If you’ve ever wondered how to personalise (in 2023) to standout and book more meetings, you’ve come to the right place. When it comes to prospecting, all SDRs and BDRs know the importance of personalisation. If we are able to personalise our messaging and tailor it to our prospects we are much more likely to get a positive response and successfully book more meetings. This is not news, I know.
In the beginning, simply personalising our message made us stand out, because most of our peers were not doing it. The challenge we face now is that almost everyone has caught onto the idea of personalisation. Therefore merely doing it, doesn’t help us to stand out anymore. The bar has been raised. Today, I want to talk about small tweaks we can make to ensure our personalisation is still good enough to get replies in 2023.
#1 Avoid
“I saw on LinkedIn that..”. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this phrase except it is how almost all prospecting emails start now. And that means, prospects become immune to it. It doesn’t help you to stand out, it doesn’t grab attention therefore it will not necessarily boost your reply rates. It is important to note that the information you are using to personalise may still be relevant but by presenting it in a slightly different way, it will help you to cut through the noise. Let’s take a look at a simple example:
Scenario 1: Hi John, I saw on LinkedIn that you recently shared an article about X,Y,Z so I thought you might be interested in…{company/offering}.
Scenario 2: Hi John, I read the article you shared about X,Y,Z and found it very insightful. It prompted me to reach out as I thought you might be interested in {Company/Offering}.
#2 Focus On Pain Not Title
Working closely with SDRs and BDRs on a regular basis, I often review prospecting emails and messages. I am also regularly on the receiving end of prospecting emails from SDRs and BDRs. In both situations, I have noticed that often people personalise by stating what their prospects’ title is. For example;
“Hi John,
I noticed on LinkedIn that you are Head of X Department..”
This definitely is personalising your messaging but it is a lazy effort to put it mildly. If you want to personalise based on the person, you must dig deeper than the title. But an even better and easier area to personalise on is the pain of the prospect. Let’s take a look at an example:
“Hi John,
How are you addressing X challenge? I am working with people in a similar position to you, helping them to overcome these challenges by doing A,B,C. I am reaching out as I think we can help you do the same.”
Why
If you address a challenge they are struggling with, and believe you can actually help, they are a lot more likely to respond and book that meeting with you. The trick here is that we need to understand our buyers, their challenges and what they care about.
Acquiring that knowledge does require some effort and research. However if you are destined to be a top seller within your organisation then you will need to know this information so now is as good a time as any to learn it. Not only will it help you to be a more successful SDR, it will also allow you to hit the ground running as an AE.
#3 Keep It Brief
Your prospects are receiving 10s or even 100s of prospecting emails per week. There is only a small chance they will even open your email (killer subject line required) and if they do, if it looks too long they will close it without reading it. Game over. When crafting prospecting messaging remember to keep it brief. Stick to the point. Highlight the value that you can add and create a compelling and easy to respond to call to action.
Make sure your message is about the prospect and not about you or your company. Sometimes marketing departments like to craft long winded emails that say things like “we are the global leader in bla bla bla” “We’ve been nominated as the best bla bla bla 3 years running”
Remember..
Please remember that your prospects have short attention spans, they are busy people and they are sick of receiving low quality cold outreach. All they care about is how you can make their lives easier in 6 – 8 lines or less. Long emails get deleted at worst or marked as unread at best, never to be opened again. Keep it brief. Align it to the pain, challenge or struggle your prospect is facing and avoid generic phrasing that everyone is using – stand out! Happy prospecting!
Until Next Time!