The Only COLD EMAIL COURSE You Need
Video Transcript
(00:00) I was really hesitant to start a career in sales. I thought it was too calculated and aggressive for my personality. And now I’m making seven figures a year, doing something I love. At every single company I’ve worked for, I blew my quota out of the water. No matter the vertical, the size or the product, I’d do it again and again and again, because I was doing something different.
(00:22) I wasn’t manipulative or aggressive. I was polite. I had manners. I really brought personalization to the table. I learned the names of our clients dogs. I thought about their kiddos. I invested in who they were as humans. I was focused on relationships. I’ve broken 13 sales records. I was a top sales director at LinkedIn.
(00:42) I’ve made more money in the previous year for the last decade, and I have no intention of stopping. My team and I have built an eight figure business in just a few short years, based on my technique, which I call show me, you know, me, because it works. If you are a salesperson or a sales leader, this course is for you.
(01:01) If you’re frustrated with your email open rate or your reply rate, this course is for you. You can stand out in a sea of unoriginal salespeople and get noticed by some of the best salespeople. Biggest leads of your life. I’m Sam McKenna, and I’m going to teach you how to get anyone to reply to your cold emails.
(01:22) I discovered the power of personalization all the way back in 2010. I remember when I took my very first meeting with a C suite. It was a chief marketing officer at a law firm called McGuire Woods, and the gentleman was named Jim Durham. I was petrified of this first meeting, but of course he went very easy on me.
(01:39) And at the end of the meeting, which I was overly prepared for, he said, listen, Why don’t you do this? Take a look at my LinkedIn network. Look at the people that I’m connected to and see who I know that you would want to meet. And then send them an email, tell them that we know each other. And I thought, are you kidding? One of the really interesting parts about sales is we get those offers a lot and very few people take that person up on it.
(02:02) I went back to my office that night. I looked at Jim’s network on LinkedIn, and I must have sent over 200 emails to individuals. But the key that I did, what was really different, was I used my subject line strategically. So in the subject line of the email that I sent to all these individuals, I said, from a friend of Jim Durham’s, front and center.
(02:22) The open rate was off the charts, and the reply rate was also off the charts. People were willing to take meetings with me just because I was smart to put something in my subject line that mattered to them. So it started this realization of the power of personalization and the subject line. And then I started to think, where else can I use this? That is where the concept of show me, you know, me was born.
(02:45) Show me, you know, me is a phrase I first heard from one of my mentors. Over a decade ago. It’s the art of understanding who your buyers are as people, who their companies are and what space they’re in. It is so rare that sales reps do research and come prepared not only in emails, but also to their calls.
(03:04) That means the competition for you is low. The people that are reaching out to your buyers are not doing show me, you know me, and that puts you at a competitive advantage. In fact, McKinsey says only 8 percent of companies personalize 8%, but those who do over 75 percent of them are seeing an increase in response rates in meetings, booked and what we are all fighting for pipeline growth.
(03:30) I can attest to that. When we put this into practice with a team of 22 BDRs, Let me tell you what happened. This was incredible, and I may have cried a little bit when we heard the results. We had 22 BDRs that put Show Me You Know Me into motion. Over the course of this period, what they did was send 500 emails, about 280 first emails, and the rest as responses, less than 48 hours after the first one went out.
(03:55) We got 127 responses and 41 meetings booked. Now, if you know anything about averages, those numbers are through the roof. Hence why I cried when I heard the results, but that’s one really great example of how putting this together for the masses of a team can really make him talked. Show me, you know, me has been so effective at getting replies that our clients have been lining up to learn how to do it and how to teach their teams to do it.
(04:22) And we took it so far as to trademark the term. In this course, I’m going to teach you how to research your prospects in a way that’s meaningful and not at scale. I will walk you through the examples of what show me, you know, me should and should not look like, and I’m going to teach you how to write an email from beginning to end that stands out even to your highest value prospects.
