I head the business development department of an IT solutions provider company. We offer technology assistance for new IT project and maintenance/testing for their existing applications. We have developed mobile applications for Fashion/heathcare/food/e-learning industries.
Currently my team is using Linkedin Sales Navigator and targeting different Industries and running a 5 message/email outreach campaign. What should be my steps to increase my outreach?
If any channels are currently working for you, double down on them. Keep doing LinkedIn if it is working for you.
I always like to focus on 1-2 sales channels, and then be constantly dabbling and testing others. This ensures that you stay productive (doing what works), while still being able to test and try new methods that may end up being more lucrative.
A few ideas:
- Paid advertising works. I've run paid ads for IT Companies in NYC and got them multiple clients for just a couple hundred bucks. Experiment with that if you have the budget for it. I recommend using someone good, otherwise you're just throwing money away.
- Get on a platform like Clarity.fm or Quora. Become a leader in the IT maintenance/testing space. People will find you.
- In general, content marketing is less relevant for local service businesses. For example, a blog may not be as effective.
- Hire someone to gather leads for you. Cold email them. Same strategy as what you're doing in LinkedIn, but through email.
My last piece of advice: Track Everything.
For example, are you getting more leads through Quora per hour spent marketing, or more leads through cold email? What is the value of these leads? Does Quora get you more lucrative, high-paying clients?
Tracking will help you to continuously improve the sales and marketing process.
If you have any questions, feel free to follow up by scheduling a call. Thanks!
Since you've already been on Linkedin Sales for a while, and know the landscape, a good first step could be to try to further optimize the efficacy of that outreach (unless it's already extremely effective). Anything learned there should be translatable to other channels as well. I can't give advice on that kind of optimization without seeing what you're already doing.
In terms of other channels:
1) you can look on job posting websites for any companies looking to hire someone to do what your IT solution does. For instance, Angellist, etc. Reach out to them with a solution that is presented as obviously cost saving and efficient relative to having to hire someone to do it.
2) if your product could work for small companies, maybe pair up with a local 'startup accelerator' and offer your services free for some time (e.g. 1 week?) to all of their participants.
3) look on relevant online forums for people asking for help with the problems your product solves
etc.
Let me know if you'd like to discuss your product and potential outreach options and optimizations in more detail,
best,
Lee
Hi. with respect, I'd start with your first paragraph above. It's not clear whether you are an outsource company that supports others as they run their own IT projects ... or a mobile application developer.
Both are great, but together I think you might risk preventing prospects from quickly understanding what you offer so that they can match that with their pain points.
Either way, it's a crowded marketplace and as Seth Godin tells us "if you are not different you are invisible".
1 strong point of focused differentiation and remarkability is worth 10 in BD.
Happy to support this if required.
Mark
Odd as it may sound, the secret to good outreach, in my view, is to go narrower. Let me explain.
You have a number of offerings here:
- testing of new IT projects
- maintenance of existing ones
- mobile apps for four very different industries
Each of these seems to be very different markets, and I don't just mean the four different industries. I mean, for example, the testing of applications is very different from maintenance.
So, without knowing more about your current outreach campaign, I'd be focusing specifically on the expensive problem you solve, rather than the solution.
What's the business outcome?
For instance, in the high-end women's fashion industry, what is the app helping achieve? Reduce shoplifting, for example, using RFID technology. Or if it's in the very broad healthcare industry, are you helping reduce waiting room times by means of a virtual care app? Or again, if your app provides psychiatric care to farmers in remote communities, the value is huge for both the farmers and the psychiatric health providers.
But these are very different problems, with very different outcomes. Start with the problem and make it as specific as possible. Or start with a big promise (one that your service will fulfil!)
That's my advice without knowing more about the specifics.
Of course, I'd be honoured if you wanted to consider a call to help you get some more specific, actionable suggestions.
Anthony
Before doing any more outreach you must truly understand why your customer buy from you. Have you had 1 on 1 conversations with your clients asked them why they bought initially and why they continue to buy from you? Do you know the value you are bringing to them? (it might be that you are easy to do business with, you're the cheapest or you have the widest range of services.)
MAJOR FLAW, most companies think they know and the dont't bother asking. Don't do this! Go and have the conversation.
The reason for doing this is that once you know? Then you can go find people who want that kind of value. For example, if you are expensive but do great work, don't bother chasing the prospect wanting the cheapest solution.
So, make your outreach more focused and more targetted. Qualify ruthlessly and win more of the deals you pursue rather than chasing everything.
This is a good example of the kind of problem my clients have relied on me to solve for 20-yrs.
Bob
