Being seen by the people you contact: this is the very first step in prospecting and surely the most crucial one.
This is obvious, and yet it is not that simple to set up!
To turn your prospects into customers, you have to attract their attention in the right place and at the right time by multiplying the touchpoints.
The most common prospecting tools: LinkedIn and Cold Email
LinkedIn is the best and most up-to-date B2B database.
That's why more and more tools that are not expensive allow to extract its data or to automate actions such as the connection request:
These easy-to-use solutions allow you to make automated connection requests to expand your network and to send more or less personalized messages.
Having a large network on LinkedIn is great! But it's just a Vanity Metrics.
In most cases, transformation rates are extremely low.
LinkedIn users noticed it: for the last few months, the number of connection requests has exploded with impersonal, robotic, contextless messages... 😵 in short: not relevant at all, and above all less and less "appreciated".
It is often recommended to send a Cold Email to follow up with the prospect, once he has accepted the connection request and read the message.
The art of mastering touchpoints
Touchpoints are the different contact points through which you interact with your prospects.
Multiplying the touchpoints allows you to get the attention of a prospect. But it is also important to use these touchpoints at the right time and in great order!
🔎 Let's put ourselves in the prospect's shoes:
He receives a LinkedIn invitation from a totally unknown person 🤷♀️.
As the note linked to the invitation can only contain 300 characters, he receives a very vague message, out of context, which therefore does not prompt any response.
Unlikely he'll remember this unknown person when, later, he receives a Cold Email from him...
Following the LinkedIn invitation, the prospect receives an email presenting a product/solution. He would like to ask questions, but he already imagines lots of email exchanges, endless response times... Moreover, he doesn't want to be committed!
😐 Result: the response rate obtained with this type of approach is less than 20-25% in most cases. Half of these responses are negative, or it is not yet the right time for the prospect.
A lot of effort for little results!
Let's be more subtle... 😎
A much more efficient prospecting technique
If you get so few responses from your prospects, it's not that your topic, message, or subject is not interesting.
Replying to a sales representative by email is highly engaging. The people who will respond to your Cold Email will be those who are close to buying your product/solution and are advanced in the conversion funnel.
In short, inviting a prospect on LinkedIn and then sending him a Cold Email is too cumbersome.
👉 Instead of sending a cold LinkedIn invitation that gets lost among so many others, your contact should be made in the context.
In that order, you'll see that the transformation rates will be much better:
1. Start with the Cold Email 📧
Solutions are available to automate and schedule the sending of Cold Email campaigns:
You can add custom fields. Insert as many as possible: contact name, position, company name... Your prospect must feel that this email has been handwritten!
2. Test your Cold Email sequence 🧪
Test the efficiency of your email until you get a minimum opening rate of 60 to 70%. With a good configuration of the domain name and an appropriate email subject, you will succeed!
3. Send a LinkedIn connection request once the email is open, send a LinkedIn invitation within half an hour 👤
Cold Email solutions offer the possibility to track the opening of the email.
👉 You know when your prospect has read your email!
Action-Reaction: send him a LinkedIn invitation within 15-30 minutes. Obviously, we're not going to do this by hand (you're getting to know us 😜)!
You can connect applications to each other to trigger the sending of a LinkedIn invitation at the opening of the email: either in native integration or with Zapier or Make.
💡 For example, if you have Pipedrive, you can integrate the lemlist to tag the opening of the email directly on the contact form, then send these contacts to a Google Sheets to send an invitation with Phantombuster. This workflow will be explained in detail in a future tutorial 😉.
4. Associate a note to boost your prospecting 🖊️
Attach a note to your LinkedIn invitation like: "I just sent you an email . As a reminder, we do that. Please feel free to ask me your questions directly here".
Start the conversation!
Once your prospect has accepted your invitation, the chat window opens automatically. He or she will see your message and will be prompted to reply.
He just read your email, knows you, so the invitation comes at the right time.
🔘 The trigger: if your prospect has a question to ask, it will go through the LinkedIn chat and not by email. He will use it as a support chat that allows him to ask his questions as they come to him.
Indeed, a LinkedIn chat is much less engaging than an email, which gives a more official side. The contact will be more spontaneous, more direct, more comfortable: it's like a conversation!
There you go! You create a relationship 😉
Immediate effect: you will see that the conversion rate of your LinkedIn invitations will be much better.
Now all you have to do is test it! 🏁