(04:42) And finally, we’ll talk about the concept of show me, you know, me and how it extends beyond quote emails. How simply building authentic relationships can help you hit your quota and take control of your financial and sales destiny. I think part of what harms us from a sales perspective is that somewhere along the way, we forgot about the customer.
(05:05) We’ve designed our processes to be self serving as companies and as individuals. How we qualify a meeting, the hoops we make our buyers jump through in order to even speak to a sales rep and so forth. Remember that people want to be seen as people. Not just as pocketbooks, not just as somebody with wallet share.
(05:23) I think what’s so important is that we make a positive impression with our very first outreach. This is where Show Me You Know Me begins. So for starters, I would encourage you to go up in the executives that you’re reaching out to. Don’t just reach out to one or two levels above you, but really reach out to the most meaningful and sometimes scariest.
(05:49) Now start to research them, and my first go to place, of course, is always LinkedIn. I’m looking for information about who they are, not only as an employee of this company and others, but also who they are as a human being. Almost every time I talk about this concept, reps ask me, but What do you mean? Where do I start? And how much time does this all take? So I want you to think about one thing first.
(06:12) There are three layers to how we can understand our prospects. Those three layers are thinking, again, about the human, the company, and their space. The first thing you need to understand is who your buyer is as a human being. That means, again, as I just mentioned, looking at their profiles on LinkedIn.
(06:34) Start with common connections. Look in their headline, look in their about section. What can we find as common ground to authentically connect with? You also want to make sure that you’re then doing your homework on the prospect as a professional. What do we know about this human being at his job or her job? What do we know about how long they’ve been there? How often they’ve gotten promoted, where they worked previously.
(06:58) Perhaps they had a completely different career to begin with that you can authentically tie yourself to. And finally, check your CRM. Where has this person showed up, if at all, in your CRM before? There is nothing more embarrassing than getting on a call and saying, Bill, have you heard of our product or our company before? And then Bill kind of cringes and says, Uh, yeah, I’ve purchased your technology six times and I also happen to sit on your customer advisory board.
(07:22) We want to make sure that we show up in a prepared way so that our clients know we’ve done our research. And again, we stand out now. I get it. Sometimes you go to somebody’s LinkedIn profile and there’s effectively a tumbleweed going across it. There’s no information, no picture. So what are you supposed to do next? Where does your research begin then? And what I would tell you is look into the company.
(07:49) Go to their website, take a look at their resources, their press releases, their values, the principles they have. Do they raise money for charity? What is going on with the organization that you can reference? More often than not, You’ll also find that the executives have done podcasts, they speak at conferences, they write articles, they’re part of press releases directly on the website.
(08:10) There is so much that you can pick up from that. And finally, has this company been a client of yours before? Were they a client and they churned, but now they’re coming back? Is this the 19th opportunity that you’re opening up that you’ve never been able to get over the goal line with this particular client? This is all information you should know.
(08:29) And not only is it helpful for you to be prepared and such an awesome way for you to stand out, but it’s incredibly helpful for you to know, to qualify, and to move opportunities forward. The third layer you want to think about with getting to know your buyers, is who they are and the space that their company is in.
(08:50) Now, this means the vertical, right? Thinking about specifically what’s tied to the vernacular of their company. Do they talk about products? Do they talk about leads? Do they talk about professional services in a different way? Now, if I go into a law firm, I can’t go in and talk about sales and leads.
(09:06) I have to use words like clients. I have to use words like business development. So it’s really important that you make that shift. You might think, what if I have a territory that has 19 verticals in it? Am I supposed to memorize them all? And what I would tell you is one, maybe eventually. Not out of the gate.
(09:21) But first and foremost, think about what your lowest hanging fruit is, vertical wise. Where do you already have a great footprint and where can you keep expanding? Or, where has a new vertical shown promise? That you can take and run. Now, when I think about, again, that legal example, that’s exactly what I did when I became a sales rep.
(09:40) I found that we had three or four of the largest law firms in the world working with us and none of the others. So I took it as an opportunity to interview those individual firms. understand why they used us, understand why we were important, learn the language, and then turn that three or four into 43 in less than two years.
