Outbound sales can sound like a silver bullet. Prospect high-value accounts, close the deals, hit your revenue goals. Done and done.
But companies that use outbound sales to reach sky-high revenue goals didn’t get there overnight, even though some might make it seem that way. They honed their outbound sales processes by learning from experts in the field, testing different team structures and workflows, and using data to evaluate what works best.
They had to gain a lot of knowledge before they could gain revenue.
Whether you’re just starting outbound sales or are looking for a way to accelerate the process you already have, you’ll never stop learning about how to create more efficiency. Here are some free resources you need to read before you hit the gas pedal.
1. More of the Right Prospects and Customers [Mattermark]
A full funnel is your road to revenue. But if your sales funnel is packed with poor leads, that road will be long and bumpy. You need to spend less time with bad prospects and more time outbounding accounts you know will close.
Outbound sales is expensive, which means high velocity. Outbound sales requires a full funnel with leads that will actually close, and close big. Mattermark’s brand new pocket guide, “More of the Right Prospects and Customers: Leveraging Company Data for Sales Efficiency,” teaches any sales team the one thing they’re all chasing: better customers.
The guide is a step-by-step tutorial explaining how sales teams can use data about prospects to prioritize which leads they should pursue. In doing so, your team will stop wasting time on leads that won’t close, or leads that remain small accounts forever. Instead, they’ll spend their precious time outbounding leads that are statistically likely to close, and model your best customers.
2. The Definitive Guide to Pipeline management [InsightSquared]
InsightSquared provides sales teams with the software they need to track their efficiency. It should be no surprise, then, that they write some of the best, most comprehensive guides on how to manage every aspect of your sales process.
Their expertise really shows in this ebook, “The Definitive Guide to Pipeline Management.” Managing how and when accounts should shift from one stage of the funnel to the other takes a lot of practice. If you don’t know the basics of how to qualify leads and align marketing and sales qualification, this is where you need to start.
InsightSquared’s guide teaches you the metrics you need to measure in order to effectively manage your pipeline, as well as other important lessons for outbound sales, like the role your VP of Sales needs to play, and much more.
3. 59 Tips For Scaling Startup Sales [Upshift Partners]
Consulting agency Upshift helps companies build their sales teams from the ground up. But if you’re a lean startup and can’t afford their agency prices, this ebook imparts high-caliber wisdom about virtually every aspect of sales team efficiency.
With key quotes and lessons culled from sales experts, Upshift’s free download offers snacky advice on a variety of subjects. It doesn’t go in depth about every aspect of the hiring process, but instead provides a handful of key quotes to get you started and spark a fire. If you’re looking for a broad understanding of every aspect of the sales process with helpful advice on where to go next to further your understanding, this one’s for you.
4. The Predictable Revenue Guide To Tripling Your Sales [Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin]
Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin literally wrote the book on outbound sales. This isn’t it.
Instead, it’s the handy guide to the full text of the book (Predictable Revenue). Think of this ebook as a quick and dirty guide to the book’s lessons, including lessons on why salespeople shouldn’t prospect, the new era of cold calling, and how to structure a sales team for maximum efficiency.
Both authors have impressive resumes, and bring years of experience to the table. Aaron Ross and Lemkin helped Salesforce and EchoSign (respectively) grow to over $100 million in ARR. Their step-by-step guide for how to start an outbound sales process is simply one of the best in the business.
If you need convincing why outbound sales works, this is the ebook for you.
5. 5 Ways to Improve Outbound Sales Performance [Salesforce]
Leverages important statistics about what the buyer’s journey looks like these days, including tips on how your team should approach company and personal social media accounts, and how to maintain customer relationships so that they continue long into the future.
This guide provides a quick overview of primarily how your team can be more cohesive and work better together, with tactics that are specific to B2B. It’s pretty minimal, as far as guides go, but gives a good overview of the B2B outbound sales landscape, and things that should be on your horizon.
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Also published on Medium.