After more than enough tactics of batch-and-blast marketing and reactive sales strategies, it’s time to focus on a growth metric that really works: connection rate.
Your outbound prospecting rates assess the effectiveness of your customer acquisition process, i.e., the rate of attempts made to “connect” with your intended target. This metric focuses on the biggest bottleneck in the sales process – capacity.
When your connection rate is too low, it means time is wasted. And when time is wasted, your sales process slows down, which leads to fewer opportunities and less revenue.
In the end, solve for maximizing connection rate, and you’ll find that your entire outbound sales process improves.
So, how do you do it? How can you improve your outbound sales connect rate?
Below are some simple habits you can adopt to make sure you’re connecting with as many prospects as possible.
1. Keep Your Lists Clean and Up-to-Date
Prospect list hygiene is like maintaining a garden. You need to do the work upfront to ensure a bountiful harvest later on.
Your lists may be full of bad data for a number of reasons – people change jobs, companies go out of business, etc. Make sure you:
– find and correct bad data,
– remove duplicate leads, and
– invalidate unresponsive contacts
An automated sales process can save you time and help keep your lists clean, so you can focus on selling, not data entry.
2. Make Sure You Have the Right Message
Your connection rate will only be as good as your message. You must ensure that what you say is interesting and relevant to your prospect.
Your message should be clear, concise, and value-oriented. It should focus on the prospect, not on you or your company.
The best way to send a great outreach message is to put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. What would you want to hear if you were in their position?
Think about,
- “What’s in it for them?” (WIIFM)
- “What problem are you solving for them?”
- “What’s the value you’re bringing to the table?”
Your message should be able to answer these questions quickly and effectively.
3. Use the Right Tools
You must use the right inbound and outbound sales tools to connect with as many prospects as possible. Automated sales dialer and voicemail drop services are two of the most important tools you can use to improve your connection rate.
a) An automated sales dialer will help you make more calls in less time.
Kixie’s PowerDialer is an excellent example of a sales dialer that can automate repetitive tasks like dialing numbers, leaving voicemails, and sending follow-up emails.
This multi-line power dialer can make up to 10x calls more than a manual sales process and can help you reach up to 300% more prospects. Other features like click-to-call, voicemail automation, automatic call logging, and one-click call dispositions make it easy to manage your sales process from start to finish.
b) Voicemail drop software allows you to leave a pre-recorded voicemail message without losing an opportunity.
A good voicemail drop service will have a wide range of features that can help you personalize your message, track your effectiveness, and improve your connection rate.
Building relationships with prospects is key to winning their business. By leaving a personalized voicemail message, you’ll be able to start building those relationships even if you don’t connect with them right away.
See how the inside sales team at Fischer Homes saved 2 hours per agent per day by relying on sales automation software.
4. Follow up, Follow up, Follow up
According to The Bridge Group, the average sales rep gives up after 2.3 attempts to reach a decision maker.
Try to follow up with your prospects multiple times before giving up. The general rule of thumb is to make at least five attempts to reach a prospect. In addition, following up allows you to qualify your leads further. The more you interact with a prospect, the more you’ll be able to learn about their needs and pain points.
You’re more likely to succeed when you have an automated system in place.
5. Connect With the Right People
It’s not enough to just connect with as many people as possible – you need to connect with the right people.
Make sure you’re targeting your marketing and sales efforts toward the right audience. The more relevant your message is to your target market, the higher your connection rate will be.
To find the right people to target, start by creating buyer personas. This will help you identify the characteristics of your ideal customer.
Once you understand your target market, you can start creating targeted sales campaigns and improve your connection rate.
6. Create a Cadence
Don’t limit yourself to one channel. Purposefully integrate multiple modes of communication into your outreach.
In many cases, leaving a voicemail on the first touch might not be appropriate. In that case, start with an email and then follow up with a voicemail a few days later.
The thing is to have a plan and stick to it. By creating a sales cadence, you’ll be able to track your efforts and see what’s working and what’s not.
7. Be Persistent
The final tip for improving your sales connect rate is to be persistent.
Sales is a numbers game – the more people you talk to, the more likely you will find someone interested in what you have to say.
Don’t give up even if you’re not getting the results you want right away. Using a voicemail drop service will help you leave messages that are more likely to get returned, but ultimately it’s up to you to continue following up and trying new things.
The more persistent you are, the higher your connection rate will be.
8. Bonus Tip: Test and Measure
The only way to know for sure what’s working and what’s not is to test and measure.
Try different approaches and see what works best for your business. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, so experiment and find what works best for you.
If you’re looking for a sales dialer to help you improve your outbound connection rate, try Kixie. With our PowerDialer, you can make up to 10x more calls than a manual process. Plus, our voicemail drop feature makes it easy to leave personalized messages that will help you build relationships with your prospects.
To learn more about how Kixie can help you improve your sales connection rate, request a demo today.