(10:03) So we’ve talked about doing research on your prospect at the human level, at the company level, and then at the space and vertical level. That can sound like a lot to some sales reps, but what I always say is just be realistic that this is a brand new muscle you are building And it takes time. Think about how long it might take you to run a mile out of the gate.
(10:22) 35 minutes? No, just kidding. A little bit less. But every time you try to run it, you’re going to get a little faster and a little faster. So give yourself 30 minutes for your very first Show Me You Know Me email. I know that seems like an eternity, but I promise it will speed up. It will take you less time each and every time you do it.
(10:40) And you’ll start to get where it’s around five to seven minutes each time. Just remember, especially when it comes to high value leads, quality Always Trump’s quantity. Hey everyone, I’m Kelvin with Apollo and you just learned Sam’s techniques for researching high value prospects. Now, just in case you’re wondering how do I find the right leads in the first place, I wanted to let you know apollo.io has your back.
(11:11) Apollo lets you access the world’s largest and most accurate database of B2B contacts for free. You can also use over 65 filters to zero in on your ideal leads and use AI to research every single one of them, making it way easier to create those perfectly personalized emails Sam’s about to teach you.
(11:26) So don’t forget you can sign up for Apollo today for completely free using the link on your screen or right down below in the video description. Now I’m going to let you get back to the course. So here’s Sam with the don’ts of personalization. I see you live in DC. Blossoms must be amazing.
(11:39) Do you want to buy my stuff? No. I see you like dogs. So do I. Want to buy my stuff? No. I see you like to breathe. I love to breathe. Do you want to buy my stuff? No. Before we move on to putting your research into an actual email, I want to quickly touch on a few things you should not do when it comes to personalization.
(12:01) I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen an email that looks something like this. Subject line says, Go Knowles. Now, I went to Florida State, so they’re trying to pull out some Show Me You Know Me and talk about my alma mater’s mascot. But here’s how the email goes. Hey Sam, saw you went to Florida State.
(12:18) Go Knolls! Do you have a problem at this organization? And then they go on to try and pitch me their product. There is absolutely no authentic tie to what I do, why they mention the Knolls, what history they have with it. That’s when I see that and I go, ugh, not again. You also want to make sure that you don’t swing too far the other way.
(12:38) So starting to get into research that’s done on sites. So perhaps looking at a Yelp review or a Pinterest board or something on their Facebook page that’s private and that you happen to find. So maybe starting a subject line with love your family beach pictures, or perhaps you referenced something from a Yelp review that you saw that they wrote in 2009.
(12:58) You want to make sure that the show me, you know me, you reference is either pulled from their professional LinkedIn page and has something that they’ve shared with their professional network, or Or that you’re pulling it from a company page, a podcast, or an article that they wrote that relates to their work.
(13:12) When you think about the other things you don’t want to do when it comes to Show Me You Know Me, one of them is what’s called personalization at scale. I am sure you have seen this in your inbox, and if not, your executives certainly have. It’s when you look at a subject line and it reads in a way that could be written for that person, And 500 of their closest friends.
(13:31) So think about things like quick question or meeting on Tuesday or need more pipeline, things that have no relevance to that person. And what is called personalization at scale is what we want to avoid. Now I see this kind of email all the time. Hi, Kimberly, I found your profile on LinkedIn and I wanted to reach out.
(13:49) This is a prime example of what we don’t want to do. I want you to think about these two things together. The subject line and the first sentence are what’s called your preview text. And what you’re going to see is that particular executive has gotten that email, and 30 just like it. There’s nothing that helps it stand out and cut through the noise.
(14:10) Further, when you think about something like this in that preview text, it’s what that person sees before they even open up the email. And it says, Psst, Psst, Psst. This is a sales email, so it encourages them not to even open it, but to automatically delete it. This kind of personalization at scale is not effective.
(14:29) It doesn’t relate to who this person is as an individual, and it shows that we didn’t actually make any sort of effort. Here’s another example. If you look at the subject line, it says, if you’re struggling with budget cuts. So we just shortcut to exactly what the value prop is of the email.
