more than 3 paragraphs long. First of all, how dare some salesman think I have time to sit and read their entire life story? That's the biggest mistake any sales person can make. You immediately show that you don't respect the prospect. Save the stories for your buddies. This is sales. Get to the point.
I generally keep it as short as I possibly can depending on which approach I am using. This comes down to understanding your prospect. Which leads to research. For starters, take a look at their LinkedIn profile. It will give you a lot of insight into their personality. Did they fill everything out? How thorough is their profile? For instance, take a look at mine... you notice how little I care about filling it out? That means I don't have time for little details and fluff, get to the point ASAP when you email me, otherwise... you can surely wait till I feel like reading your email or I may never even respond. That's not because I'm an asshole (well maybe a little) but it's because I'm constantly swamped and you didn't take the time to see if I was the type of person who likes all the details or just wants to hear what you are selling. See where this is going? For example, my latest outbound email, I noticed that my prospect filled out their job history very briefly, but they included the most important details from each position. That let me know that they like details, but don't like the fluff. So my email was drafted to meet their needs, not mine.
2. Keep the email very, very targeted. There is no point sending a sales pitch to a low level employee from the contact form of a website. You think they care? Nope. Find out who makes the decisions and make sure you send the email to them and them only. It is a lot easier with bigger companies as they usually have dedicated employees you can contact... but that means you have to know which dedicated employee to email! I use two tools called Data.com and ZoomInfo. Take a look at them! It's a very, very powerful tool to help you narrow down your search for not only the right company, but the decision maker within that company. I generally have the most luck with C level marketing executives. Chief Marketing Officers have a lot of say when it comes down to saving the company money with a creative approach to advertising. Buying an exact match domain name is one of those approaches. There are companies that spend millions of dollars advertising for the term "shoes"... type it into Google, what's the first domain name you see? Owning that domain name and investing their money into development and ranking allowed them to achieve the #1 spot for a term that gets 1,000,000 exact searches a month and certainly millions of dollars saved in advertising over the course of a few years. Now you see why it's oh so important to reach the right person in the company... you think telling the customer support agent how an exact match domain name will help their company will get you anywhere? Nope, but I bet the Chief Marketing Officer (so long as your domain name is of interest to them) will hear you out.
3. Keep the email personal. Everyone wants to believe that they are special. They want to know that you took the time to understand them, and it gives them a sense that you know them. That is why if you have a friend that sells cars, generally you go to him to buy one... not some random vulture... Right? So make sure that they understand that they are not just some number in your list of outbound. For example, last week I sent out an outbound email to the Chief Marketing Officer of a major company. I did a little research on her and found that she is a "Six Sigma Black Belt".
This is how I began the email: "As the Chief Marketing Officer at one of the biggest graduate schools (and an overall marketing black belt) I’m sure you deal with the CPC costs of Google Advertising frequently."
This showed her that I know who she is, what she does, what her job entails and a little compliment about her work history...and it set up my next line! Even though most people may roll their eyes, their subconscious loves the ego stroke. She's opened the email almost 30 times over the weekend. I can only imagine that my email has been making its rounds through the company. I'm certain to hear back from them this week.
4. How to address the prospect. More often than not I start the email with a "Hi" and their name. For instance "Hi John,"... I do this for many, many reasons. Every day they hear "Hi John" from their friends, family and peers. This approach puts me on the "same" level as those people. Not above and definitely not below. I've tried many other approaches, and this one - while the least professional, has yielded more responses.
5. Make 100% sure you have a professional email address and signature. How on earth do you plan on being taken seriously by an executive if you are emailing them from a Hotmail account? Also, make sure you have a thorough enough signature that makes you trustable. Name, email address, website, even a phone number if you are okay with speaking on the phone! Give them a LinkedIn, Twitter, so on. The more you show, the more trustable you seem.
6. Make sure you have the right tools. Sidekick is a great one because it'll show you when and if they opened the email and how many times/how often they did! The more often the better your chances. This gives your great insight to use on your follow up email!
7. Follow up as many times as you have to until you get an answer. I use FollowUp.cc. A very, very simple tool that reminds me to follow up! Generally, I follow up once a week till I get a response. More often than not it's a "no..." but at least then I know! I've made more sales because of following up than any other method I've used.
So here are some examples of emails that I have drafted that have received the most responses!
Example #1 - STRAIGHT to the point.
Example #2 - Almost met you.
In this scenario, I did some research (by way of calling) to find out that the prospect was out of town at some marketing conference. So I set a reminder to email him when his assistant said he'd be back. (This is just a made up example)
Example #3 - Strokes & Facts, not Fluff.
These are a great "template" but don't just take them word for word and start sending out emails. Make sure you study your prospect. The more you know, the better you can draft the email. Now, you notice that when I do outbound, I do it as a broker (at least a majority of the time) as this sets me up for the gem of all negotiation tactics... more on that in a future dose!
