Getting to your first 100k MRR with outbound sales automation

Nick Holmes a Court

Founder and CEO

SPEAKER PROFILE FOUNDED 3 VC FUNDED COMPANIES – 40 ANGEL INVESTMENTS

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Nick Holmes a Court @nickhac

PREVIOUSLY

CURRENTLY

AGENDA

1.  Finding the right target market

2.  Testing for your ideal target customer

3.  Optimising the right sales messaging

4.  Automating outbound sales process

5.  Hiring and onboarding sales reps

6.  Measuring the process for repeatable growth

GETTING TO YOUR FIRST 100K MRR WITH OUTBOUND SALES AUTOMATION

1. Finding the right target market •  Brainstorm all potential target markets for your customer

•  Use services like ZoomInfo / GoodCall to size these markets

2. Testing for your ideal customer •  Need to find their pain points / our value props

•  Should you discuss your benefits or features?

Example 1: “As a marketing

manager, you may be struggling

to generate the leads your sales

team needs, our sales automation

software can 3x the performance

of your existing lists

2. Testing for your ideal customer •  Need to find their pain points / our value props

•  Should you discuss your benefits or features?

Example 2: “It may be time

consuming for you to produce high

quality reports for your VP Sales

manager each month, our report

wizard will give you deep dive

insights PDF with 1 click. `”

2. Testing for your ideal customer •  Result: A clear understand of which customers should want to

purchase your product and why

Market   Value  Prop   Feature    /  Benefit  

Marke(ng  Manager  

Increase  #  Sales  Leads  Generated  with  less  work  

Email  sales  automa(on  that  drips  emails  out  without  sales  effort  

Marke(ng  Manager  

Improve  insights  from  monthly  reports  for  my  manager   1  Click  PDF  Report  Generator  

Marke(ng  Manager  

Automate  the  manual  process  of  list  purchasing  

Integrated  database  of  100M+  contacts  

VP  Sales   Increase  revenue  per  month  with  same  headcount  

Email  sales  automa(on  that  drips  emails  out  without  human  effort  

VP  Sales   BeLer  visibility  into  best  performing  market  segment  

Sales  performance  analy(cs  reports  

VP  Sales   Save  costs  and  eliminate  need  to  hire  SDRs  which  is  (me  consiming  

Outsource  your  SDR  to  a  sales  automa(on  plaNorm  

3. Optimising the right sales messaging Combining our Markets / Value Props and Contact Lists, we are

now ready to start testing sales messaging

•  A/B Testing using email platform of choice

•  MailChimp, GoodCall, Outreach.io

Email Performance

•  Expect 10-30% open rates

•  Expect 1-5% reply rates on your first email

•  Follow up automation is key to better results (more later)

3. Optimising Subject Lines •  Best open rate performance we have ever seen 71%

•  Industry Average 11% - Source Mailchimp

3. Optimising the right sales messaging Our performance tips for email delivery

•  Always send sales emails not marketing emails

•  People buy from people.

•  Wednesday / Thursdays are regarding as the best days

•  8am or 3pm delivery time

•  Follow up’s matter more than timing (more later)

3. Anatomy of a sales email Short and sweet, use your content from value prop / feature work

Hi  Jim    Saw  you  are  the  Marke(ng  Manager  over  there  at  ACME.    Many  marke(ng  managers  find  it  (me  consuming  to  produce  month  end  reports  for  their  VP  sales.      At  NewCo,  our  1  Click  Marke(ng  Report  PDF  generator  may  be  able  to  save  you  hours.    What  day  next  week  could  we  have  a  15  minute  call  to  review?    Jim  Halpert  NewCo  Inc  25  Taylor  St,  San  Francisco  415-­‐691-­‐0706            

3. Types of email asks Depending on how clear your buyer is, here are some asks

•  When do you have 15 mins to talk?

•  What day next week is best to chat?

•  Who is the best person to speak with about this?

