Episode 51 – How to Create an Effective Outbound Sales System

Introduction    00:00:03    Marketing, explosive growth, and revolutionary secrets that can catapult your business to new heights. You’re now listening to The Underground Marketer Podcast with your host Tudor Dumitrescu, the one podcast devoted to showing new businesses how to market themselves for high growth.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:00:24    Welcome to the underground marketer. This is the place where we deliver the real truth of our marketing and explore big ideas that can help new businesses thrive and grow into big ones. I’m your host, Tudor. And today I’d like to talk to you about how you can go to develop an effective outbound sales strategy for your business. A lot of people end up having to do outbound sales in order to get especially their first clients. And this is very true specifically for those people who have a B2B business. And they’re looking to other businesses as their clients. A lot of the sales effort, especially in the beginning in those situations is going to be outbound, right? Because nobody knows you and you actually have to go out there, identify who you could actually help in practice and prepare an offer for them. And then obviously try to sign them up and get them on board.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:01:24    Now I will start by discussing briefly who can benefit the most from outbound. And the answer to that is that outbound people are going to benefit the most are selling something that’s on the expensive end. That’s a mistake, actually that a lot of people do. For example, somebody’s trying to do outbound and they’re selling a $500 website. It’s not worth it. You shouldn’t be doing outbound sales, unless one sale is worth at least $2,000. You know, if one sale is at least $2,000, then it’s worth doing outbound sales because your time investment will have a good reward for the hours that you put into it. Because again, not everybody that you speak to is actually going to buy it. Everybody’s going to pick up the phone, not everybody’s going to answer their emails or whatever strategy, right? You’re used to connecting with them. And that’s precisely why you need, need to have, make sure that your offer is high tickets or at least $2,000.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:02:29    And the way you do this is that you have to create an offer. That’s very specific to a target audience. You know, it’s not something generally, it’s not marketing for just about anyone. For example, it’s not even marketing for doctors. It’s not marketing for medical professionals. It’s not marketing for dentists. It’s something like marketing for orthodontists, right? Something that’s very specific. And that’s very niche where you don’t have a lot of competition and you can claim to have a system that’s tailor made to solve the actual problems that they have in that niche. And that is specifically designed to get results for that niche. And you can do this with web design. You can do this with pretty much any other service that you would be selling B2B. This is basically how you go about making sure that you can create an offer. That’s going to actually generate the kind of demand that you need.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:03:23    And that’s going to allow you to charge the prices you need to charge to make outbound worth it. The worst thing that can happen is that you spend your time going through like 200 people, calling them to get one sale. And that sale is worth just $500. It’s really not worth it. You know, compare with the alternative. You spend your time calling the same 200 people, but now one sale is worth $10,000. Right now it’s worth it suddenly because your price allows you to make the time investment. That’s actually required to call those people, pitch them your product, introduce them to it and get them to sign up. So that’s the basics. Fundamentally, you need to have something that’s high ticket. You need to have a very specific and niche down audience so that you have lower competition. They can’t really get what you’re selling anywhere else.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:04:16    It’s tailor made to their problems. And of course you need a special offer. That’s not just high ticket, but also has relative value for them that they can’t find anywhere else. And therefore deserves the higher price that you’re going to charge. So outbound sales, you know, unless you’re selling high volume of products or something like that is not gonna be a good fit for low margin, be businesses. You know, you need something that’s going to be high margin and that’s going to be different from what’s out there and that can help you stand out. So that’s the foundation of an effective outbound strategy. If you don’t have that, then either you get it or you should be looking at different sales and marketing strategies to grow your business. For this reason, outbound is actually a great fit for all sorts of service businesses that are selling stuff online.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:05:09    So that includes stuff like coaching consulting, web design, graphic design, copyright, and so on, right? All of them they’re selling services to businesses with the right high ticket offer pitch to the right customer. The outbound is going to work out great for them. The next steps after you have this is that you actually need to have a strong and effective outbound system. And preferably you need an outbound system that doesn’t take your time, right? Because if you have an outbound system that requires your time and relies on you, then you’re going to run into a lot of difficulties. Because as human beings, we struggle with being consistent time and time again, right? We’re not Roberts. You struggle to do the same thing day after day after day, especially if the thing that you’re doing, you know, like outbound sales, cold calling people, cold emailing, looking for people and so on.