You have an amazing solution that provides measurable ROI and clearly differentiates you from the competition. The challenge is communicating that to your target prospects convincingly. Communicating this information in an email can be tough. It usually requires a 30-minute meeting with the prospect, but those can be hard to book. Booking meetings and sales demos with target prospects is a significant challenge for companies of all sizes, and it’s getting harder.
As I outlined in my recent article “How to Supercharge Your Lead Gen Efforts with Incentives for Target Prospects,” incentivizing prospects for committing to a 30-minute meeting can be really effective. Incentives work for B2B target prospects the same way they do with consumers, which is why the most successful consumer brands run loyalty programs. Offering high-value meeting incentives can influence behaviors and be the catalyst that gets a target prospect to act now and differentiates you from the competition.
If incentives are not an option for your company, what would be the next most effective way to get target prospects in a meeting? I don’t recommend asking a cold prospect for a meeting the first time you reach out to them. Start your relationship by offering target prospects some form of value in the form of knowledge or information about their industry or job. Taking a “serve not sell” approach to the relationship will serve you and your team well in the long run. The value you offer them might be a top 10 list, article, white paper, or something they can access without having to commit to anything. Take the long view with cold prospects because up to 80% of them are either unaware they have a problem or know they do and are not doing anything about it. If a cold prospect is part of the small number of prospects actively looking for a solution, they will ask for a meeting themselves. Build familiarity and trust with prospects and position yourself as an authority who is there to help, rather than force-feed your agenda or booked meetings quota on them.
One of the most effective ways to provide value to target prospects and position yourself as an authority is by offering to host a lunch & learn for them and their team. This is an effective way to get prospects onto a call, build a relationship, and do some discovery regarding some of their key challenges. Offering an incentive in this process will enhance your results. This might take the form of, “Here is a $100 digital Visa card to buy coffee for the team for this session…” Even better if you can buy them lunch. Regardless of whether you have the budget to incentivize prospects with lunch or coffee, offering to do a lunch and learn with them and their team will be welcomed by some prospects. Prospects tend to be more inclined to participate in a learning environment as opposed to a sales meeting. Topics for lunch and learns should address concerns your prospects have regarding your industry. This might be security, new technology, or consumer trends. The objective should be to provide or at least offer to provide your prospects with value. While the response to this strategy might take time and not work with all prospects, in my experience, it will pay off and increase booked meetings and leads for your sales funnel.
To increase sales productivity with automation, consider integrating AI sales automation into your approach. This can help streamline your efforts and make it easier to secure more meetings with AI-driven solutions.
Using SaaS sales automation tools can significantly enhance your lead generation efforts, ensuring your team can manage the funnel more efficiently. Leveraging sales process automation not only saves time but also improves operational efficiency and ROI.
For example, you can automate sales prospecting and list building with advanced tools that handle the heavy lifting of initial outreach. This allows your sales team to focus on personalized messaging for targeted B2B prospects, ultimately driving better engagement and conversions.
By implementing these strategies, you can maximize sales development rep productivity and overcome sales process challenges with AI. Whether it’s through personalized email campaigns, targeted content, or engaging webinars, using AI-powered sales solutions can make a significant difference in your ability to book meetings and close deals.
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About Rob Craig
Rob has spent his career entering cold markets in the U.S. and Canada to establish recurring revenue models and sell SaaS-based enterprise software and solutions to Fortune 500 companies and SMBs. He has founded and built four successful, sales-centric tech start-ups, including Stratford Technologies, ActiveStream, 3 Tier Logic, and AutoNow.
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