(14:44) And we simply say, Hey, this is a sales email front and center. Now, one last example. This could be one of my favorites simply because there’s so much to pull apart. But let’s look at a couple of things. First of all, it talks about poverty alleviation. If you look at my profile or if you look at our website, you’ll see that we do raise money for poverty alleviation.
(15:03) We’re really passionate about it. So it could be a great show. Me, you know, me, except it says nothing about how it relates back to them. It simply asks me a little bit of an awkward question about how I got into it. I guess we got into it just by being good humans, but I digress. Look at the rest of the email.
(15:20) First and foremost, it separates out our company name, SAM Sales, and that’s not our company name. Another thing to think about is that they talk about the massive rise in consultancies in the District of Columbia. What does that mean? They’re trying to pull something that relates to my business and relates to my location with absolutely no point, right? Really important that we make sure that whatever piece of personalization we put in is authentically tied back to us and has a great point.
(15:47) So my point in all of this is that poor personalization can truly do more harm than good. Being inauthentic, getting too personal, or relying too much on personalization at scale will showcase that you didn’t do your homework, and showcases that potentially time with you will not be well spent. There’s a hobby balance you want to strike, and a way to write emails that sound human.
(16:08) Sound authentic and truly add value. I’ll show you how to write those kinds of emails next. The industry average open rate for emails is alarmingly around 6%. And if you want to be even more terrified, their average reply rate is 0. 9%, not even a full percentage point. When you compare that to Show Me, You Know Me open rates, here’s what we look like.
(16:42) An average open of 43 percent and an average reply rate of 20%. That’s incredible. And it’s unheard of in the sales world, which is unfortunate, but also not so unfortunate. Because what that means for you is there’s a massive opportunity for you to stand out in executives inboxes simply by putting some thought into what you write.
(17:08) Let me show you what an executive’s inbox usually looks like. It’s not pretty, right? Available to talk? Can I make an intro? Quick introductions? Quick question? There’s so many subject lines that are all generic. They say personalization at scale and they secretly say, psst, I want to sell you something.
(17:26) You can do so much better than this and you’ve got to do better than this if you expect anyone to open, read and reply to your email. Now let’s get into exactly how you’re going to do this. The subject line is the most important part of your email. This is where you have just a few seconds to capture the attention of the CEO, VP, or whatever executive you’re reaching out to.
(17:52) The subject line could look something like this. Now, when you read the subject line, I want you to again reflect, does this subject line make any sense to you? If you say no, then we did our job correctly. This email was written specifically for the Chief Logistics Officer of Tory Burch, a multi billion dollar company.
(18:13) And here’s what happened. In less than 10 hours of that very first email being sent, the person responded and they said, your email stood out in a sea of emails that I get every single day. Now, here’s a really cool thing about this subject line as well. This is where you can start to scale this.
(18:31) What other executives do you have that were in that same fraternity? Think about how this is a great opportunity to use that same subject line and to use it on multiple executives while still making it look like it was just for them. A couple of other tips. Think about how to break up your subject line. Shorter is not necessarily better.
(18:48) You don’t have to adhere to less than four words, and you can use plus signs as a great way to break up the verbiage in your subject line. Referencing those exact tips, here’s an example of a subject line that would work on me. Switzerland, plus Le Dip cheeseburger, plus your company name. I want you to think about this subject line.
(19:07) Again, it makes absolutely no sense to you, and it makes absolutely no sense to anybody that you know, except for me. I’m originally from Switzerland. I was born just outside Geneva. I live in Washington, D. C., and I often whacks poetic about the cheeseburger a la diplomat. And your company name doesn’t make any sense to me, but the first two things do.
(19:26) So it’s at least going to get me to open up the email and see what it is that you have to say about the incredible show me you know me that you did on me. The second most important part of your email is the first sentence. Your subject line plus your first sentence is what’s known as the preview text, and that’s primarily what determines if your email gets read.
