What is sales messaging?

Your sales messaging is how you communicate the value and benefit of your product to buyers.  This will be targeted to the individual you are interacting with, anchored in value for them, unlike broader marketing messaging. 

Why sales messaging matters

Whether you’re currently experiencing a ton of inbound interest and planning for the future or you are actively trying to spread the word about your product offering, sales messaging is worth putting some thought into. Both the message you’re conveying itself, and the method that you’re interacting with people (outbound vs. inbound).  This is how you will convey the value of your product to the buyers/stakeholders themselves. 

Best practices for sales messaging and outreach 

Make it about them, not you 

• Your first sentence should be about them - not introducing yourself or jumping right into the product. Start with the pains they might be experiencing in their role (based on your persona development) 

• Always provide value to the person you’re reaching out to 

  • Can be simple like a best practice to help them do something more efficiently–give them a taste of the value your product provides–it could also be a recorded webinar you hosted or an informational customer story. 

Keep it short 

• Really - you’re trying to capture their attention. Don’t overwhelm them with a long email. 

• You have to earn the right to ask for something 

  • This is especially important for outbound efforts: don’t ask for a 30-minute phone call if they’ve never heard of you or talked with you before.   

Once isn’t enough 

• Follow up! If you haven’t heard back from somebody on the first try, you need to send another email or call again. 

• The industry average is three to five attempts before you get a response. Space it out over a two to three week period so you aren’t sending messages every day for five days, but don’t quit after one or two attempts. 

Try different channels to engage them 

• Email, phone, LinkedIn, even video is a new and useful tool to leverage.  

• Do your research about the industry, role, and person 

  • This will help you keep it personal and stick to what they care most about. 

Don’t: “spray and pray” 

• Keep it targeted to people/industry who fit your personas and target audience

• Your message should resonate with the person you’re it sending to 

• Keep your lists really curated to build trust in your brand and the value you’re bringing 

• Be aware that sending unhelpful messages to large numbers of people will increase your chances of being marked as spam and decrease your email delivery rates. Lemlist is a tool that can help you “warm up” your email.

Timing is important! 

• For Inbound leads (those coming to your website: If somebody has given you their contact information (i.e. signed up for a trial, submitted a contact form, reached out via chat), you need to act fast. Respond quickly, following these guidelines:

  • Email: within 24 hours 

  • If you have chat on your site: respond ASAP. 

    • If you’re not monitoring chat constantly, consider if it’s the best channel  

    • Set expectations for reply times so people aren’t frustrated    

Inbound vs. outbound 

What is inbound: Visitors to your site or people coming to you directly with existing interest. They may have even signed up for a trial if you offer it. These people are familiar with your product 

• Messaging principles: They have shown interest so you’re trying to build on that interest and show them the value you provide. 

What is outbound: People or companies that have never visited your site or signed up for your product. They may be completely unfamiliar with your product and what you’re offering.  You will find these leads by creating lists of relevant roles/industries that you want to sell to 

• Messaging principles: They have not proactively shown interest, so you’ll need to spend more time “warming them up” and educating them on what your product can do for them. They haven’t’ felt the pain your product can solve yet, so you have enlighten them. 
  
  
  
  

📝Activity: Draft a three email series to engage with an inbound prospect, then do the same for an outbound prospect. 

Spotlight: Finding leads to talk to 

Where do you find your leads? The easiest place to start is anybody coming to your website and/or signing up for your product (inbound leads). The next option is to proactively reach out to prospects that haven’t come to you (outbound leads). 

Before you start looking for outbound leads, make sure you have the basics covered: 

• Know your personas 

  • What type of roles are you targeting? 

  • Start with the roles that will get the most value from your product 

• The value proposition for reach persona (and product, if you offer multiple) 

Start with your network 

• LinkedIn - who is a first connection?  

• Address book - who do you know off the top of your head that would benefit from your product?  

Where to look for leads outside your immediate network: 

• Figure out who you’re targeting

  • Type of industry

  • Roles / titles 

  • Size of company  

• LinkedIn - look for common connections 

  • Ask for an intro from your common connections

  • Or just reference that you know the same person/people/alma mater/ the connection you have 

• Professional groups 

  • Join trade associations (or follow them on LI) 

  • Professional groups on LinkedIn 

Consider lead list building tools for outbounding

• Check out Apollo for building targeted lead lists for your outbound sales efforts.