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Let’s dive in! What’s on the agenda?

• Tips from the top

• 4 Phrases to Avoid

• “can you put this in an email?”

• Low connection rate? Try Phone Oracle!

• More ways to get ahead of objections

• Creative Tactic of the week

Tips from the top

This week’s tip from the top comes in the form of a LinkedIn post from Will Allred, COO of Lavender. Be sure to check out the graphs in his post and engage with his content to support him!

“The "AI SDR Effect"

We've hit a tipping point. Lavender just measured the strongest & fastest shift in cold email best practice data we've ever recorded.

Turns out... robots sound robotic. Buyer's have picked up on it. Now they're ignoring anything that sounds formal.

They're rewarding the stuff that sounds "human".

Dumb pipes don't know how to optimize, so I don't expect this to change anytime soon.

That said... when it does... I expect a new equally strong shift.

Takeaways?

1) Write like you talk. Then edit. (Lavender can help)

I posted some tips this morning to make that advice a little more concrete.

2) Expect more rapid shifts in the age of AI.

Your buyer's mental spam filter will not be defeated by ChatGPT wrappers.

PS. These graphs are built on best case scenario models (hence the high reply rates) to minimize other factors' creating noise in the signal.

4 Phrases to Avoid in Your Outreach

It's no secret that the phrases you use in your cold outreach can make a significant impact on your performance. Check out these 4 phrases to avoid in your cold outreach.

1. "I'd love to show you..."

Don't talk about what you would like to do. Instead, focus on the prospect and the problems that you can solve for them.

Replace with: "Would you be opposed to taking a few minutes to see how we solve XYZ..."

2. "I haven't heard from you"

This phrase reminds prospects that your previous message wasn’t important enough to respond to. They are fully aware that they haven't gotten back to you. Instead, skip this phrase entirely and give them a compelling reason to get back to you.

Replace with: Nothing. Just skip the phrase altogether and tell them why you are reaching out.

3. "sorry for bothering you"

If you are calling or emailing a prospect with a very specific reason, there is no reason to be sorry. Be confident with your outreach and make sure that confidence is perceived on the other end.

Replace with: "The reason I'm reaching out is..."

4. “Let's set up a call so I can learn more about your business and share how we can help”

Execs are busy. They don't want to sit down on a call to tell you about their business. What's in it for them? You need to come prepared about why exactly you are reaching out to them specifically, and why they should meet with you.

Replace with: "I noticed (insert something specific about their business) . Oftentimes when this happens, people experience XYZ. Would you be opposed to seeing how we helped a similar company solve that exact problem?"

“Can you put this in an email for me?

When you cold call, it's likely that you'll hear this objection quite a bit.

But keep in mind that context matters in this objection - what part of the cold call did this come up? Early in the call or later in the call?

Depending on when it comes up in the cold call, your response may change. Check out this 3-minute video to see how Jason Bay and Ryan Reisert would handle this type of situation

In partnership with: Phone Oracle

Other ways to address the objection before getting an objection

Last week we shared a way to get ahead of an objection to prevent it proactively. We wanted to expand on this with a few more ways you can do this. Again, the idea is that if you bring up the objection first - it's not as likely the prospect will use it to get out of the call.

- "I imagine that you're on your way to a meeting right now, so I'll keep it brief"

- "I'm sure you have an existing process to address this, but the reason I'm reaching out is XYZ"

Pro tip: Make it more specific

You can even make this more product-specific. Give the value prop + "even if" + expected objection.

"We're helping other advertising managers make their paid ads less costly even if they are already doing XYZ"

Creative Tactic of the Week

Using the search bar on LinkedIn is underrated for prospecting. Here are 3 examples of how you can use it:

1. Finding people posting about your keywords.

Example: Let's say you want to target people using Clay. Type in "Clay" into the search bar. Filter by posts. Then sort by latest. You now have a list of people who have made posts regarding Clay.

2. Find people attending events

Example: Let's say you want to target users of Hubspot for a campaign. Type in "hubspot" to the search bar. Filter by events. You now have a list of events centered around hubspot. Pro tip: If you click "attend" on these events, you can see the full attendee list.

3. Find job posts

Example: Let's say you want to find people hiring for SDRs. Type "hiring SDRs" OR "hiring BDRs" into the search bar. Filter by posts. Sort by latest. You now have a list of posts from people posting about hiring SDRs. Job posts are a great source for prospecting information.

Pro tip: You can use AND and OR with these to target multiple expressions or keywords

Resources from Our Partners

• PitchFolio: Looking for a new sales job? Stand out to hiring managers by building a brag book with PitchFolio. Showcase your cold emails, mock cold calls, + other sales skills to land more interviews!

• RepVue: Worried you might be underpaid? Check out RepVue (it's free!). RepVue has tons of data on base salaries, OTE, quota attainment, product/market fit, and so much more. 

• Skylar: Want to practice your cold calls? Try cold calling the Skylar AI bot (it's free)!  Think you can book a meeting with the bot? Try it out!