(19:52) There are two different approaches that I’d recommend trying here. At my company, Sam Sales, our go to first sentence is this. Hi, Bill. We have yet to be properly introduced, but I’m Sam McKenna, and Now, a couple things here. A lot of people will say not to introduce yourself in the first sentence.
(20:08) It’s a waste of space, they say. But here’s where I differ in opinion. When you put together a subject line that shows that person that you know them and you’ve done research, and you pair it with, we have yet to be properly introduced, what you’re signaling to somebody is that perhaps we should have been introduced, and that you do know something about them.
(20:26) Now another example is to go right into the show me you know me. Don’t waste any time. You might say something about their dog in the subject line, and then say something like this in your first sentence. Bill, I saw your recent post about your adorable furry companion Sprinkles and, and then tie it back to your own dog.
(20:44) You’ll see some of the most high level executives often post about their dog. So a great way to open up the door with them is to reference those animals and again, to think about an authentic tie right back to you. Your value proposition is not what you do. Most emails that we see say what the person does.
(21:06) Now that’s a marketing email. So your value proposition is truly the challenge that you solve. What is it that you do for that particular buyer and how can you help them? I see this kind of value proposition all the time. Saw you’re hiring. We see most CROs struggle because they ignore this challenge.
(21:24) We see, want to hear more. Now we see emails like this because we’re often encouraged as sellers to write short, short, short emails. But again, I beg to differ here. Longer is better, and here’s why. We have to convince our buyer that time with us will be well spent. When you state something specifically that you can solve for them, then think.
(21:46) What is the next big objection? What is the buyer thinking and what’s their rebuttal? You stating that you can solve a challenge for them isn’t enough. You might get them to either object, say we don’t need that, we say we already do that, something like that. So we’ve got to get around that objection to begin with.
(22:04) Let’s take a look at an example that someone on the SAM sales team might send to a prospect. Let’s say our value proposition starts with this. If you’re anything like our clients, you see your usage rates of LinkedIn sales navigator hover around 5 percent of your licenses. We can train your teams and bring that number up.
(22:21) I also know that my most common objection is we have a customer success manager at LinkedIn. We don’t need this. So if they said that to me, or if they responded to me in that way, what would I say back? This is what I want to write succinctly in the first email. You likely have a customer success manager at LinkedIn, but rather than having them teach you what buttons to push, our team will teach you how to use this platform to sell in the same way that she did when she was an executive at LinkedIn for her teams.
(22:53) So what that does, right, for that buyer is, huh. Oh, so maybe there is something not only that Sam can do to improve our rates, but to change how we use the platform. And finally, what you thought would never come, the end of the email. How do we close it? For starters, with any outbound email, and I would tell you even referral emails where you get introductions that are inbound, do not use a calendar link.
(23:21) Why don’t we want to do this? It’s presumptuous, it’s a little rude, and it puts the onus on the individual to schedule time with you. Here’s the other thing that I don’t like about it. Now that individual is working around your calendar instead of you working around theirs. Another thing to avoid is writing something along the lines of, do you have 15 to 20 minutes tomorrow to chat? Or would Monday at 1 p.
(23:43) m. work? Again, the reason for this is it’s presumptuous in terms of a short timeline tomorrow or it gets too specific, and it allows the buyer to say no to Monday at 1. And then you’re left in a pattern of chasing them. What I would tell you to do instead is something that looks different and that looks like this.
(24:01) Simply say, do you have time over the next week or two to learn more? Let me know what works for you and I’ll send a calendar invite along accordingly. Nobody sends scripting that looks like that. So not only will you be different, but you’ll take their timing and their calendar into effect, allowing you to schedule the call, You to control the timing and even for you to rearrange things on your calendar to accommodate them.
(24:28) I’ve just walked you through beginning to end exactly how to structure emails that will get replies from high value prospects. If you want to see a few examples that put it all together, I encourage you to check out the resources section of this course. I also want to challenge you to start putting this all into practice.
