In this post, I would like to talk about one of the dozens of creative outreach strategies that our SDRs here at Reply use to book more meetings.
BTW, I've already shared the full list of those strategies earlier
Yet, there were no details on how to implement them.
So today, let me walk you through our outbound referral sequence to book more meetings.
In a nutshell, this type of sequence aims at connecting with entry-level employees to identify the decision-makers are get some extra info on what services/software they currently reply on. Using this information, the SDRs can create more relevant and personalized emails to reach decision-makers directly.
And here is a step-by-step workflow our SDRs follow to successfully run this playbook:
We find the relevant junior and entry-level employees from companies we want to target (in our case, those are SDRs, BDRs, AEs, recruiters, marketers, etc.)
We add them to a non-personalized referral sequence asking about an appropriate person to contact and the company's tech stack.
The prospects usually reply back and put us in the right direction.
We add the provided decision-maker contact to our "referred" outreach sequence.
So let's decode these steps in more detail.
1. Find Relevant Non-Decision-Makers
The easiest way to do so is through LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Just use the following filters to refine your search results:
Seniority Level > Entry
Function > choose relevant departments you are selling to
We might also lookup their potential manager's Full Name to add that as a custom variable called {{Colleague Name}} at this stage.
Typically, there will be dozens of contacts that match your criteria. So our SDRs add 5-10 contacts (based on the company size and their company's org complexity).
2. Add Them to a Referral Sequence
Once we've found relevant contacts, we add them to a simple automated sequence. All our CTAs are focused on getting the info about an appropriate decision-maker or a person who might be interested in changing or implementing new software.
Here is the first-step email template we typically use:
After that, we send 4 more email follow-ups within 15-21 business days. Feel free to grab the templates below 👇
With this sequence, our SDRs get around 10-30% reply rate:
With this kind of response, you can use an opportunity to get more info about their current tech stack or internal processes and use this info in your "referred to" sequence to make it more relevant when approaching a decision-maker.
3. Add a Decision Maker to the "Referred to" Sequence
As the next step, we add the decision-maker to the dedicated sequence: we call it a "Referred to" sequence.
Here is the initial email we send when reaching out to them:
This sequence also has 2 more additional email follow-ups. You can also experiment with cold calls and LinkedIn steps to improve your response rates.
⚡️ Templates
Here is a pdf that contains email templates for these 2 sequences 👇
Hope you've enjoyed decoding this playbook with me! Make sure to give it a try and stay tuned for more 😉
And most responses will look like this: