How to start an Outbound Strategy from scratch

I increased our percentage of Outbound Opportunities from 5% to 40%. How did I do it?

Step 1: Explore

Before I asked any BDR to go after an Outbound account, I did it myself. I picked a state. I gathered accounts, potential leads, and their contact info. I wrote my own sequence, using tips I’d gathered from Becc Holland, Josh Braun, and 💜 Will Allred. And then I prospected. I made a lot of mistakes along the way and learned about what resonated with our potential customers. I diagnosed that in our industry, we sell to people who actually answer the phone. I discovered the best way to book a meeting was to build their trust. I had to learn the best questions to ask to sound like an insider. I had to prep the right rebuttals to comfort common objections. And bullshit-proof my pitch (that was the hardest part!).

Step 2: Enable

Once I started seeing success, it was time to scale. I wrote out all the steps I wanted others to take on a slide deck and taught everyone how to do it exactly the way I did it. I gave them Loom videos on how to prospect the leads. I used Salesloft to create pre-made Cadences. And worked with my Summer Intern, Ishika Chandel, to write a cold call script for everyone to try in Notion. Within 2 weeks of learning my method, meetings were being booked!

Step 3: Empower

Once the team learned how to prospect my way, I encouraged them do it their way. We need a diversity of sales styles because our customers are diverse. Different people will respond to different approaches. One team member leaned into the “I know everyone hates a cold call” disclaimer. Another has been way more successful than I ever was in her email outreach. By encouraging creativity, every individual optimized for their own success. By the end of Q4, most of my new reps had hit their ramp goal. And they were happy doing it because they had agency over their work.

It wasn’t rocket science. Just DIY paper airplane, fueled by some elbow grease. ☺️