3. The bubble up email The average rep gives up after 2 follow-ups.

•  Our research shows it often takes 7-12 attempts

Hi  Jim    Realize  you  are  busy,  so  just  bubbling  this  up  to  the  top  of  your  inbox.    As  men(oned,  our  1  click  marke(ng  report  PDF  generator,  may  save  you  hour  on  your  month  end  repor(ng  and  look  like  a  rockstar  to  your  boss.    What  day  next  week  could  we  have  a  15  minute  call  to  review?    Jim  415-­‐691-­‐0706      

4. Automating outbound sales process If you want to scale quickly to 100k MRR, you need to automate

•  Unfortunately sales is a numbers game

•  But it can also be a science

•  The power of polite persistence in email sales

4. How to Automate outbound sales For top of funnel sales email automation

•  GoodCall.io, Outreach.io

For Cold Calling Automation

•  ConnectAndSell.com – 8 Live Phone calls per Hour

For mid-funnel automation

•  InsideSales.com, Close.io

For bottom of funnel automation

•  Black magic

The power of polite persistence in email sales

5. Hiring and onboarding sales reps •  What to look for on the resume?

•  At least 2-3 years in a single sales role.

•  Lots of 9 month roles a big red flag

•  Interview questions?

•  What makes a great company?

•  How would you design a sales process from scratch?

•  What is the role of marketing in helping sales?

•  Why do you want to work here?

•  Great sales reps always seem to ask about commission.

5. Hiring and onboarding sales reps •  Always hire sales reps in pairs

•  Naturally competitive

•  Assume a 3 month ramp up period

•  Week 1: Product training / shadowing founder or other reps

•  Month 1: Booking their own meetings

•  Month 2: 10 meetings per week

•  Month 3: Closing their first deals

•  Sales Quota

•  Individual sales reps should be able to add $8k MRR Monthly

5. Managing Reps •  Weekly Activity Leaderboard the whole company can see

•  Meetings

•  Quotes Out

•  Revenue

•  Top X next deals to be closed

•  Commissions

•  Keep it simple, make it really attractive

•  EG: 20% for the first 12 months of the customers contract

6. Getting to the 100k MRR Goal Funnel Economics

Stage   Conversion  Rate   Number  

Contacts   1000  

Leads   10%   100  

OpportuniAes   40%   40  

Customers   50%   20  

How many customers do you need for 100K MRR and work back.

Is your market big enough?

6. Building a sales team to 100k MRR By combining Sales Automation and Sales Rep Hires, you can get

to 100k MRR in under 12 months

    Month-­‐1   Month-­‐2     Month-­‐3   Month-­‐4   Month-­‐5   Month-­‐6   Month-­‐7   Month-­‐8   Month-­‐9   Month-­‐10   Month-­‐11   Month-­‐12  

Sales  Reps   2   2   2   4   4   4   6   6   6   8   8   8  

New  Deals  /Mo  (2  /Rep)   0   0   4   4   8   8   8   12   12   12   16   16  

Total  Customers   0   0   4   8   16   24   32   44   56   68   84   100  

New  MRR  Per  Customer     $1,000   $1,000   $1,000   $1,000   $1,200   $1,200   $1,200   $1,400   $1,400   $1,400   $1,600   $1,600  

MRR   $0   $0   $4k   $8k   $19k   $28k   $38k   $61k   $78k   $95k   $134k   $160k  

The fine print:

•  Assumes $1k Revenue Per Customer Per Month, growing 20% Quarter on Quarter

•  Assuming 0 churn, or 12 month contracts

•  Assumes new reps take 3 months to get to quota

•  Assumes reps have enough lead / opportunities from sales automation to close deals

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1.  Find a big market

2.  Test for your customers key pain

3.  Use messaging that is proven to convert

4.  Automate as much sales activity as possible

5.  Have a process for quickly getting reps to quota

6.  Scale up your sales process to get to $100k MRR

GETTING TO YOUR FIRST 100K MRR WITH OUTBOUND SALES AUTOMATION

THANK YOU!

#startupsocials