(24:45) Set a goal for yourself. Perhaps it’s just 20 emails per week. Remember, quality over quantity, but start practicing these emails, writing with this new script, following these new techniques that I’ve taught you, and I promise you will start seeing results immediately. A couple of questions I frequently get asked are, when should I send my emails? And if I don’t get a response, if I put all that time into my first email, then what do I do? Now that I’ve taught you how to structure emails, I want to give you a few pointers
(25:41) on how to address exactly those things and how to structure your sequences. With the first email, here’s something unique that you can try. Do all of your research during the week, but don’t send your emails until Thursday or Friday, particularly for high ranking executives. The time of day doesn’t typically matter, but here’s what I want you to think about.
(26:06) What’s going to happen when you send that first show me you know me email is you might capture their attention. You might get a quick open, you might get a quick read, but then something comes up that’s going to distract them. So while your email made impact, perhaps it didn’t get an immediate reply.
(26:21) So then what? Data shows that you get a significant increase not only in open rate, but in response rate if you send the second email less than 48 hours later. A couple of tips here, again, the opposite of what we most often see. First and foremost, do not change the subject line. Second, when you send this less than 48 hours, don’t give them a second novel to read.
(26:43) You already killed it with your first email. So the second email is just to say, Remember me? I’d really love a response. So what we want to put content wise in that second email is very simple, and you can use any variation of this. We might say something like, Hey Josh, wanted to quickly pop in and see if you’ve read my below email.
(27:01) It’s still be grateful for the chance to chat with you about how Sam sales can support company name. So to recap so far, day one is going to be your first email on a Thursday or a Friday. Your second email, your second touch, is going to come on a Saturday or a Sunday. Now your third touch, or your fourth touch, might come a couple days after that, and then another couple of days after that.
(27:24) Don’t forget, while there’s a lot of data that shows exactly what’s perfect, we’re also dealing with human beings who have different lives and different schedules and are checking emails in different ways. So don’t be too afraid of the timing of when the third and the fourth and so on come.
(27:38) I want you to think about the fourth or the fifth touch, and that’s usually where the LinkedIn touch comes. Now a couple of things to be careful of when I talk about the LinkedIn touch. First and foremost, a lot of people have built into their sequence something that’s called the profile view. I would tell you, cut this immediately out of your sequence and here’s why.
(27:57) That executive might only see the last five people who have looked at their profile. I promise you this doesn’t impact your open or your reply rate, so cut it out. The second thing I would be mindful of is do not use InMails. This is something that was really popular in the early days of LinkedIn, and it was really effective because it was different.
(28:17) But, we ruined InMails by making them really spammy and really salesy. So instead, create a LinkedIn connection. You are going to go to the person’s profile, you’re going to hit connect, or you will hit the three dots to personalize an invite, and And simply add a script that looks something like this.
(28:34) My name might look familiar as I’ve sent you a few emails. I would still be grateful or appreciative of the chance to chat with you about how SAM sales can support organization name. If you were ever up for a chat, please let me know. One really cool thing about this is this you’re going to stand out from the noise because you’re actually going to use content and context in your connection request.
(28:57) What many people do these days is the opposite. They send a blank connection request and then they do something called the pitch slap where the person accepts the connection request and they immediately pitch them in the DMS. Don’t do this. When you are straightforward and you add context to your connection request, here’s what happens.
(29:15) You communicate with the person that you’ve already tried the old school ways to get their attention. You might even send them back to your emails to read. But the other thing is they’ll be able to look at your profile. They’ll be able to humanize who you are and they will most likely accept.
(29:28) The great thing here is that sometimes they want to book the meetings with you, other times they simply say thanks period, or nothing at all period. This is your chance to be different. Send a reply when you get the thanks or the nothing in response, and simply say, thank you so much for connecting with me, I look forward to staying in touch.
(29:49) You will delight and surprise your buyer because you are doing something different and you are not pitch slapping them. Now, I could keep walking you through the exact sequence we use at SAM Sales, but the point is, I want to make sure it’s really clear that you’re not going to hit it out of the park with the first sequence.
