Over the past few years, I’ve been able to create several different business-to-business (B2B) products and services that have become popular. My last company, LiveVoice, sold a service to small businesses called 60-second lead response that real estate agents, plumbers, lawyers and doctors utilized. Currently, my new company, Order Solutions, provides outsourced phone-order-taking — to-go, delivery, catering — for large restaurant chains.
The way we’ve been able to land clients is through automated cold emailing and LinkedIn marketing. The only reasons these methods have been so effective is that 1) we have an offer that our niche wants and 2) we craft messaging that sells. So, let’s break down how to craft messaging that gets executives’ attention and generates high-value meetings, fast.
1. Find a relevant reason to contact.
Most salespeople use the “spray and pray” approach, which I find completely useless. Executives will just click the unsubscribe button and get annoyed with your outreach. If you can come up with a reason to contact that is relevant and actually adds value, then you’re ahead of most other salespeople and competitors.
One reason to contact is based on an executive’s priorities, goals, trends and challenges in their particular industry. For example, CEOs in the quick-service restaurant industry care about different things than CFOs in the software industry.
Another reason to contact is based on a special situation. A special situation is something going on in a particular company that you can add value to. It could be that the company is hiring a specific role, raising capital, opening a new office or running ads on a particular channel. Every company is different, and there’s usually a special situation that you can identify. For example, if you run a search engine optimization (SEO) firm and you see that a prospect is running Google Ads, that could be a great “special situation” or reason to contact.
2. Position your solution to add value to that reason to contact.
What you want to do is explain how your solution can add value to that special situation or executive goal. So, when I’m reaching out to restaurant executives, I might explain how we can help them save money on labor costs or increase their average order size.
3. Come up with a future results statement or one-liner case study.
After you’ve identified your relevant reason to contact and explained to the prospect how you can help them, the next step is to explain the results you’re getting for clients like them. So, a one-liner case study is a one or two-sentence statement that explains who you’re currently working with and the results you’re getting for them. For example, I could say, “We’ve helped [company name] and [company name] save 30-50% on labor costs while improving their guest experience.”
Now, if you’re expanding into a new niche or you don’t have any clients that are like the one you’re contacting, I like to use what I call a future results statement. This is similar to a one-liner case study, except you’re selling the potential results that you could get for them. So for example, you could say, “I believe my company could help you lower your cost per acquisition by 10-25%.” The future results statement and one-liner case study are going to be your secret sauce to your messaging.
4. Have an open-ended call to action.
Executives are busy people, and you really don’t want to make them think a whole lot. The key is to market to the C-level or VP-level and ask for a referral to the best person you can speak with. Then, all they have to give you is a name, and you can send that person a message explaining that their boss suggested that you reach out to them. I find that this will land you a meeting nine out of 10 times. You can also ask directly for their time with something like, “When would be a good time for an exploratory call?”
5. Automate your outreach.
A few years ago, I got frustrated because I realized that it takes a long time to write personalized messages, and you need enough volume of messages going out to build a pipeline. Then, I discovered that if I find a commonality and group together my leads who are going through a certain special situation or have a similar goal, I can basically say the same thing to all of them.
This will allow you to automate your outreach through cold emailing and LinkedIn. It will give you the power of a 250-person salesforce with one rep, and save you on labor costs.
6. You need to find message-market fit.
If you continue to follow this process and test targeting or positioning your company as a specialist in a particular vertical, you will find what I call message-market fit. Then, double down your targeting on this industry, and create marketing materials that position you as a specialist in this niche — case studies, Google Ad copy, blog posts, website content. You can eventually become a market leader with your own blue ocean niche.