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:06:05    Especially if that thing is creating anxiety or discomfort for you, right? You’re going to struggle to do it. And it’s going to be very difficult to maintain over the long run. Again, it’s not impossible, it’s just very, very difficult. That’s for example, why, uh, in my case, I’ve created, and this is actually the exact outbound sales system that I use. I’ve created a system that I call the perpetual motion B2B lead generation system. And that’s the outbound system that I use. You’re going to be able to find it in the, in the show notes for the podcast on our website, two door fd.com/underground. That’s the website of the podcast. You’re going to be able to find it there in the show notes for this episode, a link that’s going to take you to the system. So if you’re interested to explore it, you can do so there, but the basics of the system is that it get you leads and it books your calendar without requiring any work from you.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:07:03    You know? So the work just comes at the end. When you actually have to decide if you actually want to have a call with this person or not, but it doesn’t come up front. It doesn’t come with identifying the people, uh, reaching out to them, sending your offer to them and so on and so forth with all that stuff is automated for you. And it can happen day after day after day like clockwork. And the best thing is that you’re not paying for ads. You know, there’s no thousands in fees. There are pretty much no fees. Virtually. There are no fees involved, uh, to reach more and more people and basical. This is an automated system. And as I said, it works without you. So if you’re interested to check that out and learn more about it and see if it’s a good fit for you, check the link down in the show notes, but that’s basically exactly what I do for an outbound strategy.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:07:52    But the key thing here for you to remember is that when it comes to outbound, you want to make sure that your strategy doesn’t depend on you, right? If it depends on you, then you’re going to slack off one day. You’re going to not feel like doing it and whatnot. And you’re going to make yourself miserable. You’re going to drive yourself crazy and you’re going to actually struggle to get the results, right? So that’s the main thing. Now, once you have that in place, what follows in order to make your outbound strategy successful is that obviously you need to have the right kind of messaging and communication with the people that you, you, the system is actually going to deliver to you so that you can both get, get them interested in what you have to offer. Get them to think about new problems that they have, and maybe they haven’t thought about, and of course convert them.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:08:50    So the first side of the deal is that you really have to understand the sales cycle. And a lot of people, they struggle because they have no idea how the sales cycle looks like. That’s why. In fact, a lot of people, they try to sell by telling others about the benefits of their product. And a lot of the time what happens is that people say, oh, I’m just not interested. Why do they respond like that? Well, because they’re at that stage in the sales cycle where they’re not aware they have a problem, right? So if I don’t know that I have a problem, why would I care about any benefit? Right. I don’t have a problem. So the first thing you have to do is make your prospect aware of a problem. Okay? After you make them aware of a problem, you have to increase the dissatisfaction with that problem.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:09:41    By showing the costs that not solving that problem is creating in their, in their life and how those costs are obviously increasing and are going to get worse and worse. So that’s pretty much the process that you have to go through. And only after you do go through those two stages, do you actually get to ask them if they’re actually interested to solve the problem? And if they say yes, only after that, can you actually present them with the benefits of your solution and expect them to be interested to buy? Right? So a lot of people, they make the mistake of jumping straight to that, that last stage of the sales cycle. You know, they jump straight to the stage where they communicate the benefits, but then the people were never aware. They had a problem. Uh, they were never aware that the problem was serious and they had no desire for the resolution of the problem to start with.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:10:33    So if you’re in that scenario, they need spot pointless to give them benefits. They’re just going to say that they’re not interested and you’re going to lose somebody who could have become a buyer with a smarter strategy. So that’s the first thing that I will say about messaging because the first connections with the person have to be focused on the problem. They don’t have to be focused on the solution contrary to pretty much every other sales guru out there who tells you that you should be focusing on the benefits. You should not. All right. You shouldn’t be focused on the benefits. You should be focused on your prospect and on their problems and on, if they’re not aware of any problems, then you should focus on making them aware of problems. There’s all sorts of ways to do that. We’ve covered some of the ways in previous episodes.