Outbound Sales

Owner: Sales Last revision: 10.12.2021

Our sales is mostly based on networking and inbound leads, but there are a couple of exceptions to this rule. This page details how and when we should reach out to leads or potential partners.

• LinkedIn
• Strategic Partnerships

LinkedIn#

Outreach on LinkedIn is useful, since we contact people who already expressed their need for a service we can provide. We call these “lukewarm leads”.

• We find these lukewarm leads by following the activity of sales personnel from other product and software agencies. You can find a list of people to follow here ↗.
• Response speed is crucial, so LinkedIn leads should be checked for daily.
• Leads must be filtered, as you will find lots of requests which we cannot or don’t want to cater to.
  • Keywords to look out for ↗;
  • Avoid leads which state they’re looking for a full-time employee;
  • Avoid leads which state “No agencies please”;
  • Avoid leads with unrealistic deadlines or budgets.
• A monthly report should be generated, containing:
  • Total of leads reached out to
  • % of replies after initial contact
  • % of replies after 1st follow-up
  • % of replies after 2nd follow-up
• When a conversation has started with the lead, they should be also added to Productive’s sales module as a suspect.

Initial contact#

Initial contact should be done via InMail and commenting under the OP.

A sample InMail could be:

Hi [name]!
I came across your recent LinkedIn post where you mentioned you needed [what kind of] development services.

We're a digital product development agency with a good mix of business, UX and tech people. This is us: https://gofurther.digital/en/digital-product-development.

[maybe some custom personal message]

I'd love to talk to you about the project! You can reach out to me here on LinkedIn, or at [email].

Thanks,
[my name]

1st follow-up#

First follow-up should be done 2-3 days after initial contact. Since they’re not responding to InMail, we should try a different route. Initiate a connection request, but always attach a note:

Hi [name]!

I dropped you an InMail last week regarding a post in which you searched for [what kind of] development services. I haven't received a reply, probably because missed it (as you do with InMail). I am adding you, hoping this message will reach you!

2nd follow-up#

We should again follow up in 3 days if and after the connection request has been accepted.

Strategic Partnerships#

On top of generating leads, we’re always on the look to build new partnerships. The best way to do this is leveraging BNI’s international database. This gives and advantage over cold emailing them, since we already have a common topic in BNI, which increases our response rate.

• To find potential partners, we should use BNI’s Find a chaper function. This can be accessed by performing a Google Search for “BNI [country] find a chapter”.
• Scan through each chapter by>
  • Clicking the chapter pin on the map,
  • Click Chapter details on the right pane,
  • Click the Members tab to see list of members.
• Filter leads who are of interest based on these guidelines ↗.
• Enter every potential partner in the corresponding sheet of this document ↗ for review.
• Reviewed partners should be contacted with an additional follow in case of a no response.
• Declined partners should be cleaned up on a regular basis.

The goal is to set at least 1, preferably 2 meeting with potential partners each week.

Initial contact#

Hi [Mr./Mrs./Ms. name],

We came across your profile on BNI. [personal note on work or services].

We are a product development company with a good mix of business, UX and tech people. We are working with large clients such as UNICEF, but also with successful startups like Centralized.me. 

We are currently operating mainly in Hungary and would like to expand our business abroad as well by forming partnerships with companies like yours. 

We only ask for 30 minutes of your time to have a chat and get to know each other. If you are interested, you can effortlessly book a call with me on this link calendly.com/peterilles/partnerships, or suggest another time and date. 

We are looking forward to hearing from you!


Best regards,
Peter Illés
Head of Strategy

Follow-up#

In case of no response, a follow-up email should be sent in 3 days.