(30:05) The whole idea is to A B test. So create one, two, three sequences. And take a look at what works is maybe email three, getting the most responses. Is it something about email eight that ultimately gets people to click on your marketing campaign or a link that you included for a webinar? What is it about that messaging that works? And then start to thread those things together.
(30:27) We’re looking to create the ultimate sequence, but we have to start somewhere and we have to start testing. Let’s look at a couple of other things that typically happen. You might send a really great email that all of a sudden gets a few opens. Transcribed Perhaps one’s in Texas, perhaps something is in Detroit on a mobile device, and it’s all pretty quick.
(30:45) That’s what’s called a trigger. And you want to use those triggers when you see these things happening in succession and use them to your advantage. Now, you might consider even using a little self deprecating humor when you reach back out to the person that you reached out to. I might say something like, Josh, I see a few emails getting open in a few different locations.
(31:04) I imagine and I’m hopeful that that means that there’s intent by you and your colleagues and you’re interested, or my email was really bad and you guys are talking about it. Make sure whatever you say is authentic to you, but I think humor and authenticity can often go a long way. Another thing to think about is you might also get objections.
(31:21) Thank you so much for reaching out. Now’s not the right time. I’m not the right buyer. Please reach out to us in 90 days, things like that. The thing that’s wonderful about this is because you put the time into Show Me You Know Me, you will more often get replies, even if now’s not the right time.
(31:36) And even if the person isn’t the buyer, this opens a door to communication. You can connect on LinkedIn, you can keep in touch with them, and certainly if they say, we’d love to talk, just not right now, this allows you to start nurturing and investing in the relationship versus just chasing them with spammy and personalized at scale email.
(31:55) The key to keep in mind is that because you didn’t use personalization at scale and instead used show me, you know me, you open the door to building better and more authentic relationships in even less time than you were doing before. Sorry, I didn’t see you there. I was taking notes from Sam’s course.
(32:29) Anyway, um, while you’re here, did you know you can build sequences in Apollo, just like the ones Sam taught? It’s actually really easy to do. You can use a template or AI to create a new sequence, or just create one from scratch. Then you can add all the touch points Sam talked about as tasks, like manual personalized emails, aka your show me you know me emails, automatic follow up emails, phone calls, and LinkedIn touches.
(32:54) Apollo isn’t just great for finding leads, but for reaching out to them too. And that’s why they call it the all in one sales platform. Back to the course. We’ve talked about doing your research, writing that first email, building out a sequence for if they don’t respond, but now let’s get into what happens when you actually do get a reply.
(33:23) Now you’ve got the meeting booked. What do we do when we show up to that first call? As I said, show me, you know, me bleeds through every part of your sales cycle. From the first email to when you’ve had a client for 10 years. So it’s really important that you do your pre call research just as you do your research for an email.
(33:40) When we think about the typical opening script for a discovery call, They’re not great. So here’s what I want you to think about as an opening script that you will hear us use on almost every single discovery call SAM Sales has with our prospects. Here’s how we start. Thank you so much for making time for us today.
(33:57) I could tell you a million things about SAM Sales. One, two, and three. In this little section, I list three things that are related to that buyer persona. So I want to make sure that they’re specific to their interests, specific to maybe things that they shared with me in advance of what they’d like to get out of the call, or things that are specific to what I typically talk about with that specific buyer persona.
(34:20) So again, I could tell you a million things about hashtag SamSales, one, two, or three, but I would love to hear about you first. Now, this is where the show me, you know me kicks in. So you might say, I know you recently had an acquisition. I know you’re looking to double revenue. I recently saw that you replaced your CRO.
(34:39) Whatever it is that you learned about them and researched in advance is what goes here. And then you close it out with, tell me about your team, your challenges, what’s the overall landscape like for you, if that’s okay. I want you to think about this in three parts. You share a little bit about yourself.
(34:56) You share what you know about them, and then you give them some breathing room to think about what they want to share with you, while asking for permission at the very end, if that’s okay. What is amazing about this opening script is, first of all, it gets so much information out of them. Those buyers typically will respond with a big sigh.
