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Are you using the wrong outbounding style?
Hey, I’m not judging you — do what works best for your company and your prospects.
But some styles work better than others…
11 Outbound styles:
Conventional (3):
1. Knocking on the door
— you’re just seeing if anyone (anyone!?!) will pay attention
Pro: you might get lucky, and it certainly builds character 😏
Con: doors close for a reason
2. Circling and dive bombing
— you’re trying different approaches, like calling, emails, DMs on LinkedIn, all to find a way into the account
Pro: persistence and imagination pay, it’s why Sales is so lucrative for so many salespeople
Con: requires focus on a small number of potential customers
3. Leaving gifts on the doorstep
— you’re not asking for a reply, just a click to read, watch or download something your marketing team produced. Or you’re inviting people to attend an event, like a webinar.
Pro: low threshold, not likely to put anyone off
Con: blends in with the other noise the prospect will experience today
Unconventional (4):
1. Crossing paths outside the building
— you’re going to places prospects show up, including conferences and trade shows, and making sure you’re in the same area at the same times
Pro: most people will talk to you when you’re physically in front the of them, it’s VERY hardwired into us all
Con: requires (gasp!) a physical presence
2. Alternative channels
— you’re using channels competitors don’t think about or are afraid to try, like letters, postcards, a sign outside the prospect’s office, public speaking and podcasts
Pro: you avoid getting in front of people when their guard is (unfairly) up
Con: requires enough courage to get outside the box
3. Changing the joint story
— you’re not in the widget business and you, dear prospect, are not looking for a widget anyway. You have a wodget problem we should talk about
Pro: puts you into Category Of One that your prospect cares about
Con: requires imaginative thinking, up front and throughout
4. Micro solving
— even though you sell a big solution, you focus the prospect in a tiny interesting one, just to get a conversation started
Pro: gets a conversation started about something the prospect cares about
Con: requires resistance to the pressure of jumping directly to the selling conversation
Creepy (4):
1. Jiggling a key
— you try to leverage someone’s name as a reference/referral even though you (or the prospect) don’t know them, and the referral didn’t agree to help you sell something
Pro: it MIGHT work and get you in the door
Con: if later you’re found out, it’s hard to win back trust
2. Turning the doorknob
— you try to ‘assume the sale’ too much and too early, by acting or implying (you’re so sly) that a conversation or sales process has already started and you’re supposed to be where you are
Pro: leverages people’s reluctance to challenge people about things they might be in the dark about
Con: the smartest (or least trusting) prospects will slam down on you
3. Stalking
— you’re not just circling and dive bombing, you’re everywhere all the time, and it’s just too much
Pro: for prospects who have prioritized solving the problem you solve, this keeps you in front of them
Con: for everyone else, your competitor will deliberately be given the business
4. Guilt
— you tell the prospect that you’ve been trying to reach them or that your company has invested a lot into something that would benefit the prospect
Pro: most prospects will let this go, once
Con: it’s a risky play to put any kind of ‘load’ (labor, obligation) onto a prospect early on
The thing is, any and all of these have worked for someone, somewhere. But if you spend time trying to work out an Unconventional (but still ‘professional’) style that suits you and your company, you can probably dine out on that initial effort for years.
I mean, I do…