Today, we talk about outbound techniques! Let's get right to it:
For starters... here are some of my ground rules:
1. Keep the message as simple as possible. I receive countless emails every day from people trying to sell me just about everything. A majority of them are more than 3 paragraphs long. First of all, how dare some salesman think I have time to sit and read their entire life story? That's the biggest mistake any sales person can make. You immediately show that you don't respect the prospect. Save the stories for your buddies. This is sales. Get to the point.
I generally keep it as short as I possibly can depending on which approach I am using. This comes down to understanding your prospect. Which leads to research. For starters, take a look at their LinkedIn profile. It will give you a lot of insight into their personality. Did they fill everything out? How thorough is their profile? For instance, take a look at mine... you notice how little I care about filling it out? That means I don't have time for little details and fluff, get to the point ASAP when you email me, otherwise... you can surely wait till I feel like reading your email or I may never even respond. That's not because I'm an asshole (well maybe a little) but it's because I'm constantly swamped and you didn't take the time to see if I was the type of person who likes all the details or just wants to hear what you are selling. See where this is going? For example, my latest outbound email, I noticed that my prospect filled out their job history very briefly, but they included the most important details from each position. That let me know that they like details, but don't like the fluff. So my email was drafted to meet their needs, not mine.
2. Keep the email very, very targeted. There is no point sending a sales pitch to a low level employee from the contact form of a website. You think they care? Nope. Find out who makes the decisions and make sure you send the email to them and them only. It is a lot easier with bigger companies as they usually have dedicated employees you can contact... but that means you have to know which dedicated employee to email! I use two tools called Data.com and ZoomInfo. Take a look at them! It's a very, very powerful tool to help you narrow down your search for not only the right company, but the decision maker within that company. I generally have the most luck with C level marketing executives. Chief Marketing Officers have a lot of say when it comes down to saving the company money with a creative approach to advertising. Buying an exact match domain name is one of those approaches. There are companies that spend millions of dollars advertising for the term "shoes"... type it into Google, what's the first domain name you see? Owning that domain name and investing their money into development and ranking allowed them to achieve the #1 spot for a term that gets 1,000,000 exact searches a month and certainly millions of dollars saved in advertising over the course of a few years. Now you see why it's oh so important to reach the right person in the company... you think telling the customer support agent how an exact match domain name will help their company will get you anywhere? Nope, but I bet the Chief Marketing Officer (so long as your domain name is of interest to them) will hear you out.
3. Keep the email personal. Everyone wants to believe that they are special. They want to know that you took the time to understand them, and it gives them a sense that you know them. That is why if you have a friend that sells cars, generally you go to him to buy one... not some random vulture... Right? So make sure that they understand that they are not just some number in your list of outbound. For example, last week I sent out an outbound email to the Chief Marketing Officer of a major company. I did a little research on her and found that she is a "Six Sigma Black Belt".
This is how I began the email: "As the Chief Marketing Officer at one of the biggest graduate schools (and an overall marketing black belt) I’m sure you deal with the CPC costs of Google Advertising frequently."
This showed her that I know who she is, what she does, what her job entails and a little compliment about her work history...and it set up my next line! Even though most people may roll their eyes, their subconscious loves the ego stroke. She's opened the email almost 30 times over the weekend. I can only imagine that my email has been making its rounds through the company. I'm certain to hear back from them this week.
4. How to address the prospect. More often than not I start the email with a "Hi" and their name. For instance "Hi John,"... I do this for many, many reasons. Every day they hear "Hi John" from their friends, family and peers. This approach puts me on the "same" level as those people. Not above and definitely not below. I've tried many other approaches, and this one - while the least professional, has yielded more responses.
5. Make 100% sure you have a professional email address and signature. How on earth do you plan on being taken seriously by an executive if you are emailing them from a Hotmail account? Also, make sure you have a thorough enough signature that makes you trustable. Name, email address, website, even a phone number if you are okay with speaking on the phone! Give them a LinkedIn, Twitter, so on. The more you show, the more trustable you seem.
6. Make sure you have the right tools. Sidekick is a great one because it'll show you when and if they opened the email and how many times/how often they did! The more often the better your chances. This gives your great insight to use on your follow up email!
7. Follow up as many times as you have to until you get an answer. I use FollowUp.cc. A very, very simple tool that reminds me to follow up! Generally, I follow up once a week till I get a response. More often than not it's a "no..." but at least then I know! I've made more sales because of following up than any other method I've used.
So here are some examples of emails that I have drafted that have received the most responses!
Example #1 - STRAIGHT to the point.
Example #2 - Almost met you.
In this scenario, I did some research (by way of calling) to find out that the prospect was out of town at some marketing conference. So I set a reminder to email him when his assistant said he'd be back. (This is just a made up example)
Example #3 - Strokes & Facts, not Fluff.
These are a great "template" but don't just take them word for word and start sending out emails. Make sure you study your prospect. The more you know, the better you can draft the email. Now, you notice that when I do outbound, I do it as a broker (at least a majority of the time) as this sets me up for the gem of all negotiation tactics... more on that in a future dose!
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