Prospecting Tips for Sales Development Reps

Your prospect Googled you before the call. The least you could do is return the favor. Yet so many reps still show up and open with: "So, tell me about your company…" "What do you do?" "Who are your competitors?" ⌛ Your prospect's time is precious. And you only get one first impression. Every basic question you ask that could've been answered with 10 minutes of prep silently tells your buyer: "I didn't care enough to prepare for this." I promise… buyers remember this sort of thing. Show up well and you'll be rewarded. Not just with deals, but with trust, referrals, and a reputation that opens doors. Differentiate not only your solution, but yourself as a seller and advisor. ––– Here's 5 ways to take your pre-call research to the next level: 1. Find out what leadership is betting on right now. For public companies, skim the latest earnings call or annual report. For private companies, look at recent press releases, funding announcements, or interviews with their executives. Don't just know what the company does, know what they're prioritizing RIGHT NOW. 2. Check their job postings. With a particular eye for roles that matter for your product or service. Open roles reveal where the company is investing and what problems they're trying to solve. A wave of data engineering hires tells you more than their About page ever will. 3. Study your champion's digital footprint. What have they posted, commented on, or shared on LinkedIn recently? What podcast were they on? What blogs have they written? Be sure to connect the dots between what matters to them and what you’re slinging. 4. Map the buying committee before the first call. Use LinkedIn and org charts to understand who else will likely be involved in the decision. Walk in knowing the landscape, not just the person in front of you. 5. Know the competitive landscape. Get a sense of the players in their space and the headline differences between them. See if any are already customers of yours and keep that in your back pocket. ––– The bar is on the floor. A little homework goes a long way. Show your buyers you respect their time, and they'll give you more of it.

Tens of thousands of cold calls taught me this… Most reps are doing it completely wrong. They make 2-3 calls between Slack messages. Check email. Do some research. Make a few more calls. Wonder why their calendar stays empty. Meanwhile, top performers follow specific systems that consistently fill their pipelines. After years of testing what works (and what doesn't), here are the fundamentals that separate successful cold callers from everyone else: 1️⃣Time blocking beats scattered calling every time. Shut down Slack, close email, put your phone on do not disturb. One hour of focused calling outperforms eight hours of distracted attempts. 2️⃣Setup determines success. Clean desk the night before. Browser tabs closed except your CRM. Contact list ready to go. Remove every possible friction point so you can start calling immediately. 3️⃣Energy management isn't optional. Proper sleep and clean eating directly impact call performance. Hard to believe until you try calling after a night of poor sleep versus eight hours of quality rest. 4️⃣Warm up like an athlete. Run through your first 5-10 calls out loud before dialing. Practice handling objections. Get your brain and voice ready before real prospects answer. 5️⃣Frameworks beat winging it. You don't need to sound robotic, but you need structure. Permission, problem, cost of inaction. Simple formula that works consistently. 6️⃣Write it down and make it visible. Brain fog hits everyone mid-call. Having your framework printed in large font saves you from fumbling when prospects ask unexpected questions. 7️⃣Prepare for predictable objections. Same 4-8 objections come up 95% of the time. Uncover, overcome, ask. Have responses ready instead of stammering through them. 8️⃣Record everything and listen back. Elite athletes watch game film. Sales reps should listen to call recordings. Your tonality, word choice, and objection handling become obvious when you hear yourself. 9️⃣Call when others don't. Friday afternoons worked best for me. Fewer competing calls, backup receptionists, tired decision makers with weekend plans. Blue ocean strategy applied to cold calling. 🔟Consistency trumps intensity. One focused hour daily beats sporadic marathon sessions. Pipeline problems show up weeks later when prospecting stops today. The difference between struggling reps and quota crushers isn't talent. It's system execution. Most reps treat cold calling like a necessary evil. Top performers treat it like a craft worth mastering. — Sales reps! Check out more secrets to master cold calls: https://lnkd.in/g7MBsEcR Sales Leaders! Want to install winning systems into your teams? Go here: https://lnkd.in/ghh8VCaf