(35:16) Yeah, so, and then they’ll start to talk for two or three or nine minutes sometimes. And what’s fantastic about this is while they’re talking, they’re answering a lot of the questions that you might have in the beginning. So do they have budget? What technologies do they use? They might answer questions for you to help you qualify the call before you’ve ever even asked a second question.
(35:37) The other thing that’s fantastic about this is the question does not focus on features and benefits. Which most of the calls do. This allows you to elevate your game and to ask questions about specific business challenges versus just products and features that they’re looking to resolve. What happens though, when we meet somebody in person, right? Not all meetings are happening digitally these days.
(36:01) So let’s say somebody says, I’d love to meet you for coffee, for lunch, for drinks. What do you do that might be different in your preparation? If you are booking the lunch, drinks, or the coffee date, I would make sure that you make the reservation if you can. I once met a CEO for lunch, and when I went, I was unfortunately the latter of the person to get there.
(36:18) They showed up early, and I was seated with my back to the restaurant. Now, what that meant is while the person kept talking and talking and talking, and I really needed to go, I was left in a position of continuing to make small talk, While looking around and trying to find the waiter, it was really awkward, I had to keep doing it, and I vowed to never do it again.
(36:38) So here are my tips. One, make the reservation. Two, add notes in the reservation details that say specifically when you would like the check to be brought, and to be brought to you. And third, make sure you show up early. Little things like this can make sure that it goes really smoothly, particularly if this is the first or second time you’re taking a meeting in person.
(36:57) These are relationships you will hopefully keep for life. As people transition jobs, they tend to stay within the same vertical and you probably will too, which means you will have these clients as they transition from one leadership position to another, from that very first email to how you talk to them on the phone, to how you present yourself in person, I challenge you to set yourself at an infinitely higher bar by showing your buyers that you know them and by going the extra mile.
(37:24) By focusing on quality over quantity, you’re building an elite career as a seller, as someone who is different. Your open and reply rates will skyrocket, you’ll make more sales in the end, and you’ll get financial freedom. There is really no downside to making this effort. Remember to set a goal for yourself, right now.
(37:43) Decide how many Show Me, You Know Me focused emails you want to send this week, and don’t worry about how long you’re spending on them. I promise the time will come down as you build this muscle, and you might be surprised at who you hear back from and how quickly. That wraps it up. Thank you so much for spending part of your day with me.
(38:00) And I wish you so much success on your sales journey. And there you have it. That was Sam’s entire course. But before you go, let me show you the best way to put everything Sam just taught you into action. Using Apollo, not only can you find, research, and reach out to your perfect leads, but you can easily track everything moving forward too.
(38:20) Like scheduling meetings, recording your sales calls, getting automatic insights from AI, managing your entire pipeline from one place. And so much more. And the best thing is all of this is available to you for free. Just click the link on the screen or in the video description and sign up for Apollo today.
(38:36) Thank you so much for watching and we’ll see you in the next one.
Summary:
The video transcript features Sam McKenna, a successful sales leader, sharing her personalized sales approach called “Show Me, You Know Me.” She explains how her method helped her build strong client relationships, resulting in a successful career with record-breaking achievements. This approach centers on genuine personalization, where sales reps focus on understanding clients as individuals, not just prospects. McKenna emphasizes researching prospects thoroughly on three levels: the individual, the company, and the industry. This method distinguishes a salesperson from generic outreach and improves open and response rates significantly.
McKenna also details crafting effective emails, suggesting that a compelling subject line and a personalized first sentence make an email stand out. She advises against using “personalization at scale,” which often feels generic, and instead advocates for authentic connections. Her follow-up sequence involves sending a second email within 48 hours, maintaining the subject line to remind prospects of prior engagement without seeming pushy. LinkedIn connections should include a context-rich message, avoiding the “pitch slap” tactic.
Finally, she underscores the importance of meaningful follow-ups and adapting approaches based on responses. The ultimate goal is building enduring client relationships, helping sales reps improve their credibility and success rates. The transcript closes with recommendations for using Apollo’s platform to streamline sales processes while applying McKenna’s techniques.