Cody Bernard
“Hey [first name], I see we went to the same college. You should totally book a meeting with me so I can pitch you on our product.”
How’s that for personalization?
The reality is, some variation of that opening is being used in sales outreach all around the world. Seller’s spend so much time researching their prospects in hopes of finding some connection in order to get their foot in the door. But what does personalization really mean? How can you personalize impactfully? Why should you even care?
Today in B2B SaaS, using the word “competitive” to describe this landscape would be an understatement. Prospect inboxes are flooded with generic email and video content. Everyone’s getting dozens of spam or cold calls daily. It’s never been more difficult to try and engage buyers. That’s why it’s becoming more and more important to figure out how to break through the noise with your prospects and gain their trust in the process. And that’s where personalization comes in.
Personalization isn’t new. But it’s gotten this reputation that it’s as easy as going to someone’s LinkedIn, seeing that you both went to Stanford, and using that as your “in.” The truth is, that’s far from the case. It involves creativity and much, much more effort than grabbing the first thing you see. That’s why we want to demystify personalization and show you exactly how you can personalize your outreach through different channels.
Whether you’ve been in sales for two decades or two years, you know a lot has changed. From the way we prospect new customers to how we approach them, it’s a whole new world. Sellers are testing messaging across a handful of different channels trying to see what sticks. But what’s really working? And why do we care so much?
Companies that personalize their outreach can drive upwards of 40% more revenue than those that don’t. And when you don’t personalize, 60% of customers get frustrated when they get the same old generic outreach that they’re used to.
Now that’s easier said than done. There’s a whole sea of generic sales outreach, and personalization is the key to standing out in the midst of it. Just ask the team over at Lavender. They’re out there fighting the good fight for personalization. By taking the time to understand a prospect’s pain points, industry, and specific needs, you can craft messages tailored to them that’ll actually resonate and drive responses. Did you know that 84% of customers say being treated like individuals is essential to winning not only their business — but their trust? Prospects can tell when you spray and pray your way to your weekly activity goals and not taking the time to actually find out (or care) what matters to them.
So what are some useful tips that you can use to do this the right way?
Go through their LinkedIn
This is a good first step, but shouldn’t be the end-all be-all. Again, don’t just stop at what college they went to or mention their title at the company they work for. No one cares about that, and it’s not going to cut through the noise of dozens of other people also trying to get their attention.
What should you do instead? Look at the posts that they write, the content that they engage with, the people that they interact with and go from there. You can create engaging content simply by watching their behavior, as opposed to talking about where they’ve gone to school.
Investigate the whole story
The great thing about starting your personalization on LinkedIn is that you can start piecing together an entire narrative through one platform. You can research prospects, see who they’re engaging with, what they’re talking about, but you can also see what the company is doing.
Are they hiring? If so, what kind of roles are they hiring for? Did they just raise a funding round? How much was it and what are they doing with it? Do they have any projects or initiatives they’re starting to invest in? What are they and how are they relevant to your business? Being genuinely curious will help you paint a picture so you can personalize your outreach and really capture their attention.
Expand your horizons
There’s more to life than what’s on LinkedIn. It’s a great place to build your foundation of prospect research. But after you’ve gotten what you can from the platform, where should you go next?
Does your buyer have a podcast? Do they post videos on Youtube? What can you glean from their website? If they’re public, what are the main talking points in their 10K? Taking the time to dive into the specifics is only going to help you understand their top priorities so you can stand out. And doing that involves approaching things a lot differently than everyone else.
Putting in the effort upfront not only helps initial outreach, but it improves your chances of locking in meetings. Did you know that personalized CTA buttons in sales emails increase click-through rates by 202%. If a prospect feels that you understand their pain points and have valuable insights relatable to their problems, they’re much more inclined to invest their valuable time with you.
By tailoring your message to a prospect’s specific situation and needs (which you should have a good handle on if you did a couple of the tips above) you’ll not only increase the likelihood of booked meetings, but you’ll be moving prospects through the pipeline more quickly. (Oh, and they’ll be higher quality prospects too )
Not every company is going to give you flexibility on this one. So it’s up to you to test out methodologies and see what works best. Whether that’s creating video messages for prospects, putting together amazing cold emails, or finding the right script to use on cold calls – figure out what helps you come across as YOU.
Authenticity is the name of the game in B2B right now. Everyone’s talking about it and everyone’s looking for it. Take a couple methods that you gravitate towards and practice, practice, practice. Maybe it’s video and email prospecting. Stay consistent and try to test out different messaging to see what resonates best with your audience.
By using different personalization techniques across different channels, sellers can differentiate themselves amongst a sea of people doing the bare minimum. By simply taking the time and putting in the work to go steps further than most, you’ll boost connection rates, increase meetings, and have a much stronger pipeline. In order to win in B2B in 2023, it comes down to earning their attention AND their trust.
Personalization takes a lot of time, and doing it right takes even more. Seller’s are constantly busy – prospecting, jumping from meeting to meeting, the list goes on. Getting to know your buyers in and out usually means you’re spending countless hours away from the high-value work you should be focused on like building pipeline and working deals.
But what if there was a way to automate this process so that you can scale your personalized outreach with ease? Well, that’s where we come in
CloseFactor automates prospect research and delivers the insights sellers need to lead with value in their outreach so they can more effectively engage their buyers. With CloseFactor, sellers get a complete breakdown of their accounts including key pieces of information like business initiatives, account signals, competitors, and more.
Want to see how we do it? Get a demo today.
