BDR Appreciation Week 2024 Recap

Thanks to everyone at 6sense who contributed. I know we found a ton of value in the webinars and content. For anyone who wasn't able to join, I thought I'd circulate my top takeaways from the webinars. I was able to attend 3 of the 4 webinars (was off on Friday so couldn't join the social selling webinar) but here were my top takeaways from the cold calling, email, and multi-threading webinars:

Q&A: 6sense + Cold Calls -  Webinar | BDR Appreciation Week | Key Takeaways:

• A/B Test Talking Points & Openers for Calls — Create a working document of key talking points and openers/ice breakers for calls. As you use different talking points/openers, keep track of what seems to open up conversations versus what doesn't seem to move the conversation forward in a productive manner.
  • Take this a step further by creating persona (a lead/contact's function and title-level within an org) specific talking points/openers/questions.
• Mirror a Prospect's Tone/Cadence — Just like mirroring a person's body language when meeting in person and be an immediate way to subconsciously establish commonality/rapport. People are psychologically wired to like others who are like themselves. Obviously this is best with prospects who seem open, rather than closed off and combative. For those prospects who are dispositioned more negatively, my recommendation is to kill them with kindness (figuratively of course)! Verbally convey excitement and positivity and this will eventually help tear down a prospect's negative disposition to conversing.
• Research and Activate 6sense Insights Prior to Picking up the Phone — Incorporate 6sense insights into your regular pre-outreach process. Using the insights effectively requires using what you see in 6sense to shift your approach before you even pick-up the phone. Doing this on the fly will detract from call quality more often than add to it.
• Position Yourself as a Consultant, Rather Than as a Salesperson — What I mean by this is establish yourself as a resource that your prospects can go to for further discovery, questions, and insights. Rather than focusing on how to get them into a meeting as quick as possible, focus on them and the problem(s) they are solving for. Ask how you can help, proactively provide helpful content/articles, connect with them regularly regardless if they are actively in the market right now. These activities will result in your desired end result and will make prospects actually want to pick-up the phone or answer your email when you reach out.
• Know the Difference Between a Rejection and an Objection — Is it a permanent "no" or just a "no, not right now"? Don't be afraid to ask questions around their rejection/objection. Be curious and ask them "why". This could yield valuable insight than can lead to an opportunity later — it could even lead to an opportunity now. Maybe the prospect's "no" was because they thought our solution was more expensive than it is, or maybe they didn't have a clear understanding of a solution's capabilities. You'll never know if you settle for their rejection/objection.
• Voicemail is a Free Elevator Pitch — Use it wisely. Be concise and informative but don't be afraid to inject some humor/fun/a personal connection. The idea is to garner enough of a response from them to call back or pick-up your next call.
• Be Open and Honest with Gatekeepers — If you deal with gatekeepers, be open and honest about who you want to talk to, clear and concise in what you want to talk to them about, and how much of their time you need (ideally less than 15 minutes).

Q&A: 6sense + Email Outreach -  Webinar | BDR Appreciation Week | Key Takeaways:

• Be Clear and Specific With Your CTA (Call-to-Action) — Ensure your CTA is crystal clear. There should be no question in your prospect's mind what you are ultimately asking them to do. Rather than asking them "Are you available to meet?" ask them "Are you available to meet on Friday at 10AM CT?". Rather than asking them to "review our 2 minute demo", instead ask them to "watch our 2 minute demo today and let me know if you see value". If you make it easy for them to do what you want, they are much more likely to follow-through.
• Vary Your Outreach Channels And Meet Prospects Where They Are — Especially prior to getting a first response, try to connect via multiple channels to meet prospects in the channels they prefer. Once you establish contact, define what is the best way to reconnect with them in a way that isn't disruptive of their day-to-day.
• Keep Your Pitch Simple and Focused on Value Production — You should be able to articulate your pitch on who we are, what we do, and why we are the best at what we do in 2-3 sentences. Avoid technical terms or industry jargon and focus on the results the solution drives. A Good Example for Perfecto:
• "Perfecto is an enterprise web and mobile application testing platform that allows organizations to quickly and efficiently deliver five-star app experiences to their market, saving the organization time and money while allowing them to deliver world-class application experiences to their customers."
• Vary Your Approach and Document What Works — Keeping your approach diversified will allow you to find multiple outreach methods and strategies that work. Take time weekly to step back, look at successes, and identify themes or commonality between them. Keep a running document on tactics that work and continue to optimize and refine to maximize successes and conversions.
  
  Q&A: 6sense Multi-Threading Webinar | BDR Appreciation Week | Key Takeaways:
  
• Multi-Threading Should be Broadest While Prospecting and Narrow Once the Account is in the Pipeline — As you are still attempting to garner initial account response, you should have the broadest scope of contacts you are trying to engage with. Once an account is engaged, narrow the scope of your multi-threading to known members of the buying committee.
• Personalization is Key with Multi-Threading — Multi-Threading is most effective when you are tailoring your outreach based on the different personas (function and title level) you are engaging with. Focus on speaking to the value your solution/service/product provides specific to the things that each persona cares most about.
• Tread Lightly and Be Transparent with Multi-Threading — Multi-Threading can be a fantastic way to gain multiple champions within the buying team but if done carelessly, and without transparency, it can act against you. Once you have contacts engaged, be transparent about your intent to keep all members of their buying committee informed. Ask your contact what they best way to do this is — be OK with allowing them to triage messages or to withhold looping other members of the committee until initial discovery is further along. When in doubt, be transparent about your outreach to other members of their org/buying committee and your intent to bring everyone along in the process. Respect your prospects' preferences around communication and their internal buying processes.
• Leverage Your Prospects To Multi-Thread For You — Enable your engaged prospects to multi-thread and distribute resources on your behalf, where possible. Empower them with educational resources and let them be an internal champion for your solution. This can save you time and effort while still allowing you to indirectly influence multiple members of the buying committee.
• 5-10 Contacts per Account is Best Practice for Prospect Multi-Threading — 5 - 10 contacts will allow you numerous opportunities to reach the right personas at an account and will not stem into the realm of being spammy. Be sure to apply persona-level personalization for each contact and be transparent about your outreach to other members of their organization in attempt to find the right people to talk to.