Sales folks, take note! Spamming a target company's employees with your services and requests for meetings will result in your company making its way onto a buyer's blocklist. As a buyer in the localization industry, I receive dozens of emails and LinkedIn requests every single day from vendors looking to showcase translation, AI, QA services, and more. It's not humanly possible to give personal replies to every outreach. When vendors can't get through to me, they often reach out to everyone on my team... and sometimes to many others across my company. I'd love for this practice to stop. It wastes valuable company time and makes a vendor appear desperate and non-strategic. Here's what to do instead: 1. Appeal to ego! Invite a target company’s decision-maker to a panel, or start a vlog series and ask buyers to appear and discuss industry topics. It’s also a great opportunity to reposition your company as a thought leader. 2. Offer genuine insight, not just services. Share a case study, white paper, or benchmarking data that’s actually useful to the buyer’s role, and do it without a sales pitch. 3. Build a reputation before you build a pipeline. Comment thoughtfully on posts. Contribute to community conversations. If you consistently show up with value, you’re far more likely to get noticed. 4. Target smarter, not broader. Don’t shotgun your message to an entire company. Learn the org. Understand the buyer’s scope. Then send one well-researched, personalized note that shows you actually did your homework. 5. Focus on mutual value. Can you help solve a known pain point or offer perspective on something changing in the market? Frame your outreach around collaboration, not consumption. 6. Use timing to your advantage. Keep tabs on when companies are hiring for roles associated with your offerings, launching in new markets, or attending conferences. That’s when buyers are more receptive to new solutions. 7. Lead with generosity. Offer a no-strings-attached resource, intro, or suggestion that doesn’t benefit you directly. Reciprocity is a powerful trust builder. And please! Don't ever ever call me on the phone! ;)

I’ve done 350+ discovery calls in the past 3 years and closed 7+ figures in contract value. I always structure my 1st call in the same 5-step format: Great sales is nothing more than a structured approach to help prospects make a decision. It shows them that I’m understanding and have their best interest at heart. I consider sales to be part of the service. It’s consulting. Here's how my discovery calls look: 𝟭. 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 I want to find out as much as possible about them. My goal is to understand their journey & personality, and also make them feel heard & understood off the bat. They talk, I shut up. If they jump straight into business, I gently steer them back. ___ 𝟮. 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘇𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝘁 Next, I dive into their business model, bottlenecks, and top goals: • Who’s your ICP? • What do you offer? • What’s your marketing status quo? • etc. I figure out if a collaboration makes sense and whether they need our help or something else entirely—like coaching, a new tool, a different vendor, or just advice on improving their current setup. ___ 𝟯. 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝘆𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 I recap what they’ve shared and then introduce myself. Here, I try to mirror how they shared their story: • what topics did they focus on? • how far back did they go? • what did they highlight? At the same time, I look for similarities between us to create relatability. Then at the end, I explain what I do on a high level. ___ 𝟰. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲𝘀 & 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗕𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗥𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 From there, I introduce the 3 key theses they need to believe for us to work together. • Thesis 1: The decisions we make are influenced by the people we trust and the content we consume. • Thesis 2: Content helps build relationships & trust at scale. • Thesis 3: Content is an infinite game If they're not aligned with this thesis, it usually indicates we're not a fit. At the same time, I also discuss the rough budget range to make sure we're on the same page about expectations early on. ___ 5. 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 If it feels like a fit, I lock in a follow-up call right then. I never leave this for later—it just adds uncertainty and hassle. If it’s not a fit, I still try to offer value—maybe I send some free resources or give advice. ___ 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗜 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄: • I call out any elephants in the room. • I recap what they say to confirm my understanding and give them a chance to add details. • This also helps me process what they’ve shared. • I always leave room for their questions. • Their needs are #1 priority. #b2bsales #founderledsales #consultativesales

Most sellers do referral prospecting backwards. Smart referral prospecting is NOT asking your warm network "Is there anyone in your network who might find value in taking a look at our Legal Time Tracking software?" You're almost always going to hear "Hm, nobody immediately comes to mind, but let me think about it." (They're not gonna think about it) Asking someone to scan through their entire mental rolodex of every single person they know isn't going to get you good referrals. You're asking for too much of the referrer.  -- Here's how I do outbound referral prospecting: 1. Start with the end in mind. Identify the prospect you want to talk to. (If you don't start with the end in mind, you're going to get a bunch of random non-ICP or out of territory intros, if you get any at all) - 2. Find mutual connections who actually know your target prospect. I like mutuals who have shared work history (you can find this in Sales Nav). If that fails, I'll look for shared membership in trade association groups or folks who have spoken on a panel/event together. - 3. Ask your shared contact for permission to make the introduction. Here's what I send: 𝘕𝘈𝘔𝘌, 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩? 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 30 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵'𝘴 𝘊𝘭𝘶𝘣 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘕𝘈𝘔𝘌 𝘢𝘵 𝘈𝘊𝘔𝘌. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵, 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘵 𝘢 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯? - 4. If your referrer says yes, ghostwrite them a message in THEIR voice. This helps remove as much friction as possible for the person who is making the introduction. Don't worry about including pleasantries in the message you draft (Ex. "Hope you have been well since our days working together at ACME!). I've found that most people delete the pleasantries you write on their behalf so it's not a good use of your time. - 5. If someone makes a referral for you, send them a thank you note + a gift. Seems obvious but this goes a long way. - 6. If you start to find success with outbound referral prospecting, consider adding an "outbound referral blitz" to your weekly prospecting cadence. -- Anything else you'd add re: prospecting for referrals?

