How to Tap Into the 80% of B2B Purchases that Are Unplanned and Unbudgeted

Are you still waiting around for all your leads to find you? If so, you may be making a grave mistake. Because most purchases aren’t planned. Your best leads aren’t necessarily going to find you. And without a fully equipped outbound prospecting team, you could be leaving thousands of dollars in potential revenue on the table.

These outbound prospecting tips will help you “tap” your best leads

Not convinced yet? Here’s an alarming stat that you may not have seen: during a webinar I recently helped organize, one of our awesome panelists, Craig Elias, presented data from a Demand Gen report revealing that a whopping 80% of purchases are unbudgeted and unplanned. Put another way, if you stick to inbound alone, you might be losing out on up to 80% of your potential revenue.

So is simply hiring a team of outbound sales reps going to deliver 80% more revenue? If only it were that simple. The truth is that outbound prospecting is wildly lucrative when it’s done right. But without the right leadership, planning and set of tools, your prospectors are more than likely to come up empty handed.

Here are a few ways to start winning up to 80% more deals by reaching sales-ready prospects before they find you (and your competitors).

Write Better Sales Emails

One of the best ways to improve your prospecting efforts is to start writing more effective sales emails. According to TOPO’s Sales Development Technology Report, only 23.9% of sales emails are even opened. So the first step on the path to being a sales email black belt is mastering the headline. The most successful headlines often convince prospects that there is a treasure trove of value unwaiting to be uncovered within the email. I’ll open emails that can potentially make my life better or easier. Another way to improve email open rates is to take a personalized approach. Mention a prospect’s company by name or call out a blog post or article they wrote.

Dial from Local Numbers

Unfortunately, it’s getting harder and harder to get prospects to actually answer their phones. The same TOPO report reveals that it takes reps an average of 18 dials to connect with a prospect. The reason for this is because of Caller ID. I don’t know about you, but when I see my phone light up with a toll-free number I send it straight to voicemail. By dialing leads from local numbers, sales reps can dramatically increase the odds that prospects will answer the call. Research shows that dialing leads from local numbers can lift call connection rates by up to 400%. And our customers have told me that more connections directly correlates with more opportunities and revenue. Our Local Presence tool lets your reps dial leads from local numbers automatically. Turning Local Presence on is as simple as one click.

Leave Voicemails that Prospects Want to Return

Even with Local Presence, calls are going to go to voicemail. The problem is that many sales reps just aren’t good at leaving voicemails. I often get sales voicemails where reps stumble over words, talk for too long, try to sell their product over voicemail or spend time talking about how great their product is, rather than how it will help me—one of my personal pet peeves. Here are a  a some tips on how to leave a voicemail that reps will actually respond to:

1. Keep voicemails to around 30 seconds
2. Clearly state your name and company
3. Leave your callback number twice
4. Mention a mutual connection (if one exists)
5. Use Revenue.io’s Voicemail Drop to leave perfectly recorded voicemails every time.
6. The best times to leave voicemails are Wed-Thus 6:45-9:00am or 4:00-6:00pm

For tips on how to overcome some more emerging challenges that sales leaders are facing, check out our guide What’s Keeping Sales Leaders Up at Night.