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:11:23    So I’m not going to go, uh, through that once again, but that’s basically the foundation now, what do you do with those people? Once, obviously they’re motivated to come on a call with you and they’ve booked the time and now you have to sell them. The most important thing for you to do is to use a script. So sales isn’t just conversation. And it’s not just having fun with a person and being charismatic or whatnot. No sales is goal directed conversation. You are having a conversation with that person with a precise goal in mind, and every single thing that you say or don’t say, or whatever you do has to take you closer to that goal that you have. And that’s why you have a script, right? Because if you don’t have a script, then you have no clue what you’re doing. And the conversation is quickly going to spiral out of control to the point where you’re just having a chat with someone and you’re not selling them.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:12:20    Right? So if you’re just chatting with them, you’re not selling them. That’s not what sales is. Sales again, is a goal directed conversation. That’s getting both you and them closer to the point where they flip out their wallet, it take out the cash and hand it over to you. And that’s what it has to be. So that’s why you need to create a script. Now, your script should take you through several stages of the sales conversation, depending on prior conversations that you may have had with them. The first stages, obviously the introduction and the, the, you know, where you basically say hi, Mr. So, and so thank you for coming on. Uh, how are you today? Maybe you asked them another question like that. Where are you based that currently in the moment or something like that. And then what you have to do is you have to transition from this introduction to the point where you get permission to ask them questions.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:13:13    And quiet questions are the key to actually having a successful sales conversation and selling them because once something comes out of their mouth, it’s right. If I tell you something, it’s right, I’m not gonna go the next moment and say, oh, I was wrong. But if you say that to me, it’s very easy for me to say you’re wrong. You know that that’s not how it is. But if I say it, then now it’s difficult for me to argue because I’ve made a commitment, right? This is one of Robert Childan’s factors of influence, commitment and consistency. So that’s how you use it. That’s why you’re asking questions because the moment they answer your questions, uh, and it comes from their mouth, they can’t really go back on it. That’s the whole point. But to do that first, you have to get their permission to ask questions and you justify it by your desire to learn more about them, to see if this is even a good fit for them.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:14:06    And if it can help them, right? And once you get your permission to ask questions, then you’re going to start asking them a series of questions. And again, the purpose of those questions is to bring problems to their awareness, to expand the consequences, or make them aware of the consequences of problems and to check if they’re actually interested to solve those problems. That’s basically the three main functions that your questions have to play. So by the end of the questioning phase is right. So you’re going to ask them some general questions, probably in the beginning to find out some information about their situation, what their goals are, what they’re trying to do and so on and so forth. And then you ask them to be more specific about potential problem areas. Then you ask them questions about the consequences that those problems may be creating. And finally you ask them if they’re actually interested to go about solving those problems.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:15:00    And once you finish your questioning process, again, you’re going to need to write down a list of questions. I suggest that you have anywhere from eight to around 15 questions that you discuss with them. Again, this depends what you’re selling. So I’m assuming that you’re aiming to close them on this sales conversation. I’m assuming that’s the goal for some product. You know, let’s say that you have a product that costs $30,000, probably. You’re not gonna sell them in just one call, right? So it’s going to take more, more, so you would have a different goal. So then you’d have different questions. And so and so on, but I’m assuming that now that you’re selling something where you can close them in one call, and if that’s the case, then you would have anywhere from eight to 15 questions, you ask them the questions and after they answer and they, and you go through all of the questions to the through with them, then tell them a, the product or service is a good fit for you.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:15:55    And here’s what getting it would look like. Here’s what the price is. Here’s, if there’s a guarantee, here are the conditions, and then you ask them if they’re ready to get started right now, and then you’re silent and you wait for an answer or you just tell them that it’s not a good fit for them after they’ve answered the questions and you end the conversation there. So that’s the last stage. You know, the sales call is the last stage really of your outbound sales process. So that’s how I would handle the overall process. Uh, we covered quite a bit today from getting the foundations right to an outbound Legion system that works without you and delivers you a fully booked calendar to actually running a professional sales call and doing it based around a script that’s actually effective. And that’s going to convert people based around of course, an understanding of what the sales cycle looks like and what people need at each stage of the sales cycle to actually move to the next stage. So, um, that’s pretty much what I wanted to cover for today. So, um, thank you for tuning in and as usual, stay tuned for the next episode. And until next time, keep growing your business and providing massive value to the world. You are the reason why we’re all growing richer. Our freedoms are expanding and we’re all living in greater prosperity. Thank you.