The prospecting system that books 20-30 meetings/month 👇 Most reps wake up hoping for meetings The best reps wake up knowing they’ll get meetings Why? Because they work a system If you want at least one meeting a day or even a hat trick with three in a day you need to consistently hit these four outbound levers • Cold calling the fastest way to get live conversations • Email outreach the most scalable channel • Social selling where your prospects are already engaging • Warm intros & referrals the easiest “yes”    How to execute this daily? 👉 Cold calling (50-100 dials/day) • 15 dials before 9am = low resistance. fresh minds • Block 1-2 power hours during peak times (8-10am & 3-5pm) • Skip permission based openers. Get straight to it • Start strong "the reason for my call is..." then bring immediate relevancy • Use open ended questions to drive the convo forward    👉  Email outreach (25-50 emails/day) • Forget personalization. Relevancy wins every time • No fluff, no pitch slaps. Just get to the damn point • Imagine every word costs $1. Keep it under 70 words • Soft CTAs drive replies and move the needle      "worth a quick chat next week?"   "think this is worth exploring?"    • Follow ups win the battle. No “just checking in” BS • Every touchpoint should add value. Not just remind them you exist 👉  Social selling (25-50 connection requests + 10-15 DMs/day) • No pitch slapping have a damn conversation • Blank connect requests win no need for a note • Open a two way convo, seek to understand • Play the long game. Comment, add insights, make intros • Use video/voice notes (30-60 sec) to stand out 👉  Warm intros & referrals (5+ asks per week) • Happy customers? Ask for intros. "Who else in your network would find this useful?" • LinkedIn groups? Start convos. "Anyone here using [solution] for [problem]?" • Past prospects? Re engage. Deals that didn’t close but had interest So why does this all work? When done daily each lever creates opportunities across channels • One day an email reply turns into a meeting • The next a cold call gets a “yeah lets chat” • A well placed DM leads to “let’s book time” When all levers run consistently this system books 20-30 meetings/month Most reps think outbound is a guessing game It’s not. It’s a system Work the system and the system will work for you 👉 Whats your biggest struggle with prospecting?

In 27 months, we grew Retention.com from $1M-$13M ARR with only 1 salesperson (me) doing 1,000's of sales calls. Here are my 10 biggest pieces of advice for any startup who wants to book and close more sales calls: 1. Ask for 15 mins, but book 30 When booking a meeting outbound, you have a better shot at getting a meeting by asking for 15 mins than 30. You may have piqued their interest but with a busy schedule, they are going to weigh learning about your business vs their time. Ask for 15 but send a meeting invite for 30.  If they can’t do the full 30, they will let you know, but from my experience, this rarely happens. 2. Tell your story People remember a story more than a product  Figure out your short story that you can tell prior to getting into the product pitch. How does your story connect to your business / product? 3. 5X5 Pitch Keep your product deck for your initial call to 5 slides / 5 minutes and make sure you answer any of the common questions you get from prospects. You can always book a follow up call to share more detail once you hook their interest. 4. Always Be Pitching Take control of the call and the sales cycle. You will only learn what does and doesn’t work by actually pitching.  5. Tell a customer story Again, people remember stories more than they do stats. Tell a story of a customer before implementing your product and the business outcome after implementing it. Don’t just talk numbers. Talk about how people felt, what they said, etc. 6. Create Urgency Attach an incentive if the deal is done by the end of the week or month.  (Example: 20% more credits or a 15% discount)  This also sets you up well for follow up as it now makes them feel like you are on their team to try and help them get the deal in for their benefit. 7. Land and expand We all want to close the big ACV deals, but the truth is most buyers don’t want to make a big commitment without seeing how your product works. Find a way to get them on for a small $ amount, with the plan to expand if the product meets their expectations. 8. Opt-Out Period Reduce buyer friction by offering a 90 day opt out period if you are trying to close 12 month agreements. It shows confidence that your product will drive the results you say it will. 9. Deck Recap Create a 1-2 pager highlighting the most important parts of your sales deck that you can send via email after every call (even if they don’t ask for it). The prospect won’t remember all details from the call, so this gives them something to look back on and will help sell internally if other stakeholders are involved. 10. Video for FAQs Create short form talking head video answering all FAQs. This will add value in your follow up, show you listened to the questions they had and that you care about making sure they understand the answers. It also helps internally as others will likely have the same questions as the person on the phone. Have questions about how to book/close more calls? AMA anything 👇

If I was onboarding 5 new SDRs, here's exactly what I would do to guide them to exceed target in 90 days. Step 1: Learn the industry FIRST This is the most important step and most companies skip it. You can be subpar at prospecting and still do well if you deeply understand your buyers. Who are they? What keeps them up at night? How do they make decisions? What's the industry makeup? I remember reading every single article on VP of Marketing + CMOs when I worked at Terminus so I knew the lingo. When you know this, your conversations become 10x easier. Step 2: Set up their LinkedIn profile Now that they understand who they're talking to, let's make sure their profile reflects that. The question every rep needs to ask themselves is... How do we position our profile as someone worth responding to? I would immediately remove your job title from your profile and make the headline outcome focused. Think landing pages, not resume. Step 3: Get comfortable with the tech (but only 3-4 tools) I'm starting to believe you shouldn't give new reps all the tools at once. Start them with the basics: ↳ Sales engagement tool ↳ Data tool ↳ CRM That's it. Master those first. As they get better, they unlock new tools. As leaders, I think we need to have all SDRs master the fundamentals of these three tools so that the other tools are easier to use. Step 4: Creative prospecting Once they're comfortable with the basics, now we layer in video prospecting, voice notes, and creative outreach. I remember as an SDR, once I got the cold calling down I could easily translate those skills into more creative prospecting. This is where they start standing out from everyone else in the inbox. Step 5: Memorize 3 customer stories When I was an SDR manager, I told my team.. everyone needs to memorize 3 customer stories. That's it. Just 3. When you're on a call and you can reference a real story about someone like them... the conversation shifts. That's how you create relevancy by sharing a real point of connection they can relate to. These 5 things in the first 90 days will set your team up for success. P.S. Which step does your team need to focus on most?

Your prospect's attention is the scarcest resource in B2B sales.   Not their budget. Not their time. Their attention.   Here's how to earn it — and keep it — across a full sales cycle:   Earning the first 3 seconds: → Subject line that feels written for them specifically → First sentence that isn't about you → No preamble, no pleasantries, no warm-up   Keeping the next 30 seconds: → Name the pain before naming the solution → One outcome only — not a feature list → A closing question they actually want to answer   Holding attention across the sequence: → Each touch must be more interesting than the last → New angle, new data, new story — never 'just checking in' → Reference what they've shared with you publicly   Keeping it through the deal: → Send a useful resource after every call ( unsolicited) → Remember the personal details they mentioned → Never make them chase you for an update   Attention compounds. Every interaction either builds or burns it.   The reps who treat every touchpoint like it might be the last one worth their prospect's attention are the ones who never have to chase for the close.   At which stage do most sales reps lose their prospect's attention in your experience? #B2BSales #SalesStrategy #LeadGeneration #SalesEngagement #ProspectingTips

The biggest gap in sales right now isn't tactics. It's prospect knowledge. We've gotten so obsessed with process that we forgot about people. Think about what most sales training focuses on: → Cold calling scripts → Email sequences → Discovery frameworks → Objection handling → Product features and demos All important. All tactical. But here's what's missing: Do you actually know your prospect's world? Not surface level. DEEP. → What do they read every morning? → Who do they follow and engage with? → What podcasts are they listening to? → What does their Tuesday at 2pm actually look like? → What language do they use to describe their problems? → Who do they trust? Who do they talk to? You should know their world as well as they do. Read what they read. Watch what they watch. Listen to what they listen to. Follow who they follow. Talk like they talk. Yes — borderline dress like them. All of it matters. Your tactics will fall flat if they are not tailored to the prospect. Because trust doesn't come from a perfect pitch. Trust comes from a prospect thinking: "This person actually gets my world." That's what creates confidence. That's what creates certainty. That's what closes deals. The best reps I know can describe their prospect's daily frustrations better than the prospect can. They've shadowed customers. They've sat in on their meetings. They've read the same industry newsletters. They've joined the same communities. That's the edge. Going into this year, study your prospect more. Shadow them if you can. Talk to customers constantly. Learn what their day-to-day actually looks like. Prospect knowledge is the most underrated skill in sales. And it's something we're focusing heavily on this year. I'd encourage every team to do the same. How well do you REALLY know your prospect's world? Be honest, and then level it up!